More nations are adopting a single regulator for their financialsectors, according to news release today from Central BankingPublications in London.

The findings were contained in the 2006 edition of “HowCountries Supervise Their Banks Insurers, and SecuritiesMarkets.”

Of 196 jurisdictions profiled in the directory, 38 were said tohave a single regulator akin to the Financial Services Authority inthe United Kingdom.

Authors of the study noted that a decade ago there were only 15countries with a sole regulator for financial services. Of thenearly 40 nations that now have one financial services regulator,15 created that post in the past five years.

Within the 196 jurisdictions it examined, Banking Publicationssaid it looked at 508 financial regulatory authorities, and thebook includes contact information for many of them.

In addition to rapid growth of single supervisory agencies, thestudy found a rapid growth of agencies, staff shortages forregulators and an internationalization of regulators.

The researchers said that while North American regulatoryagencies can trace a long history, they are the exceptions, withmost in other countries having been established since 1990.

Creation of these agencies is a sign that financial regulationis accepted as an important part of the template of what makes up amodern economy, the authors said, noting that after conflicts endedin Timor and Kosovo, banking regulation was put in place evenbefore creation of a central bank.

Since 2000, according to the book, Japan, Hungary, Malta,Bulgaria, Ireland and Taiwan have all created a sole regulator fortheir financial system, while others have been instituted inoffshore locations such as Jamaica, Dubai and Qatar.

The authors said another trend is creation of new, smallinsurance regulators in countries where none has existed or whereinsurance supervision has been rudimentary. They cited Sri Lanka,Slovenia and India.

In some countries the writers saw what they said was unifiedsupervisors who were “claw backs,” where the central bank absorbednew responsibilities for non-banking regulation as well. The studycited Ireland, Slovakia, Malawi, Bahrain and Cayman Islands asexamples.

According to the book, this type of arrangement represents asolution to shortages of skilled staff and financing, which is aproblem for most supervisors.

The authors said central banks are more likely to be able tooffer remuneration packages above those set for the civil service,which is crucial if regulators are to protect themselves frompoaching of staff by the industry.

Finding and keeping expert staff–when the industry beingsupervised can always outbid the regulator–is a problem that is notgoing away, the report said. It found that demand for skilled staffremains pressing and regulators in Europe are on a recruitmentdrive, employing 3.7 percent more staff than just a year ago.

The book reported that the European Union, with 13,000 financialsupervisors, still lags the United States by a wide margin, and ifall the staff of America's state banking, securities and insuranceregulators are included, it is clear that the U.S. employs morethan 33,000 financial regulators, dwarfing the staffs of thecombined EU regulatory authorities.

According to the book, pressure on staffing has created a trendwhere top regulators hopscotch among countries, citing Bill Ryback,a former associate director of banking at the U.S. Federal Reserve,who is now deputy chief executive officer at the Hong Kong MonetaryAuthority.

It also mentioned Michael Foot, who left the Bank of England toestablish the U.K. Financial Services Authority, and is nowinspector of banks and trust companies in the Bahamas.

Banking Publications said it works on the directory informationwith Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.