The case of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) illustrated the many existing gaps in the international rules and standards governing bank supervision. This book deals with these rules and advocates how they should develop. It is based on the thesis that the rules essentially "percolate" from the national, regional and international levels and that these areas have become integrally interconnected. The book concludes with proposals suggesting ways of better interconnecting the national, regional and international levels through more formal, legalistic and transparent structures. The work is aimed at the financial institutions community, legal practitioners and academics. This is the third volume of a series which has been designed to provide a broad foundation for comparative analysis of changes and reforms occurring worldwide in international banking regulation and practice. It should prove a valuable tool in the comprehension of both policies and practicalities reflected by these rapid changes and reforms.

Tillmann C. Lauk discusses law-making at the European level and argues that problems with EU legislation, banking regulation and currency debasement are due to a lack of democratic control. He insists on the need for radical reform both of banking and of international money and makes an important contribution to the debate on the future of finance.

This volume is comprised of a collection of papers dealing with various aspects of cross-border secured transactions, an important issue in the development of emerging financial markets and transitional market economies. A sound legal framework for lenders to effect and enforce secured transactions is called for in order to establish an investor-friendly climate. Special attention is paid to the EBRD Model Law on secured transactions, the UNCITRAL Draft Convention on Assignment in Receivables Financing, and the UNIDROIT model. The papers stress the importance to the transition process of the development of a modern framework for secured transactions.

In this urgently needed book, a member of the Eurozone and Sovereign Debt Working Group at Slaughter and May - perhaps the premier law firm involved in cases related to sovereign debt - focuses on the legal implications of default or exit by a euro zone state. Examining separately the consequences for private sector and official sector creditors, the author provides penetrating analysis and commentary on such elements of the crisis as the following: legal limitations on developing or expanding arrangements designed to avert sovereign default; compatibility with EU law of the outright monetary transactions (OMT) programme; implications for euro zone member states of decisions arising out of the 2001 Argentine default; legal implications of the redenomination of euro obligations into a new national currency; impact of capital and exchange controls including their compatibility with IMF, GATT,GATS, and EU law; potential for member state liability to bondholders under bilateral investment treaties; enforcement of judgments against a sovereign defendant; paths to euro zone exit; redenomination in the courts of other EU States; unlawful euro zone exit; expropriation; and enforcement of arbitral awards; and much more.

In March 2015, the Institute for Law and Finance in Frankfurt am Main held a full-day symposium which brought together leading representatives of the public and private sectors to deliver the first high level response to the questions posed by the Commission's Green Paper on Building a Capital Markets Union. These responses are collected in this volume.

In the wake of the Asian financial crisis that erupted in 1997, an intense scrutiny of the principles and standards of the world's financial system was inevitable. This book presents the insight and practical proposals of 25 experts, including economists, lawyers, bankers, academics and officials from international financial institutions. The contributions offered here were originally presented at a series of conferences sponsored in 1999 and 2000 by the Asian Institute of International Financial Law of the University of Hong Kong in collaboration with leading law faculties from five continents. The issues confronted in this book include the following: reform of domestic securities regulation; investment insurance and risk management; the role of pension funds; accounting standards; financing real estate and construction projects; global competitiveness in the financial sector; responsibility of private lenders; effective anti-money laundering measures; protection of emerging market economies; corporate governance; and institutional investors.

With almost 6,300 commercial banks, significantly more than in any other country, the world of US banking is unique, fascinating, and always in flux. Two principal pieces of legislation have shaped the banking structure in this country: The McFadden Act of 1927, which prohibited banks from branching into other states, and The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which separated commercial and investment banking activities. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 was one of the main contributing factors behind the global financial crisis of 2008. This measure resulted in the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which once again prohibited commercial banks from making certain types of speculative investments. The Changing Face of American Banking analyzes the impact of both these acts - as well as that of their subsequent repeal - in depth, examining the real effects of government regulations on the US commercial banking sector. Ray Chaudhuri pinpoints the evolving nature of US commercial banks and banking regulations and explores their impact on the economy. Instead of just focusing on banks and regulations, this work considers the correlations and causality between banking performance and economic growth and productivity. It also brings the banking literature up to date with the 2008-2009 financial crisis and its aftermath, including the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and its effect on American banking.

