This major four-volume collection will prove invaluable for lecturers, researchers and practitioners. The first volume covers the case for and against banking regulation, touching upon the design of an 'optimal' regulatory framework. The second discusses deposit insurance, examining the arguments for and against its adoption and the problems encountered in its implementation. The material in the third volume deals with the vexed issue of capital adequacy assessment, including the roles played by capital and capital regulation and the G10 agreement. The final volume looks at the links between regulation and banking efficiency.

Under growing pressure from within and outside their economies, countries around the world have recently embarked upon wide-ranging programmes of financial reform. This major Handbook provides country studies of the latest developments in financial reform in a selection of both developed and developing countries from Western Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australia, written by acknowledged experts in their fields. The outcome is an up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive account of the current world-wide attempt to refashion the way in which the financial services industry (and especially the banking sector) is regulated and supervised. The contributors find that programmes of reform have embraced all or most of the following elements: * central bank reform * changes in the legal operating environment and market pressures for mergers * consolidation * demutualisation * supervisory reform * measures such as the introduction of explicit deposit insurance schemes. This comprehensive reference work contains a wealth of up-to-date knowledge, presented in an accessible manner and with a standardised format. It will be of interest to scholars of central banking and international banking reforms as well as policymakers, legislators, practitioners and organisations from the banking world.

Max Hall offers a thoroughly revised and updated edition of his classic handbook on the evolution and structure of UK banking supervision. He examines the major developments at the national and international level which have transformed the conduct of banking supervision in this country. New issues explored in depth include: * the collapse of BCCI * the collapse of Barings and its impact on domestic policy * the Arthur Andersen review * the creation of the Financial Services Authority * reforms of the famous Basle Concordat and capital accord * implementation of the European Commission's Single Market programme for financial services This book will prove indispensable to those concerned with the evolution and conduct of domestic supervisory policy in the area of banking.

This timely book provides a comprehensive analysis of the post-war evolution of financial markets and financial regulation in Japan, with special emphasis being placed on the period since 1975. Max Hall, a leading specialist in financial regulation, provides a full and detailed coverage of the causes and nature of the recent liberalization of financial markets adopted in Japan as well as its consequences for public policy. He also examines the recent reforms of Japan's central bank, the Bank of Japan, and offers an in-depth discussion of the current weaknesses of the Japanese banking sector. By providing a critical overview of the local financial system and detailed discussion of the evolution of financial markets in Japan, the book sheds new light on the institutional problems at the heart of the current crisis. The politics, as well as the economics, of the financial liberation programme are scrutinised to provide a comprehensive analysis of financial reform.