Law Commons^™

Market Collaboration: Finance, Culture, And Ethnography After Neoliberalism, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

In the wake of the disasters of March 2011, financial regulators and financial-risk management experts in Japan expressed little hope that much could be done nor did they take great interest in defining possible policy interventions. This curious response to regulatory crisis coincided with a new fascination with culturalist explanations of financial markets, on the one hand, and a resort to what I term “data politics”—a politics of intensified data collection—on the other. In this article, I analyze these developments as being exemplary of a new regulatory moment characterized by a loss of faith in both free market regulation and …

Is New Governance The Ideal Architecture For Global Financial Regulation?, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

A central challenge for international financial regulatory systems today is how to manage the impact of global systemically important financial institutions (G-SIFIs) on the global economy, given the interconnected and pluralistic nature of regulatory regimes. This paper focuses on the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and proposes a new research agenda for the FSB’s emerging regulatory forms. In particular, it examines the regulatory architecture of the New Governance (NG), a variety of approaches that are supposed to be more reflexive, collaborative, and experimental than traditional forms of governance. A preliminary conclusion is that NG tools may be effective in resolving some …

Managing Regulatory Arbitrage: An Alternative To Harmonization, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

This policy-oriented article argues for deploying conflict of laws doctrines as a tool of coordination in international financial governance.

The Merchants Of Wall Street: Banking, Commerce, And Commodities, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

This Article explores the legal, regulatory, policy, and theoretical aspects of an ongoing transformation of large U.S. banking organizations into global merchants of physical commodities and energy. In the absence of detailed and reliable information, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions as to the social efficiency and desirability of allowing this transformation to continue. What we can already ascertain about U.S. financial institutions' physical commodity assets and activities, however, raises potentially serious public policy concerns that must be addressed through a fully-informed public deliberation. Even if big U.S. FHCs were, in fact, to scale down their physical commodity operations …

The Dodd-Frank Act: A New Deal For A New Age?, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

This short essay is an attempt to present a few early "big picture" observations on the broad regulatory philosophy underlying the Dodd-Frank Act. The question raised here is whether the Dodd-Frank Act, in fact, provides a blueprint for the twenty-first-century version of the New Deal - a qualitatively new approach to resolving the regulatory challenges posed by today's financial markets. Answering this complex question in full is hardly possible at this stage in the process, when many critical details of the new legal and regulatory regime are yet to be determined. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to reflect upon some of …

Rethinking The Future Of Self-Regulation In The Financial Industry, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

In today's post-crisis world, arguing in favor of self-regulation in the financial services industry is sure to raise many eyebrows and invite significant disagreement. Much of the skepticism in this respect may be fully justified: the lack of truly effective incentives or political obstacles may ultimately foreclose the possibility of creating a new regime of embedded self-regulation aimed at detection and prevention of systemic financial risks. Nevertheless, as this Article sought to demonstrate, the realities of today's financial marketplace make it critically important that we give the idea of industry self-regulation a full consideration. The main goal of this Article …

License To Deal: Mandatory Approval Of Complex Financial Products, Saule Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

“There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis,” said hedge fund legend Mark Mobius, speaking in Tokyo nearly a full year after the United States officially embarked upon the greatest reform of financial services regulation since the New Deal. Today, the world is still reeling from the recent financial crisis, which ravaged even the strongest economies and left them battling recession, budget deficits, soaring unemployment, and political discontent. Facing another financial crisis in this situation is a frightening prospect. National governments, individually or …

Wall Street As Community Of Fate: Toward Financial Industry Self-Regulation, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

This Article proposes an approach to regulatory design that aims to create structural incentives for the emergence of a new model of embedded self-regulation in the financial industry. Without a doubt, the ideas laid out in this Article are more of a thought experiment than a polished set of fully developed regulatory proposals. These ideas and suggestions need a great deal of additional thought and a deeper, more granular and rigorous analysis of their potential consequences, benefits, and costs. Moreover, this Article explores only how to create conditions conducive to the emergence of comprehensive industry self-regulation that is embedded in …

Beyond Finance: Permissible Commercial Activities Of U.S. Financial Holding Companies, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

!is essay explains the legal basis for, and examines public policy implications of, recent expansion of large U.S. financial holding companies’ non-financial business activities. Despite its potentially significant impact on economic growth and systemic stability, this phenomenon of financial conglomeration beyond finance remains poorly understood. Yet, any truly comprehensive and effective reform of financial services regulation must address public policy issues that arise when “too-big-to-fail” banks grow even bigger and more systemically significant by combining finance with commerce.