With the growth in financial activity in and between the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China or Taiwan and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, an understanding of the development and status of financial law and regulation in the Chinese Economic Circle is increasingly important. This book provides an overview of the most significant areas of financial regulation in the Greater China Area, bringing together expert essays on banking, insurance, securities and general financial law in the PRC, banking and insurance in Taiwan, and financial law in Hong Kong. This work collects in a single volume, the significant history and development of financial law within the Greater China Area, providing an insight into the development and relationship of these three diverse but inter-related financial systems.

Grounding its analysis in the historical evolution of financial regulation, this book addresses a range of public policy issues that concern the design of financial regulation and its enforcement, and contributes several new ideas to the debate in this field. Financial systems have become more competitive across sectors of financial institutions and nations, and direct regulations have been removed in pursuit of efficiency. However, as the risk of institutional failures has increased, de-regulation has had to be followed by re-regulation. In which form should this happen? This book answers this question. First revisiting the issue of "why to regulate", Padoa-Schioppa argues that the need to continue to regulate banks in a special way follows from their key role as liquidity providers. At the same time, his argument recognizes the need for close interplay in the regulation of different financial sectors. The book goes on to discuss "how" regulation should be carried out in the modern environment. It should be market-friendly, but the balance between official intervention and market discipline is difficult to get right. Moreover, in an increasingly international context, financial regulation has to be evenly applied across countries to avoid regulatory arbitrage. The final part of the book turns to issues specifically connected with developments in the European Union. One major issue is the maintenance of financial stability in the Euro area where the financial system is becoming especially integrated. Another major issue is the appropriate role of central banks. As the literature and practice are still very much under development, Padoa-Schioppa analyses the general aspects of the financial stability function of central banks - particularly in relation to the monetary policy and supervision functions - as well as the tools available for the Eurosystem.

The global financial and economic crisis which started in 2008 has had devastating effects around the globe. It has caused a rethinking in different areas of law, and posed new challenges to regulators and private actors alike. One of the emerging issues is the apparent eclipse of boundaries between different legal disciplines: financial and corporate lawyers have to learn how public law instruments can complement their traditional governance tools; conversely, public lawyers have had to come to understand the specificities of the financial markets they intend to regulate. While commentary on financial regulation and the global financial crisis abounds, it tends to remain within disciplinary boundaries. This volume not only brings together scholarship from different areas of law (constitutional and administrative law, EU law, financial law and regulation), but also from a variety of backgrounds (the academy, practice, policy-making) and a number of different jurisdictions. The volume illustrates how interdisciplinary scholarship belongs at the centre of any discussion of the economic crisis, and indeed regulation theory more generally. This is a timely exploration of cutting-edge issues of financial regulation.

This volume is a collection of articles based upon presentations given on November 23, 2015 at a conference hosted by the Institute for Law and Finance entitled "Towards a New Age of Responsibility in Banking and Finance: Getting the Culture and the Ethics Right" which brought together leaders from the public and private sectors to discuss the importance of culture and ethics in restoring public trust in financial institutions.

Law relating to trade in financial services is examined here, with a particular focus on the rules contained in Chapter 14 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). After a detailed analysis of the relevant provisions and their effect on financial institutions in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, the author examines the impact of the NAFTA rules on the legal position of banks operating in countries outside NAFTA, particularly in the context of the WTO financial services provisions. The book concludes with a chapter on the effects of a potential NAFTA expansion. The book aims to contribute to the development of a new legal and regulatory framework distinct from those of trade and financial services law, and offers an insight into how trade in financial services within a regional trade agreement develops its own legal dynamic.

