Regulating And Supervising European Financial Markets

The book analyses the institutions of the European financial market supervision and the challenges of financial markets. The current European supervisory structure for financial markets represents a major development in European supervisory history. Its operation however has to be explored and analysed critically. Has it gone far enough to provide a sufficiently comprehensive and resilient system to reduce or mitigate systemic risks and handle financial crises? Some claim it has gone too far already. Fresh and rigorous critical legal and economic analysis from an independent scholarly perspective are needed to assess whether the institutional design of the European supervisory architecture has proved itself to be an efficient and effective model. This book discusses many dimensions of the structure and workings of the European system from various angles providing different dimensions. The book makes an important contribution to the limited literature on financial market supervision.

This comprehensive account of financial regulation and supervision in times of crisis analyses the complex changes under way regarding the new financial regulatory structures in the EU. Focusing on the organisation of financial supervision, it deals with the background to the reforms, the architecture of the regulatory system, the likely implications for the financial institutions and the challenge of international co-operation. Changes in the US have been heavily criticised and in Europe a brand new regulatory system with three new regulatory agencies and a systemic risk board has been developed. National systems are in the process of being updated. International cooperation, although still difficult, has made progress, with the Financial Stability Board now acting on behalf of the G.20. Central bank cooperation has improved significantly and in the meantime, sectoral regulations are being adapted in full speed, such as Basel III, AIDMD, MiFID and many others. This book gives an overall view of these complex changes. The first section of the book provides an assessment of the reforms and considers the background to their making. In the section on regulatory structure there is analysis of the new regulatory bodies, their complex competences and actions. The book also takes a critical look at their likely effectiveness. The final section of the work considers the actual implementation of the new rules in a cross-border context.

The Global Financial Crisis has re-ordered how the EU intervenes in the EU financial market, both with respect to regulation and with respect to supervision. After 5 years of a behemoth reform agenda, the new landscape is now clear. Rule-making power has decisively moved to the EU and radical reforms have been made to the organization of supervision. EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation provides the first comprehensive, critical, and contextual account of the vast new rule-book which now applies to the EU financial market in the aftermath of the seismic reforms which have followed the financial crisis. Topics covered in-depth include the AIFMD, EMIR, the Short Selling Regulation, the new market abuse and transparency regimes, the rating agency regime, the UCITS IV-VI reforms, and MiFID II/MiFIR; the analysis is wide-reaching, extending to secondary legislation and relevant soft law. The book also examines the far-reaching institutional changes which have followed and considers in detail the role and impact of the European Securities and Markets Authority and the potential impact of the Single Supervisory Mechanism for euro area banks on the supervision of the EU financial market. EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation is the third edition of the highly successful and authoritative monograph first published as EC Securities Regulation. Almost entirely recast and re-written from the 2008 second edition to reflect the changes wrought by the Global Financial Crisis, it adopts the in-depth contextual and analytical approach of earlier editions and so considers the market, political, international, institutional, and constitutional context of the new regulatory and supervisory regime, and the underlying forces which have (and will continue to) shape it.

During the twentieth century the financial sector became possibly the most regulated area of the economy in many advanced and developing countries. The interwar years represented the defining moment for the escalation of governments' intervention, turning the State into the core of financial systems in its capacity of regulator, supervisor or owner. The essays in this collection shed light on different aspects of the experience of financial regulation, ownership and deregulation in Europe and the USA from a secular historical perspective. The volume's chapters explore how the political economy of finance changed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how such changes were related to shifting attitudes towards globalization. They also investigate how regulation responded to governance problems of financial intermediaries and markets, and how different legal frameworks and institutional architectures influenced such response. The collection engages with a set of issues as diverse as they are interrelated across countries and over time: the regulatory attitude of British authorities toward the banking system and the stock exchange market in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the comparative evolution of bankruptcy laws and procedures; the link between state, regulation and governance in the evolution of the US and French financial systems; the emergence of banking regulation and supervision by central banks; the regulation and supervision of international financial markets since the 1950s; and the connection between deregulation and banking crises at the end of the past century. Taken as a whole, the chapters offer an intriguing insight into the differing ways western countries approached and responded to the challenges of the international financial system, and the legacy of this on the modern world. In so doing the volume holds up to historical scrutiny the debate as to whether overt state regulation of financial markets always has a negative affect on economic growth, or whether it can be an essential tool for developing nations in their efforts to expand their economies.

International financial relations have become increasingly important for the development of global and national economies. At present these relations are primarily governed by market forces, with little regulatory interference at the international level. In the light of numerous financial crises, this abstinence must be seriously questioned. Starting with an analysis of the regulatory problems at the international level, with only minimal powers entrusted to international organisations, this book develops various possibilities for reform. On the basis of an historical analysis, the book first adopts a comparative approach to national attempts to regulate international financial markets, then outlines the potential of relevant institutions and finally develops a policy perspective. It seeks to provide a framework for analysing options for the regulation of international financial markets from a public international law and comparative law perspective.

