The regulation of the Australian financial services sector is among the very best in the world, according to an international report released last week.

The Group of Thirty (G30) report on the Structure of Financial Supervision, which compares and analyses the financial regulatory approaches of 17 jurisdictions, has found Australia and the Netherlands have the most effectively regulated regimes in the world.

Both Australia and the Netherlands operate a “twin peaks” approach to regulation that is singled out in the report as a model now under consideration in France, Italy and Spain.

The Washington DC-based G30 is a nonprofit international body made up of “very senior” representatives of the private and public sectors and academia.

It says the twin peaks approach “may be the optimal means of ensuring that issues of transparency, market integrity, and consumer protection receive sufficient priority”.

Paul Volcker, Chairman of the G30 Board of Trustees and former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, says it is essential that other countries take steps to improve regulation.

“The financial turmoil [has made it] evident that a number of countries need to revise and reform financial regulatory structures,” he said.