Like it or not, money launderers are major players in the world's economy. Their strategies constrain national economic policies and undermine financial institutions. With the advent of secure transfer technologies, and with the help of modern financial theories of derivatives and leverage, money laundering has become a significant structural component in contemporary geopolitics. This analysis focuses on control: how the problem is handled by legislation and regulatory and law enforcement agencies (particularly in the US and the EU), what the daunting challenges are that must be faced, what more can be attempted. In the course of developing in-depth consideration of the numerous intertwining issues that arise, the author uncovers a wealth of precise detail about what we know and what we can reasonably surmise about patterns of money laundering activity. Relevant matters covered include: the internal measuring and monitoring systems used by financial institutions; methodologies in use or in development to measure the extent of money laundering; the role of money laundering in the "informal economy"; the global rise of new criminal organizations; conflicts of criminal legislation and civil law; the relation of money laundering to capital flight; degrees of moral ambiguity and appropriately tailored control strategies; the role of offshore financial centres (OFCs); the use of derivatives in the money laundering process; obstacles to the monitoring of wire transfer activity in real time; and the "ethical indeterminacy" of white-collar crime. As a cross-disciplinary analysis of money laundering - fully recognizing the activity's economic, political, and juridical dimensions - this book identifies an array of criteria that may be used to develop and implement effective control strategies.

Derivative instruments are the contracts used in the global market for future commodities. The value of these contracts exceeds two trillion US dollars per day, making them the world's biggest market. Very little of substance has been published about this critically important business and its implications for the future direction of the world economy. This work is a collection of papers presented at the International Conference on Derivative Instruments at London University's Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in October 1993. It contains the current views of the world's leading regulators, most successful traders and top legal, economic and scientific experts in this rapidly growing market. The size and continued growth of this sector of the financial services business means that an increasing number of lawyers, government and market regulators, and people active in the financial services industry need to have a solid understanding of trading in derivative instruments. This volume contains the explanations of some knowledgeable experts and should be a useful primary source for newcomers to begin to learn about derivative instruments and for experienced practitioners to expand their understanding.

Until recent years, formal bank insolvency proceedings were rare occurrences, with governments more often than not coming to the rescue of failing banks. As a result, few studies relating to bank failure have paid much attention to the regulatory framework for failing banks and the conduct of formal bank insolvency proceedings. However, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, more attention has been focused on issues of bank insolvency. Structural reforms in the banking sector of various Asian countries, in particular the implementation of effective exit rules to expel insolvent and non-viable banks from the market, have been considered of primary importance to restoring confidence in the troubled banking sector. In addition, the ability of governments within the European Union to rescue insolvent banks has been significantly limited by strict rules on competition, suggesting that failing banks will become increasingly subject to insolvency proceedings. This text compares the legal framework for dealing with insolvent banks in Western Europe, the United States and Canada, identifying the distinctive features of each regime and discussing the main issues and choices in dealing with failing banks. It also examines the implications of a cross-border bank insolvency, and considers different approaches to the problems it raises, including the supranational approach of the proposed European Directive on the Reorganization and Winding-up of Credit Institutions. This work should be of value to lawmakers, to consultants and scholars engaged in technical assistance work, and to those who advise the legislators and officials involved in devising a legal framework for bank insolvency. It should also be of interest to practitioners and in-house counsel working in the field of banking and corporate law.

Italian Banking and Financial Law provides a thorough overview of the banking sector in Italy, offering historical perspectives, insight into current developments and suggestions for future evolution.

In this era of late-modern capitalism the forces of internationalization and technological innovation are transforming both global and national economies. A key feature of these transformation processes is the increasing strategic economic, political and social importance of the financial services sector to nation states and trading blocs. The increasing size and volatility of the world's financial markets underline the importance of better understanding: how financial markets work; how they should be regulated; and the significance of the problem of white collar crime in the financial services sector. This text addresses these key questions through a synthesis of legal, historical and sociological approaches in its critique of financial services regulation. This strategy integrates perspectives based in structuration theory, censure theory, modernity theory and the literature on legitimacy in its analysis of the actors, structures and processes that construct regulation and deviancy in the financial services sector. Based on a detailed analysis of regulation in the UK, the book examines the global and national forces and processes which interact to produce systems of financial services regulation. The UK regulatory system is contrasted with those of other jurisdictions, in particular the US, demonstrating the role of national and cultural factors in shaping such systems. This work should be of specific interest to financial services professionals, corporate lawyers, regulators and academics.

Departing from an International Relations perspective, this book inquires how industry self-regulation affects the role of international law in governing global banks. It provides case studies of the Wolfsberg Principles and the Equator Principles.

