Topic: Mediation and refraction in the implementation of financial regulation: A study of the compliance function in financial organisations through the accounts of compliance officers

Order Description

an exceptional research proposal (maximum of 2,500 words) excluding references and any appendices, covering the following sections:
(i) project title; (ii) abstract; (iii) project introduction, motivation and problem statement; (iv) project background or context; (v) project theoretical framework; (vi) project empirical literature review and propositions or hypotheses; (vi) project research design or data and research methodology; (vii) project references; and (vii) a 3-year time-table or plan to completion.

These are the details of what is expected:
The dismay of politicians and public at the conduct of the banking sector reflects, among other things, a failure of seemingly ever increasing regulation. This research seeks to understand the disconnect between the amount of regulation and its impact by attending to its implementation. More specifically it focuses on compliance officers because they are responsible for ensuring regulation is implemented. Finance related research is often neglectful of people. It fails to properly account for their complexity, considering instead how they measure up against pre-determined standards, or how they fit into particular theoretical models. This research will remedy this omission. It will recognise that compliance officers must, on a daily basis no less, reconcile the commercial exigencies of the organisation with the overarching demands of the regulator, all the while remaining mindful of their personal (and familial) mandates and negotiating a coherent sense of who they are. This will be achieved through use of a life history approach, an innovative methodology that accounts for the interplay between biography and context. The research will show how the power of the regulator is mediated by compliance officers, and how the force of regulation is refracted as it collides with their efforts to satisfy the conflicting pressures under which they labour. The project therefore has real world relevance and will seek to build on an existing relationship between the second supervisor and the Banking Standards Board in order to facilitate the potential for its impact on the work of the latter.