The books deals with the questions that really matter for green finance: Where will the money to finance the transition to a low carbon environment come from, how far do the banks' balance sheets stretch and where will the rest of the money come from? How much can we rely on the capital markets, especially in the EU, to get money to the parts of the economy which really need it, without greenwashing? How do governments organize not just a transition, but a just transition to a low carbon environment? Is it time to revisit received ideas about the proper role for central banks?

This short monograph examines the tense relationship between central bank independence and democratic legitimation, which has changed as the European Central Bank (ECB) has been entrusted with new tasks and faced unprecedented challenges. The financial and sovereign debt crisis, in particular, has affected the ECB's position within the Economic and Monetary Union without substantial changes in the Union's legal framework. However, the evolution of an institution primarily obligated to maintain price stability into an actor involved in sustaining financial stability, performing banking supervision and supporting economic policy raises the question of whether the high level of autonomy granted to the ECB is justified with regard to the principle of democracy that demands adequate accountability and control. This book identifies requirements for the democratic legitimation of central bank action in relation to specific tasks. Further, it analyses other scales of independence encountered in EU law in order to allow readers to gain a better conceptual understanding of central bank independence.

This book examines systematically the current systems of secured lending in China and Hong Kong, where companies or individuals offer personal property as security for credit advanced by a lender. Valid and enforceable security reduces the risk to the lender and so lowers the cost of credit to the borrower. However, the Hong Kong system, being largely derived from English law, is highly complex and in need of root-and-branch reform. The forces of inaction have triumphed and valuable opportunities to create a modern, rational and efficient system have been squandered. In China, on the other hand, a completely new system has been created in the last twenty years which, whilst it has various problems and defects, has some notable advantages over the common law equivalent found in Hong Kong.

Title 12 presents regulations governing banking procedures and activities of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Export-Import Bank, Office of Thrift Supervision, Farm Credit Administration, and the National Credit Union Administration. It also contains regulations pertaining to other types of banking operations. Additions and revisions to this section of the code are posted annually by January. Publication follows within six months.

Countries around the world are facing pressing needs to enhance financial planning mechanisms for individuals with cognitive impairment. The book provides the first comparative study of the three most common of such mechanisms in Asia and the West, namely guardianship, enduring/lasting powers of attorney, and special needs trusts. It involves not only scholarly overviews of the mechanisms in the jurisdictions studied, but also thorough, structured and critical reviews of their operational experiences. This book will have broad appeal to scholars, students, law and policy makers and practitioners in the fields of mental disability, healthcare and elder law. It is widely recognised in the field that books like this one are needed. This book will also be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students in mental health, disability law and elder law.

Over the last few decades, many countries have reformed their secured transactions law. One of the main reasons has been the clear link between reform and the availability of credit, and the drive to improve access to finance, particularly for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. This book focuses particularly on developing economies in Africa, which have legal frameworks influenced by English, French, Belgian, Roman-Dutch and other laws. Reform in this area of law across African countries has taken a number of forms, which are explored and discussed in this book. Secured Transactions Law Reform in Africa is a mixture of a critical description of the pre-reform law and practice, and the reform process itself. It also includes a comparative analysis of the legal provisions and an examination of the early results of the reforms. The book sets out a road map for the future of secured transactions reform; primarily in Africa, but also in other countries that have undertaken or are contemplating similar reforms. This book is the second in a series of books about Secured Transactions Law in countries around the world, and its reform, both on a national and an international scale. The first book, Secured Transactions Law Reform: Principles, Policies and Practice, was published in 2016.

The Bank of the United States sparked several rounds of intense debate over the meaning of the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause, which authorizes the federal government to make laws that are "necessary" for exercising its other powers. Our standard account of the national bank controversy, however, is incomplete. The controversy was much more dynamic than a two-sided debate over a single constitutional provision and was shaped as much by politics as by law. With Reconstructing the National Bank Controversy, Eric Lomazoff offers a far more robust account of the constitutional politics of national banking between 1791 and 1832. During that time, three forces--changes within the Bank itself, growing tension over federal power within the Republican coalition, and the endurance of monetary turmoil beyond the War of 1812 --drove the development of our first major debate over the scope of federal power at least as much as the formal dimensions of the Constitution or the absence of a shared legal definition for the word "necessary." These three forces--sometimes alone, sometimes in combination--repeatedly reshaped the terms on which the Bank's constitutionality was contested. Lomazoff documents how these three dimensions of the polity changed over time and traces the manner in which they periodically led federal officials to adjust their claims about the Bank's constitutionality. This includes the emergence of the Coinage Clause--which gives Congress power to "coin money, regulate the value thereof"--as a novel justification for the institution. He concludes the book by explaining why a more robust account of the national bank controversy can help us understand the constitutional basis for modern American monetary politics.

