Law Commons^™

The Road To Precautionary Review Of Financial Products, Hilary Allen

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Financial innovation introduces new and complex products into the financial system, providing market participants with more bespoke ways to manage their risk, return and liquidity. However, by increasing the complexity of the financial system, financial innovation also compromises financial stability. Faced with the rapid pace of financial innovation, regulators have two options. One is to seek to meet the complexity of the industry with complex regulation, in an arms race that under-resourced regulators are bound to lose. The less explored (and more controversial) path is for regulators to try to reduce the complexity of the financial system by limiting financial …

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (Fsoc): It's Not All About The Designation, Hilary Allen

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The recession that followed the financial crisis of 2007-2008 illustrated just how important financial stability is:when the financial system fails, it results in credit contractions that can cause seismic problems for the economyat large. Because financial institutions lack the incentives, information and tools to reduce the amount of risk inthe financial system as a whole, the vital task of overseeing and regulating for financial stability must necessarilybe carried out by a public body.

Financial Product Complexity, Moral Hazard, And The Private Law, Heather Hughes

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Extensive debate surrounds the question of how regulators should respond to the externalization of risk associated with moral hazard in financial markets. The capacity of market actors to externalize risk is related to transactional complexity. Complexity, for example, augments reliance on valuation methods that can obscure risk, aggravating moral hazard. Recently, scholars and policymakers have articulated strategies for regulating transactional complexity that, this Article finds, reflect a shift from a contract law to a property law rubric for understanding financial products. This Article articulates this shift and assesses its regulatory implications. Some call for standardization of financial products. Others call …

Sustainability And Infrastructure Investment: National Development Banks In Africa, Daniel D. Bradlow, Christopher Strong Humphrey

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The need for infrastructure finance in Africa is tremendous. A 2009 report by the World Bank suggests that the continent faces needs of US$93 billion per year. More recent studies, pointing to economic and population growth trends and using more sophisticated methods of assessing needs, indicate that infrastructure needs are actually much higher. Existing financing sources have not been able to keep pace.

In this context, the role of national development banks (NDBs) in the continent merits attention. As will be shown below, many African countries have NDBs, although the vast majority are quite small, with limited access to finance …

Putting The 'Financial Stability' In Financial Stability Oversight Council, Hilary Allen

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

For all the ink that has been spilled on the topic of financial regulation since the financial crisis of 2007-2008, there has been little examination of the competing normative goals of financial regulation. Should the financial system be treated as an end in itself such that the efficiency of that system is the primary goal? Or should financial regulation instead treat the financial system as a means to the end of broader economic growth? This Article argues for the latter approach, and stakes out the controversial normative position that financial stability, rather than efficiency, should be the paramount focus of …