This volume covers the development of bank supervisory standards for an emerging Chinese Economic Circle (CEC) in which the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong form an informal interdependent relationship through their significant and increasing inter-investment and inter-trade activities. The PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong have all embarked on definitive plans to liberalize the regulation of their respective banking industries and to develop Shanghai, Taipei and Hong Kong into major regional financial centres. The author suggests that in order to do this successfully, it is necessary that the "core value" of prudential supervision, which is based on banking standards from the UK, USA, EU and the Basle Committee, is fully integrated into Chinese banking law and practice. The author concludes that banking supervision in the CEC should be conferred with a wide degree of discretionary power to take the necessary measures to preserve this "core value" of prudential supervision. The book should be of prime interest to academics and practitioners in the field of banking law, particularly those with a special interest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Public banks are banks located within the public sphere of a state. They are pervasive, with more than 900 institutions worldwide, and powerful, with tens of trillions in assets. Public banks are neither essentially good nor bad. Rather, they are dynamic institutions, made and remade by contentious social forces. As the first single-authored book on public banks, this timely intervention examines how these institutions can confront the crisis of climate finance and catalyse a green and just transition. The author explores six case studies across the globe, demonstrating that public banks have acquired the representative structures, financial capacity, institutional knowledge, collaborative networks, and geographical reach to tackle decarbonisation, definancialisation, and democratisation. These institutions are not without contradictions, torn as they are between contending public and private interests in class-divided society. Ultimately, social forces and struggles shape how and if public banks serve the public good.

Contains 13 national reports and the general report on Money Laundering and Banking Secrecy. The reports were written for the XIVth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law which was held in 1994 in Athens, Greece. As narcotics trafficking exploded in the 1980s, it was realized that money laundering had become a threat to the entire integrity of the financial system. The international trend to regard money laundering as a serious threat to the stability of democracy and the rule of law found expression in the adoption of the 1988 United Nations Drugs Convention. Gradually, the international community diverged from its traditional, narrow approach whereby only the laundering of drug proceeds was considered a threat. In order to combat money laundering efficiently, it soon became clear that criminal law was not sufficient and that it was necessary for banks and other financial institutions to co-operate with law enforcement agencies. The banking community is now obliged to report suspicious transactions, which they often regard as going beyond their role as bankers. The issue of bank secrecy has played an important role in the discussion between law enforcement agencies and the banking community.

This book examines a key aspect of the post-financial crisis reform package in the EU and UK-the ratcheting up of internal control in banks and financial institutions. The legal framework for internal controls is an important part of prudential regulation, and internal control also constitutes a form of internal gate-keeping for financial firms so that compliance with laws and regulations can be secured. This book argues that the legal framework for internal control, which is a form of meta-regulation, is susceptible to weaknesses, and such weaknesses are critically examined by adopting an interdisciplinary approach. The book discusses whether post-crisis reforms adequately address the weaknesses in regulating internal control and proposes an alternative strategy to enhance the 'governance' effectiveness of internal control.

In a world of fading borders, the Internet has become a regular method of buying and selling. However, technological and legal means of guaranteeing secure electronic transactions lag behind the increasing flexibility required by a flourishing "virtual" economy. Furthermore, as virtual money circulates it is susceptible to interception, processing and channeling by any number of corporate interests and public authorities. The questions arise: who is going to control what and why? There are, as yet, no firm answers. This book sets the stage and takes the necessary first steps towards developing a reliable legal regime for virtual money. Its purpose is: to analyze the legal issues raised by internet payment systems, and to explain clearly the solutions already adopted; and to discuss policy issues, with available hypotheses, raised by the convergence of financial services and information technology, and by the advent of virtual money. The authors provide a rigorous assessment of the appropriateness of the relevant existing legal instruments that regulate Internet payment systems, and focus in particular upon the rapidly increasing use of "electronic cash" - on smart cards or in the form of dematerialized electronic tokens - which behaves like cash, in that it can circulate between parties without the intermediation of a financial institution. The text aims to help lawyers, policymakers and business people successfully negotiate the radical transformation under way in all sectors of business and industry.