This new work provides timely analysis of the cross-border exercise of banking activity in the EU and its supervision, from the perspective of the 'home-host rule'. It examines the current system and the efficacy of recent reforms considering whether the centralisation of decision making and a more effective mutualisation of financing tools could improve the safety and soundness of the EU banking system and reduce the asymmetry of information between home and host authorities. The EU banking market is very integrated since banking institutions based in the Union are free to perform their activities within the single market. This has allowed EU banking institutions to significantly increase their cross border operations. This way of working is based on the home country control principle according to which EU institutions performing cross border activities continue to be supervised by their home country supervisor. However, this system has raised challenges for effectively performing supervision, resolution and crisis management of banking groups operating across the borders of many different jurisdictions. This book analyses how far recent reforms under the banking union regime have addressed these issues to ensure the integrity and stability of the European integration project. It utilises data to illustrate the cross border exposures between member states and how they influence home and host decision making. But it equally explores those areas that still remain within the national discretion such as non-performing loans, insolvency-liquidation of banks and deposit protection arrangements, to mention a few. The book analyses the main pillars of the banking union: the single supervisory mechanism (SSM); and the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) and the proposed European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS); and the related tools designed to provide crisis management under the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). As such the work considers the impact of the Single Rulebook. In considering these pieces of regulation and mechanisms the book analyses how international standards and EU requirements undertake to divide responsibilities between the home and host state and the extent to which they align interests between the home and host and minimise potential conflicts of interests. In this analysis examples from a set of EU cross-border banks are used to illustrate the workings of home and host relationship between Member States and Third Countries, and the benefits of participating in centralisation of decision making and mutualisation of financing in resolution and depositor protection. This work provides a valuable resource for academics researching on central banking union and regulation, and helps legal practitioners to address questions of supervision, resolution and insolvency with a cross-border element.

The U.S. banking system differs from many countries both in the range of services supplied and the complexity of operations. Meanwhile, the U.S. financial markets have become the attraction of worldwide investors. This book explains the three key aspects of the industry: the laws governing the banking institutions, the regulations thereof, and their economics and financial statements in a manner not covered by any competitive publications, of interest to both professionals and scholars who want to better grasp this industry. Auditing a bank and/or liquidating a bank require a set of rules not always well understood. The book provides such an overview.

Why does the third leg of the European Banking Union, EDIS, remain mired in controversy? This book presents the views of senior representatives of the public and private sectors and academia on why EDIS is either necessary, counter-productive or even dangerous. No viewpoint has been excluded and the full range of issues involved is covered, including the impact on financial stability and on consolidation of the financial sector in Europe, progress on reducing NPLs, the feasibility of developing "safe bonds" and other, more practical solutions to the "doom loop" and the actual design of EDIS.

In recent years, an increasing number of clients and third parties have filed claims against banks such as for mis-selling financial products, poor financial advice, insufficient disclosure of and warning about financial risks. The scope of a bank's duty of care seems to expand, not only to include protection of consumers against unclear risks of complicated products but also protection of professional parties against more obvious risks of relatively straightforward products. This topic raises many questions, both at a theoretical and practical level. This book provides a rich source of information about how various jurisdictions (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, England and Wales, Ireland, and the United States of America) deal with these questions and how answers are found or embedded in their national legal systems. The book also contains a detailed chapter on the MiFID I and II conduct-of-business provisions. Finally, the book provides a thorough comparative analysis and perspective.

The multilateral development banks cumulatively channel billions of dollars annually in development assistance to borrower countries. This finance is usually spent through processes that incorporate the public procurement regulations of the banks and it is often a condition of this finance that the funds must be spent using the procurement regulations of the lender institution. This book examines the issues and challenges raised by procurement regulation in the multilateral development banks. The book examines the history of procurement regulation in the banks; the tripartite relationship created between the banks, borrowers and contractors in funded procurements; the procurement documents and procurement cycle; as well as how the banks ensure competition and value for money in funded procurements. The book also examines the banks' approach to sustainability concerns in public procurement such as environmental, social or industrial concerns; as well as how the banks address the issue of corruption and fraud in funded contracts. Another issue that is addressed by this book is how the banks have implemented the aid effectiveness agenda. It will be seen that the development banks have undertaken steps to harmonise their policies and practices, increased borrower procurement capacity, taken steps to reduce the tying of aid, and play an important role in the reform of borrower procurement systems, all in an effort to improve the effectiveness of development finance. The book also considers the contractual and other remedies that are available to parties that may be aggrieved as a result of a funded procurement. The book analyses, compares and contrasts the legal, practical and institutional approaches to procurement regulation in the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Provides law students with an in-depth introduction to the UCC without burdening them with unnecessary detail. Citations have been used to enable the reader to understand the kinds of cases that might be presented under particular provisions of the Code. The materials cover payment systems under UCC Articles 3, 4, 4A, and 5, as well as related statutes, regulations, and operating rules governing negotiable instruments, the banking system, the Federal Reserve, clearinghouses, electronic payments, and letters of credit.

On December 7, 2017, final agreement was reached on the long-awaited revised bank capital rules known as Basel III. This volume presents the findings of day long symposium hosted by the Institute for Law and Finance on January 29, 2018, dedicated to explaining what has actually been accomplished, what has been left out and what it all means for financial institutions, investors and the public interest.