From Gramm-Leach-Bliley To Dodd-Frank: The Unfulfilled Promise Of Section 23a Of The Federal Reserve Act, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

This Article examines the recent history and implementation of one of the central provisions in U.S. banking law, section 23A of the Federal Reserve Act. Enacted in 1933 in response to one of the perceived causes of the Great Depression, section 23A imposes quantitative limitations on certain extensions of credit and other transactions between a bank and its affiliates that expose a bank to an affiliate's credit or investment risk, prohibits banks from purchasing low-quality assets from their nonbank affiliates, and imposes strict collateral requirements with respect to extensions of credit to affiliates. The key purpose of these restrictions is …

That Which We Call A Bank: Revisiting The History Of Bank Holding Company Regulations In The United States, Saule T. Omarova, Tahyar E. Margaret

Saule T. Omarova

This Article does not purport to present an exhaustive and detailed analysis of the entire political or economic history of bank holding company regulation in the United States. Rather, its goal is to examine one particular aspect of that history-the evolution of the BHCA definition of "bank" and the principal exemptions from that definition. Incomplete as it may be, this story highlights some of the key economic, social and political factors that shaped the current institutional structure of the U.S. financial services market and regulation. Without a thorough understanding of the genesis of that structure, it is difficult to envision …

Risks, Rules, And Institutions: A Process For Reforming Financial Regulation, Saule Omarova, Adam Feibelman

Saule T. Omarova

It is fair to say that reforming the regulation of the financial sector is currently one of the most hotly debated issues on the policymaking agenda. Proposals for such reform are proliferating, and the official sector appears committed to adopting at least some meaningful reforms in the near-term. Broadly speaking, this movement toward regulatory reform emphasizes the need for structural reforms, outlines specific rules and regulations targeting primarily the perceived causes of the current crisis, and is carried along by a strong sense of the moment. Rather than add to the body of institutional and substantive proposals, this Article articulates …

The New Crisis For The New Century: Some Observations On The "Big-Picture" Lessons Of The Global Financial Crisis Of 2008, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

The unprecedented scale and complex contagion effects of the current financial crisis, which rapidly spread across geographic borders and market segmentation lines, forcefully underscored the urgent need for policy-makers, financial regulators, and market participants around the world to develop a deeper substantive understanding of the fundamental changes in the dynamics of modern financial markets. Although, in a historical perspective, all financial crises tend to display certain basic commonalities, two key factors make the crisis of 2008 qualitatively different from the panics and crashes of the past centuries. First, this is the world's first truly global financial crisis. Second, this is …

The Quiet Metamorphosis: How Derivatives Changed The "Business Of Banking", Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

In the wake of an unprecedented global financial crisis, one of the fundamental questions preoccupying policymakers and students of financial regulation worldwide is "How did we get here?" This Article uncovers and analyzes an important part of our recent regulatory history, which provides a key to understanding some of the deeper, hidden causes of the crisis but whose significance legal scholars have so far failed to appreciate. The Article examines interpretive letters issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the primary regulator of federally chartered U.S. banks, interpreting the National Bank Act of 1863 to allow …

“Private” Means To “Public” Ends: Governments As Market Actors, Robert C. Hockett, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

Many people recognize that governments can play salutary roles in relation to markets by (a) “overseeing” market behavior from “above,” or (b) supplying foundational “rules of the game” from “below.” It is probably no accident that these widely recognized roles also sit comfortably with traditional conceptions of government and market, pursuant to which people tend categorically to distinguish between “public” and “private” spheres of activity. There is a third form of government action that receives less attention than forms (a) and (b), however, possibly owing in part to its straddling the traditional public/private divide. We call it the “government as …