Despite the high hopes for EU-wide financial stability invested in the European Economic and Monetary Union, it is becoming more and more evident that the limited supervisory role of the European Central Bank has added to an already overcomplicated situation. Although European regulatory competences are now increasingly formalised through detailed rule-making, they remain broad and widely discretionary. It is still the many different national authorities that are regulating or supervising banks and other financial institutions. The root issue'what is the relationship between an effective European supervisor and the supervisory functions that remain at the Member State level?'has not yet been adequately addressed. The essays in this important book ask the question: Given that there is no viable political structure to support an international regulator of financial markets, what can lead to regulatory change in Europe? The authors demonstrate convincingly that if this question is not answered soon'and especially if the reality of the need for regulation to avert international financial crises is not faced squarely'then we will continue to experience panic-stricken short-term responses to repeated crises. Among the core issues of relevance analysed in the book are the following: the increase in systemic risk that accompanies the introduction of the Euro; the inability of mere cooperation between national authorities to handle crises; the European Central Bank as an organisational model for the development of a single European regulator; the persistence of a traditional national character in surrounding areas of law such as contract law and company law; the heretofore intractable problem of the double burden of having to follow more than one set of national rules; and, the apparent inertia of major business players, in spite of the obvious benefits for them of EU level regulation. Financial Markets in Europe offers a large and welcome measure of clear thinking to the entire professional community'regulators, bankers, scholars, insurance professionals, securities managers'engaged in the complex field of activity guided by monetary policy and supervision of financial markets. Because it raises broad issues and perspectives for a globalised world, it will be of value not only in Europe but to financial services specialists everywhere.

While hedge funds have been part and parcel of the global asset management landscape for well over fifty years, it is only relatively recently that they came to prominence as one of the fastest growing and most vigorous sub-sectors of the financial services industry. Despite their growing significance for global and European financial markets, hedge funds continue enjoying a sui generis regulatory status. The ongoing credit crisis and its lessons for the wisdom of unregulated or loosely regulated pockets of financial activity raise, with renewed urgency, the issue of deciding how long for the relative regulatory immunity of hedge funds is to be tolerated in the name of financial innovation. This well-thought-out book, the first of its kind in this particular field, examines the case for the European onshore hedge fund industry’s regulation, making concrete proposals for its normative future. Following a detailed account of the ‘established’ regulatory systems in Ireland and Luxembourg, as well as of the ‘emerging’ hedge fund jurisdictions in Italy, France, Spain and Germany, and of the regulatory treatment of hedge funds in the UK, this book examines to what extent the continuing exclusion of hedge funds from harmonized European regulation is defensible, whether their differences to traditional asset management products justify their distinct regulatory treatment and, ultimately, if their EU-wide regulation is possible and, if so, what form this should take. This book offers enormously valuable insights into all facets of the subject of the regulation of hedge funds, including: the legitimacy of the public policy interest in their activities; the conceptual underpinnings and systemic stability emphasis of a realistic hedge fund regulatory scheme; the main parameters of a workable onshore hedge fund regulatory framework; the role of investor protection and market integrity as part of a holistic hedge fund regulatory scheme; the possible use of the UCITS framework as a foundation for the EU-wide regulation of hedge funds; the MiFID’s impact on the regulatory future of the European hedge fund industry; existing cross-jurisdictional differences and similarities in the normative treatment of hedge funds within the EU; hitherto initiatives and recommendations of the Community institutions and bodies; and the need for more efficient co-operation and information-sharing arrangements amongst national supervisors for the monitoring of the cross-border risks inherent in the activities of hedge funds. As the first ever comprehensive account of the profile, main features and normative future of the contemporary global and European hedge fund markets – including a systematic inquiry into the conceptual underpinnings of hedge fund regulation and a detailed examination of the European hedge fund industry’s treatment under Community and domestic law – this book represents a major contribution to the literature on hedge funds and their regulation which, through its concrete proposals for the onshore industry’s regulation and its clear analysis of the conditions necessary for their implementation, should be of extraordinary value to policymakers, supervisors and academics alike.

Since its establishment in 2011, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has become a pivotal actor in EU financial market regulation and supervision. Its burgeoning influence extends from the rule-making process to supervisory convergence/coordination to direct supervision. Reflecting the now critical importance of ESMA to how the EU regulates and supervises financial markets, and with ESMA at an inflection point in its evolution, particularly in light of the Commission's 2017 proposals to reform ESMA and the UK's withdrawal from the EU, The Age of ESMA maps, contextualises, and examines ESMA's role and the implications for EU financial market governance.