The book analyses the institutions of the European financial market supervision and the challenges of financial markets. The current European supervisory structure for financial markets represents a major development in European supervisory history. Its operation however has to be explored and analysed critically. Has it gone far enough to provide a sufficiently comprehensive and resilient system to reduce or mitigate systemic risks and handle financial crises? Some claim it has gone too far already. Fresh and rigorous critical legal and economic analysis from an independent scholarly perspective are needed to assess whether the institutional design of the European supervisory architecture has proved itself to be an efficient and effective model. This book discusses many dimensions of the structure and workings of the European system from various angles providing different dimensions. The book makes an important contribution to the limited literature on financial market supervision.

International financial relations have become increasingly important for the development of global and national economies. At present these relations are primarily governed by market forces, with little regulatory interference at the international level. In the light of numerous financial crises, this abstinence must be seriously questioned. Starting with an analysis of the regulatory problems at the international level, with only minimal powers entrusted to international organisations, this book develops various possibilities for reform. On the basis of an historical analysis, the book first adopts a comparative approach to national attempts to regulate international financial markets, then outlines the potential of relevant institutions and finally develops a policy perspective. It seeks to provide a framework for analysing options for the regulation of international financial markets from a public international law and comparative law perspective.

Previous editions published under title: EC securities regulation.

During the twentieth century the financial sector became possibly the most regulated area of the economy in many advanced and developing countries. The interwar years represented the defining moment for the escalation of governments' intervention, turning the State into the core of financial systems in its capacity of regulator, supervisor or owner. The essays in this collection shed light on different aspects of the experience of financial regulation, ownership and deregulation in Europe and the USA from a secular historical perspective. The volume's chapters explore how the political economy of finance changed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how such changes were related to shifting attitudes towards globalization. They also investigate how regulation responded to governance problems of financial intermediaries and markets, and how different legal frameworks and institutional architectures influenced such response. The collection engages with a set of issues as diverse as they are interrelated across countries and over time: the regulatory attitude of British authorities toward the banking system and the stock exchange market in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the comparative evolution of bankruptcy laws and procedures; the link between state, regulation and governance in the evolution of the US and French financial systems; the emergence of banking regulation and supervision by central banks; the regulation and supervision of international financial markets since the 1950s; and the connection between deregulation and banking crises at the end of the past century. Taken as a whole, the chapters offer an intriguing insight into the differing ways western countries approached and responded to the challenges of the international financial system, and the legacy of this on the modern world. In so doing the volume holds up to historical scrutiny the debate as to whether overt state regulation of financial markets always has a negative affect on economic growth, or whether it can be an essential tool for developing nations in their efforts to expand their economies.

Despite the high hopes for EU-wide financial stability invested in the European Economic and Monetary Union, it is becoming more and more evident that the limited supervisory role of the European Central Bank has added to an already overcomplicated situation. Although European regulatory competences are now increasingly formalised through detailed rule-making, they remain broad and widely discretionary. It is still the many different national authorities that are regulating or supervising banks and other financial institutions. The root issue'what is the relationship between an effective European supervisor and the supervisory functions that remain at the Member State level?'has not yet been adequately addressed. The essays in this important book ask the question: Given that there is no viable political structure to support an international regulator of financial markets, what can lead to regulatory change in Europe? The authors demonstrate convincingly that if this question is not answered soon'and especially if the reality of the need for regulation to avert international financial crises is not faced squarely'then we will continue to experience panic-stricken short-term responses to repeated crises. Among the core issues of relevance analysed in the book are the following: the increase in systemic risk that accompanies the introduction of the Euro; the inability of mere cooperation between national authorities to handle crises; the European Central Bank as an organisational model for the development of a single European regulator; the persistence of a traditional national character in surrounding areas of law such as contract law and company law; the heretofore intractable problem of the double burden of having to follow more than one set of national rules; and, the apparent inertia of major business players, in spite of the obvious benefits for them of EU level regulation. Financial Markets in Europe offers a large and welcome measure of clear thinking to the entire professional community'regulators, bankers, scholars, insurance professionals, securities managers'engaged in the complex field of activity guided by monetary policy and supervision of financial markets. Because it raises broad issues and perspectives for a globalised world, it will be of value not only in Europe but to financial services specialists everywhere.

Since its establishment in 2011, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has become a pivotal actor in EU financial market regulation and supervision. Its burgeoning influence extends from the rule-making process to supervisory convergence/coordination to direct supervision. Reflecting the now critical importance of ESMA to how the EU regulates and supervises financial markets, and with ESMA at an inflection point in its evolution, particularly in light of the Commission's 2017 proposals to reform ESMA and the UK's withdrawal from the EU, The Age of ESMA maps, contextualises, and examines ESMA's role and the implications for EU financial market governance.

This book provides an extensive and critical assessment of the current regulatory and supervisory framework of investment services in the European Union (EU) and proposes alternative institutional structures. Recent trends in financial services at EU level as well as regulatory and institutional developments at national level make the focus of this book very timely. The book contributes to the debate by making specific suggestions with regard to the institutional structure and the operational sphere of a central pan-European regulator.