Bankers, Bureaucrats, And Guardians: Toward Tripartism In Financial Services Regulation, Saule T. Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

This Article advocates the statutory creation of a new form of tripartite regulatory regime aimed at the detection and prevention of systemic risk in the financial sector. Although it leaves many significant details blank and many important questions unanswered, this Article offers a radically new vision of the financial services regulation as a process involving three equal participants: bankers, bureaucrats, and guardians of the public interest. Admittedly, this vision is not likely to become reality in the near future. Nor is it meant as a comprehensive plan to solve the problem of effective systemic risk regulation in the financial sector. …

Legitimacy And Impartiality In A Sovereign Debt Workout Mechanism, Odette Lienau

Odette Lienau

Particularly in light of recent developments in sovereign debt litigation, there is a pressing need for discussion of more robust sovereign debt restructuring mechanisms. This paper contends that any sovereign debt workout mechanism (DWM) should embody the principles of legitimacy and impartiality, to the extent possible, in order to garner the stable and long-term adherence of international stakeholders. These two elements are important both for attracting support ex ante, i.e. in the initial development of any treaty, ad hoc, or soft law restructuring mechanism, and for ensuring ex post that a DWM is ultimately utilized by states and their creditors. …

Who Is The "Sovereign" In Sovereign Debt?: Reinterpreting A Rule-Of-Law Framework From The Early Twentieth Century, Odette Lienau

Odette Lienau

Combining legal interpretation with political science analysis, this Article highlights the competing "statist" and "popular" conceptions of sovereignty at stake in sovereign debt issues. It argues that these two dominant approaches do not exhaust the offerings of intellectual history and considers an alternative approach that emerged in the early twentieth century and may be of relevance again today. The Article contends that U.S. Chief Justice Taft's foundational 1923 "Tinoco" decision, which grounds the current approach to sovereign governmental recognition, has been misinterpreted to support a purely statist or absolutist conception of sovereignty. It argues that a proper interpretation presents an …

Extending The European Debt Discussion To Broader International Governance, Odette Lienau

Odette Lienau

Although Europe is no stranger to sovereign debt troubles, the focus of international debt governance for several decades has been on the developing world. Discussions surrounding the efficacy and appropriateness of crisis mechanisms have been shaped by this political reality. But the current focus on Europe itself may generate changes in how public and private actors view international debt governance and the legitimacy of crisis mechanisms. In these remarks, I will focus on two ways in which Europe might serve as a test case for broader governance practices. First, I will discuss the ramifications of the European Union’s potential adoption …

Insource The Shareholding Of Outsourced Employees: A Global Stock Ownership Plan, Robert C. Hockett

Robert C. Hockett

With the American economy stalled and another federal election campaign season well underway, the “outsourcing” of American jobs is again on the public agenda. Latest figures indicate not only that claims for joblessness benefits are up, but also that the rate of American job-exportation has more than doubled since the last electoral cycle. This year’s political candidates have been quick to take note. In consequence, more than at any time since the early 1990s, continued American participation in the World Trade Organization, in the North American Free Trade Agreement, and in the processes of global economic integration more generally appear …

Materializing Citizenship: Finance In A Producers' Republic, Robert C. Hockett

Robert C. Hockett

This invited essay critically assesses a movement of which I consider myself to be part – the movement to “redemocratize” financial institutions in a manner that restores, to non-wealthy citizens, access to basic financial services comparable to those enjoyed by wealthy citizens. I argue that while financial redemocratization of this sort is necessary to the larger project from which it draws most of its meaning – viz that of redemocratizing access to the resources requisite to productive enterprise and meaningful citizenship more generally – it is far from sufficient to this task. We must therefore take special care not to …

Paying Paul And Robbing No One: An Eminent Domain Solution For Underwater Mortgage Debt, Robert C. Hockett

Robert C. Hockett

In the view of many analysts, the best way to assist “underwater” homeowners — those who owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth — is to reduce the principal on their home loans. Yet in the case of privately securitized mortgages, such write-downs are almost impossible to carry out, since loan modifications on the scale necessitated by the housing market crash would require collective action by a multitude of geographically dispersed security holders. The solution, this study suggests, is for state and municipal governments to use their eminent domain powers to buy up and restructure underwater mortgages, …

“Private” Means To “Public” Ends: Governments As Market Actors, Robert C. Hockett, Saule T. Omarova

Robert C. Hockett

Many people recognize that governments can play salutary roles in relation to markets by (a) “overseeing” market behavior from “above,” or (b) supplying foundational “rules of the game” from “below.” It is probably no accident that these widely recognized roles also sit comfortably with traditional conceptions of government and market, pursuant to which people tend categorically to distinguish between “public” and “private” spheres of activity. There is a third form of government action that receives less attention than forms (a) and (b), however, possibly owing in part to its straddling the traditional public/private divide. We call it the “government as …

Bretton Woods 1.0: A Constructive Retrieval For Sustainable Finance, Robert Hockett

Robert C. Hockett

Global trade imbalance and domestic financial fragility are intimately related. When a nation runs persistently massive current account deficits to maintain global liquidity as has the United States now for decades, its central bank effectively relinquishes exchange rate flexibility to become a de facto central bank to the world. That in turn prevents the bank from playing its essential credit-modulatory role at home, at least absent strict capital controls that are difficult to administer and have long been taboo. And this can in turn render credit-fueled asset price bubbles and busts all but impossible to prevent, irrespective of the nation's …

The Macroprudential Turn: From Institutional “Safety And Soundness” To “Systemic Stability” In Financial Supervision, Robert C. Hockett

Robert C. Hockett

This Working Paper is no longer available. The published version of this article is available at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/1405/ Since the global financial dramas of 2008-09, authorities on financial regulation have come increasingly to counsel the inclusion of macroprudential policy instruments in the standard ‘toolkit’ of finance-regulatory measures employed by financial supervisors. The hallmark of this perspective is its focus not simply on the safety and soundness of individual financial institutions, as is characteristic of the traditional ‘microprudential’ perspective, but also on certain structural features of financial systems that can imperil such systems as wholes. Systemic ‘financial stability’ thus comes to supplement, …

Domestic Bank Regulation In A Global Environment - A Comparative Dialogue, Robert C. Hockett

Robert C. Hockett

No abstract provided.

Comment On The Cfpb's Policy On No-Action Letters, David J. Reiss, K. Sabeel Rahman, Jeffrey Lederman

David J Reiss

This is a comment on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (the “Bureau”) proposed Policy on No-Action Letters (the “Policy”). The Policy is a step in the right direction, but a more robust Policy could better help the Bureau achieve its statutory purposes.

The Bureau recognizes that there are situations in which consumer financial service businesses (“Businesses”) are uncertain as to the applicability of laws and rules related to new financial products (“Products”); how regulatory provisions might be applied to their Products; and what potential enforcement actions could be brought against them by regulatory agencies for noncompliance. Businesses could therefore benefit …

Moderator, Regulation: Systemically Important Financial Institution (Sifi) Designations

Patricia A. McCoy

Moderated a roundtable discussion on proposals to subject the asset management industry to systemic risk oversight.

Iniciativas Legais Para O Desenvolvimento Da Governança Corporativa No Mercado Financeiro E De Capitais Brasileiro, Felipe Chagas Villasuso Lago

Felipe Chagas Villasuso Lago Mr.

The study of Corporate Governance is of utmost importance for the development of transparency and ethics in the conduct of public and private institutions activities. Corporate governance has been important for the development of relations between the shareholder and the senior management of companies, employees, suppliers, customers, banks and other lenders, Regulators and the community as a whole. The study of such practice goes beyond legal issues and also involves economic analysis and policy for discussing the best strategy to ensure the return on investment or consideration, in the case of public service. The Financial and Capital Market are industries …

Una Nueva Generación: ¿Por Qué Las Medianas Empresas Deben Reducir Su Dependencia Bancaria Y Apostar Por El Mav?, John Pineda Galarza

John Pineda Galarza

Se analiza el porque las medianas empresas deben de buscar financiarse a través de métodos alternativos y no solo depender del financiamiento bancario. En ese sentido, se desarrolla la emisión de instrumentos de corto plazo como un mecanismo viable y necesario para las medianas empresas.