REUTERS broke this story this week, in what is a really useful column if you are interested in Banking/Securities analytics/supervision: http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSLAG00354220090629 

Its a cool headline but whether or not it actually refers a serious policy objective of the BIS is open for debate. The REUTERS article refers to five sentences buried deep on page 126 of the BIS Quarterly Review of June 2009: http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt0906.htm

..... here is the quote;-

" Balancing innovation and safety in financial instruments requires providing scope for progress while limiting the capacity of any new instrument to weaken the system as a whole. Balance can be achieved by requiring some form of

product registration that limits investor access to instruments according to their degree of safety. In a scheme analogous to the hierarchy controlling the availability of pharmaceuticals, the safest securities would, like non-prescription

medicines, be available for purchase by everyone; next would be financial instruments available only to those with an authorisation, like prescription drugs; another level down would be securities available in only limited amounts

to pre-screened individuals and institutions, like drugs in experimental trials; and, finally, at the lowest level would be securities that are deemed illegal. A new instrument would be rated or an existing one moved to a higher category

of safety only after successful tests - the analogue of clinical trials. "

Back in 2006 when Fred Godwin (of that ilk) then CEO of RBS "survived" the departure (shredding) of Fred Watt the then Finance Director (the new FD came from Citigroup Treasury & has now departed!) and rplaced Sir George Mathewson then Chairman with Sir Tom McKillop .... some of us wondered would Sir Tom bring his experience of pharmaceuticals regulatory processes to RBS since he came from Astra Zeneca. Poor Sir Tom now loosing his seat on the British Petroleum board, he ended up bringing a bit of a poison pill rather than a regulatory new broom.