The Department of the Treasury Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure


Book Description

In this report, Treasury presents a series of "short-term" and "intermediate-term" recommendations that could immediately improve and reform the U.S. regulatory structure. The short-term recommendations focus on taking action now to improve regulatory coordination and oversight in the wake of recent events in the credit and mortgage markets. The intermediate recommendations focus on eliminating some of the duplication of the U.S. regulatory system, but more importantly try to modernize the regulatory structure applicable to certain sectors in the financial services industry (banking, insurance, securities, and futures) within the current framework.




The Department of the Treasury Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure


Book Description

Presents a series of “short-term” and “intermediate-term” recommendations that could immediately improve and reform the U.S. regulatory structure. The short-term recommendations focus on taking action now to improve regulatory coordination and oversight in the wake of recent events in the credit and mortgage markets. The intermediate recommendations focus on eliminating some of the duplication of the U.S. regulatory system, but more importantly try to modernize the regulatory structure applicable to the banking, insurance, securities, and futures industries.







A new approach to financial regulation


Book Description

This document presents more detailed proposals for financial regulation following on from the consultation paper "A new approach to financial regulation: judgment, focus and stability" (July 2010, Cm. 7874, ISBN 9780101787420) and continuing policy development by the Treasury, Bank of England and Financial Services Authority. The Government's reforms focus on three key institutional changes. First, a new Financial Policy Committee (FPC) will be established in the Bank of England, with responsibility for 'macro-prudential' regulation, or regulation of stability and resilience of the financial system as a whole. Second, 'micro-prudential' (firm-specific) regulation of financial institutions that manage significant risks on their balance sheets will be carried out by an operationally independent subsidiary of the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). Thirdly, responsibility for conduct of business regulation will be transferred to a new specialist regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Individual chapters cover: Bank of England and Financial Policy Committee; Prudential Regulation Authority; Financial Conduct Authority; regulatory process and co-ordination; compensation, dispute resolution and financial education; European and international issues; next steps; how to respond; impact assessment. The chapters contain significant detail on how the legislative framework will be constructed in order to deliver the Governments' priorities for the framework. The Government will consult on these proposals with a view to publishing a draft bill in spring 2011.













Law and Macroeconomics


Book Description

A distinguished Yale economist and legal scholar’s argument that law, of all things, has the potential to rescue us from the next economic crisis. After the economic crisis of 2008, private-sector spending took nearly a decade to recover. Yair Listokin thinks we can respond more quickly to the next meltdown by reviving and refashioning a policy approach whose proven success is too rarely acknowledged. Harking back to New Deal regulatory agencies, Listokin proposes that we take seriously law’s ability to function as a macroeconomic tool, capable of stimulating demand when needed and relieving demand when it threatens to overheat economies. Listokin makes his case by looking at both positive and cautionary examples, going back to the New Deal and including the Keystone Pipeline, the constitutionally fraught bond-buying program unveiled by the European Central Bank at the nadir of the Eurozone crisis, the ongoing Greek crisis, and the experience of U.S. price controls in the 1970s. History has taught us that law is an unwieldy instrument of macroeconomic policy, but Listokin argues that under certain conditions it offers a vital alternative to the monetary and fiscal policy tools that stretch the legitimacy of technocratic central banks near their breaking point while leaving the rest of us waiting and wallowing.







A new approach to financial regulation


Book Description

This document accompanies the introduction into Parliament of the Financial Services Bill (HC Bill 278, session 2010-12, ISBN 9780215039545 and Explanatory notes Bill 278-EN, ISBN 9780215039132) and explains the Government's final proposals to reform the failed system of financial services regulation. These proposals follow on from extensive consultation, and a draft of the Bill was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee (report published as HL Paper 236/HC 1447, ISBN 9780108474064). This document details the main changes the Government is making to the Bill. Chapters cover: Bank of England and Financial Policy Committee; Prudential Regulation Authority; Financial Conduct Authority; regulatory processes and coordination; European and international regulation. Annexes include the Government's responses to the Joint Committee and to the Treasury Committee's inquiries into financial services regulation. The core proposals are: to establish a strong and expert macro-prudential authority, the Financial Policy Committee within the Bank of England to monitor and respond to systemic risks; to transfer responsibility for micro-prudential management of firms that manage complex risks on their balance sheets to a focused new regulator, the Prudential Regulatory Authority; and to provide for a focused new conduct of business regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, to ensure that business across financial services and markets is conducted in a way that advances the interests of all users and participants. In any future crisis it will be clear that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is in charge. Regulation of consumer credit will be brought within the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority.