Law Financial Stability

Financial crises have become an all too common occurrence over the past twenty years, largely as a result of changes in finance brought about by increasing internationalization and integration. As domestic financial systems and economies have become more interlinked, weaknesses can significantly impact not only individual economies but also markets, financial intermediaries, and economies around the world. This volume addresses the twin objectives of financial development in the context of financial stability and the role of law in supporting both. Financial stability (frequently seen as the avoidance of financial crisis) has become an objective of both the international financial architecture and individual economies and central banks. At the same time, financial development is now seen to play an important role in economic growth. In both financial stability and financial development, law and related institutions have a central role.

Virtually all large banks and other financial institutions in the UK and internationally are public limited liability companies whose shares are listed on one or several stock exchanges. As such, their corporate governance and, in particular, the incentives faced by their directors and senior managers are to a significant extent determined by corporate and securities law rules such as directors’ duties, directors’ liability in insolvency, takeover regulation, disclosure obligations, shareholder rights and rules on executive remuneration. At the same time, systemically important financial institutions in the UK are licensed, regulated and supervised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). This book explores the relationship between, on the one hand, the broader corporate law, corporate governance and securities law framework and, on the other, the prudential regulatory framework. Although the book’s main focus is on UK law, much of the policy argumentation is relevant globally and therefore appropriate international comparisons are drawn, and analysis of EU law and regulation is included. The book argues that the corporate law regime, which focuses on shareholder empowerment and profit maximisation, operates as an antithesis to prudential regulatory objectives thus undermining the safety and soundness of banks and other financial institutions by encouraging risky behaviour that may be in the best interests of their shareholders, but is clearly not in the public interest.

This volume comprises a selection of papers prepared in connection with a high-level seminar on Law and Financial Stability held at the IMF in 2016. It examines, from a legal perspective, the progress made in implementing the financial regulatory reforms adopted since the global financial crisis and highlights the role of the IMF in advancing these reforms and charting the course for a future reform agenda, including the development of a coherent international policy framework for resolution and resolution planning. The book’s unique perspective on the role of the law in promoting financial stability comes from the contribution of selected experts and representatives from our membership who share their views on this subject.

Submitted Assignment from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 65.00, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (CEFIMS), course: Financial Law, language: English, abstract: Before the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, law was a necessary tool for financial markets. English financial law represents “the entire body of legal rules that govern and regulate financial markets, financial assets and financial transactions under the law of England and Wales”. It is classified as “a sub-species of English commercial law, which is heavily influenced by English common law”. According to Ellinger et al., « in order to safeguard the stability of the banking system, a degree of regulation and supervision needs to be imposed on banks themselves ». In this context, the United Kingdom passed the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which authorized the Financial Services Authorities to become « a super-regulator , having responsibility for the regulation and supervision of the whole financial services sector ». However, this regulatory system was not suited for adressing the difficulties the banks were going into during the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. After the crisis, law and regulation's role shifted to provide more protection for financial stability and for the prevention of any misconducts. The Banking Act 2009 was going to fill the gap in « dealing with pre-insolvency 'stabilization' and with banking insolvency and administration ». And a year later, the Financial Services Act 2010 was given the role of « strengthening the powers of the FSA and giving it a 'financial stability' objective. In this paper, we are going to critically discuss the different views on the role of law and finance before and after the financial crises areas.

Financial stability is one of the key tenets of a central bank’s functions. Since the financial crisis of 2007-2009, an area of hot debate is the extent to which the central bank should be involved with prudential regulation. This book examines the macro and micro-prudential regulatory frameworks and systems of the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Canada and Germany. Drawing on the regulator frameworks of these regions, this book examines the central banks’ roles of crisis management, resolution and prudential regulation. Alison Lui compares the institutional structure of the new ‘twin-peaks’ model in the UK to the Australian model, and the multi-regulatory US model and the single regulatory Canadian model. The book also discusses the extent the central bank in these countries, as well as the ECB, are involved with financial stability, and argues that the institutional architecture and geographical closeness of the Bank of England and Financial Policy Committee give rise to the fear that the UK central bank may become another single super-regulator, which may provide the Bank of England with too much power. As a multi-regional, comparative study on the importance and effectiveness of prudential regulation, this book will be of great use and interest to students and researchers in finance and bank law, economics and banking.

The SRA's latest report on financial stability (February 2014) said its engagement with firms found poor financial management that ranged from 'naïve to reckless'. They have also seen poor practice in the management of client accounts. This toolkit will help firms to address those common financial issues facing many firms.

ForewordList of AbbreviationsAcknowledgementsCHAPTER 1 General IntroductionCHAPTER 2 Financial Stability in ContextCHAPTER 3 Financial Stability as a New Supranational Foundational Objective in EU Law and PolicyCHAPTER 4 European Economic GovernanceCHAPTER 5 Stability Mechanisms in EuropeCHAPTER 6 EU Banking RegulationCHAPTER 7 EU Banking Supervisory LawCHAPTER 8 EU Banking Recovery and ResolutionCHAPTER 9 General ConclusionsSelected BibliographyTable of CasesIndex.