LONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - British regulators as well asbankers raised concerns about a now ditched 'guilty until proveninnocent' rule for cracking down on reckless behaviour in thefinance industry, finance minister George Osborne said onThursday.
Osborne told lawmakers there had been a widespread view thatthe proposed reverse burden of proof rule could not be extendedbeyond banks, something which conflicted with the plan to bringother financial firms under a tougher regulatory regime.
The finance ministry said last week it would scrap thereverse burden of proof rule that would have required seniormanagers at financial services firms to prove they had takensteps to prevent misconduct by employees.
Osborne denied he had buckled in the face of pressure fromthe banking industry. "I have not shied away from taking somevery difficult decisions in terms of tightening regulation overthe banking system." (Reporting by William Schomberg and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)