Mark Watson, SVB’s former management governance head, on the crisis policymakers, regulators, and financial institutions are sleepwalking into and how to avoid it

Today’s guest outlines where governments and financial regulators are going wrong in their supervision of the sector.

He details where he sees potentially systemic risks mounting and he explains what banks, financial institutions and their supervisors can do now to prevent a significant blow-up from occurring on their watch.

Mark Watson is a governance and risk expert whose three-decade career includes stints advising financial institutions on governance and non-financial risks on behalf of consulting giants McKinsey and EY. In 2022, he joined Silicon Valley Bank, to lead a redesign of its management decision-making as its head of management governance. Since the bank’s collapse in 2023, he has been advising financial institutions on corporate governance, risk management, and financial services regulation as the founder of Portcullis Consulting.