The worst of the economy is behind us, but there is still much work for the financial industry ahead as it continues to work through the wake of its worst period in 70 years, said Tim Ryan in his opening remarks at SIFMA’s annual meeting today in New York.

He said the two specific efforts that the association is advocating are the establishment of a systemic risk regulator; and the guarantee that no firm is so big or interconnected that its failure poses a risk to the entire financial system.

For the first effort, he says there are gaps in the regulatory system because enforcement actions are too “siloed.” This needs to be addressed, but striking the right balance is a delicate matter, he says. “Without changes, we cannot fix the system, but if we push too much, lenders will flee to other markets.”

As for firms that are too big to fail, Ryan said that a new agency is needed that would bring together the separate efforts of the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, SEC and Treasury.

Executive compensation was the other topic on hand in the opening session.  Jonathan Spector, CEO of The Conference Board pointed out many Americans have lost trust in corporate institutions and that’s not limited to just financial institutions. That trust will only be restored if they see those companies taking five broad principles on compensation. He described those principles as first, being clear how compensation is structured for long-term and how risk is assessed into compensation policies. Second, he said that firms must make sure compensation is affordable over the long term. Third, firms should stop using compensation policies that conflict with basic notions of fairness. Fourth, firms need to demonstrate board oversight on setting and monitoring compensation; and fifth, companies must make sure the compensation policies are understandable and are conveyed to shareholders.

“There are real abuses in executive compensation and people need to see that corporations are taking this seriously,” Spector said. “It’s important for business and even more important for society,” he said.