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(Adds comments from FCA CEO Wheatley)
By Huw Jones
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - New rules being rolled out tomake bankers more accountable were "entirely reasonable" giventhe pain Britain suffered in the financial crisis, HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint said on Tuesday.
The new "senior managers' regime" will make top bankersdirectly accountable for rule breaches on their patch from 2016,but it has been criticised by some bankers and financial lawyersfor going too far and hard to apply in practice.
The rules reverse the "burden of proof", meaning thatbankers will have to demonstrate they took reasonable steps tostop rule-breaking otherwise they would be presumed to beresponsible for the breaches.
Bankers could also be jailed if their reckless behaviourresulted in the bank going under, though this specific chargewould have to meet the usual threshold of proof in a court.
It was included after lawmakers were frustrated that nobankers were jailed after UK taxpayers had to shore up a stringof lenders in the 2007-09 financial crisis.
"It's reasonable given the pain that has been suffered inthe last financial crisis that the public feel that in thosevery narrow circumstances there is redress under the law," Flintsaid.
Some banks have said the rules could impair London's abilityto compete with rival financial centres.
"We are, if you like, doing impact studies as we go at themoment and it will settle down, but the direction of travel isright," Flint said.
He wanted to see a regulatory regime that is seen as thefairest and most robust.
Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the Financial ConductAuthority, a watchdog that will implement the new regime, toldthe same event it was "not that complex".
He said it was simply a matter of having an organigrammeshowing who is a line manager for whom at a bank, something somelenders had not been able to do.
"It's common sense and we shouldn't try to over engineer itwhen we get to implement it," Wheatley said.
He said the new regime was part of efforts to draw a lineunder misconduct in financial services so that people can saythey are proud to work in banking.
"We want to get back to the situation frankly where all ofyou can hold your heads high, and when you are at parties withpeople other than those in this room can say 'yes, I do work infinancial services'," Wheatley said. (Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Mark Potter and SusanThomas)
