If banks were leaning on current regulatory employees whilst they were still employeed, that sounds like bribery and should be already covered by existing laws.

If banks were leaning on current regulatory employees whilst they were still employeed, that sounds like bribery and should be already covered by existing laws. Remember that there are many banks and that all regulation covers them (although certain bits focus will hit them in different ways). Also, regulation goes out for review before it gets passed. If a certain bank was pushing for regulation to specifically benefit them, others would raise it. I know of people who worked at the European Securities regulator. Some were seconded from PwC/EY/etc because they get knowledge share. Regulators can learn from people in industry, those in industry learn about the "spirit of the law". With the recent MiFID 2 regulation in Europe, areas were left vague so that the regulators could expand the definition based on whether they thought it was needed. European financial regulators have moved towards principles[1], over rules, so that they are not constrained when a firm does something that breaches the spirit of the law, but not the letter of the law. [1] https://www.fca.org.uk/about/principles-good-regulation https://www.fca.org.uk/about/principles-good-regulation