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The Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2010 exposed the existence of significant imperfections in the financial regulatory framework that encouraged excessive risk-taking and increased system vulnerabilities. The resulting high cost of the crisis in terms of lost aggregate income and wealth, and increased unemployment has reinforced the need to improve financial stability within and across countries via changes in traditional microprudential regulation, as well as the introduction of new macroprudential regulations. Amongst the questions raised are:

The Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2010 has had a major impact on large cross-border banks, which are widely blamed for the start and severity of the crisis. As a result, much public policy, both in the United States and elsewhere, has been directed at making these banks safer and less influential by reducing their size and permissible powers through increased government regulation.At the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's 18th annual International Banking Conference, held in November 2015, the status of these large cross-border banks was critically evaluated. In collaboration with the World Bank, the conference held discussions on the current regulatory landscape for large and internationally active financial institutions; the impact of regulation on bank permissible activities and international trade; improvements in risk management; necessary repairs to the bank safety net; the resolution of insolvent banks operating across national borders; corporate governance for banks in the new environment; implications for market and government discipline; and, progress in achieving international cooperation.Contributors include international policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and academics from more than 30 countries. The papers from the conference are collected in this volume.

Ever since the Great Recession, the global financial regulatory system has undergone significant changes. But have these changes been sufficient? Have they created a new problem of over-regulation? Is the system currently in a better position than in the pre-Recession years, or have we not adequately addressed the basic causes of the financial crisis and resulting Great Recession?These were the questions and issues addressed in the seventeenth annual international banking conference held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in November 2014. In collaboration with the Bank of England, the theme of the conference was to examine the state of the new global financial system as it has evolved in response to significant market changes and regulatory reforms triggered by the global financial crisis. The papers from that conference are collected in this volume, with contributions from an international array of government officials, regulators, industry practitioners and academics.

As a result of the recent financial crisis, there has been significant public debate on the role of the financial sector in bringing about the “Great Depression.” More generally, there has been debate about whether the current industry structure has enhanced social welfare or served a detrimental role.This book is a collection of papers presented at the conference held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, in November 2012 that examined the social value of the financial sector as currently structured. Issues evaluated include what are the perceived benefits and costs of the current financial system? How valuable have industry innovations been for society? Should regulation be used to “move” the industry in a direction thought to be more valuable for society? Should “big” banks be broken up? What are the welfare implications of the current industry structure? In the book, leading industry scholars debate these issues with a goal of influencing public policy toward the industry.

The two most topical issues in current financial markets deal with the causes of the recent financial crisis and the means to prevent future crises. This book addresses the latter and stresses a major shift in most countries toward a better understanding of financial stability and how it can be achieved. In particular, the papers in this volume examine the recent change in emphasis at central banks with regard to financial stability. For example: What were the cross-country differences in emphasis on financial stability in the past? Did these differences appear to affect the extent of the adverse impact of the financial crisis on individual countries? What are perceived to be the major future threats to financial stability? These and related issues are discussed in the book by well-known experts in the field — some of the best minds in the world pursuing financial stability. Following the global financial crisis, significant reforms have been initiated in many countries to address financial stability more directly, frequently focusing on macroprudential policy frameworks in which central banks play a more active role.

This book is a collection of papers presented in the conference held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in September 2010, that examines the role of macroprudential regulation in the financial industry. Shocked by the experience of the last few years, many argue that the more traditional microprudential regulatory tools are inadequate to create a safe and stable financial system. The microprudential paradigm relies on the presumption that the financial system as a whole can be made safe by ensuring individual financial institutions are made safe. This ignores interconnections and externalities, whereby the actions of one financial institution or events in financial markets can lead to spillover effects that adversely affect general market conditions, other financial institutions, and ultimately the economy as a whole. Instead, it is argued, there is a need for both microprudential approaches to regulate individual institutions and macroprudential approaches to manage the overall financial system risks.Conference participants discussed macroprudential regulation and related issues, including: What are the theoretical motivations for macroprudential regulation? How would it interact with other regulatory and macroeconomic policies, especially monetary policy? What would be the specific macroprudential tools? Who should have control over the macroprudential tools? How should a macroprudential regulator be structured? Where should it be housed? How can macroprudential policies be structured across national borders? What role, if any, can market discipline play in supporting macroprudential objectives?Concentrating on public policy issues, the conference featured keynote addresses by influential past and present public policy figures including: Paul Volcker, Chairman of the US President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve System; Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Chairman, Promontory Financial Group Europe and Former Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision; Jaime Caruana, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements and Former Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision; and Charles Taylor, Director of the Pew Charitable Trust Financial Reform Project and Former Executive Director of the Group of Thirty.

The recent global financial crisis has caused massive upheavals worldwide. The papers in this volume analyze whether financial principles seem to have shifted in recent years, and what that may mean for international financial markets and regulation. What “broke” in the current crisis? Is there no “playbook” on how to respond to systemic crises? What is the optimal role of the state in dealing with crises? How should asset bubbles be addressed in the future? Do we need a major overhaul of governance in the industry? What means exist to address systemic crises? What reforms are needed? These and related issues are discussed by an impressive list of well-known scholars, policymakers and practitioners, with an emphasis on the implications for public policy.

Since the summer of 2007, credit markets in almost all industrial countries have been in substantial turmoil and this has become the focus of intense policy debates. The papers in this volume are contributed by the world's leading financial experts and constitute a thorough examination of the first credit market turmoil of the 21st Century. They provide an overview of the main causes, transmission mechanisms and economic implications of what by now has become a major systemic financial crisis. They assess the most important policy considerations and conclude about how to stabilize financial systems, attenuate repercussions on the real economy and shape future regulatory structures. The analyses, conclusions, and recommendations can be expected to influence both public and private policies to mitigate, if not prevent, such crises in the future.

The impact of globalization of financial markets is a highly debated topic, particularly in recent months when the issue of globalization and contagion of financial distress has become a focus of intense policy debate. The papers in this volume provide an up-to-date overview of the key issues in this debate. While most of the contributions were prepared after the initial outbreak of the current global turmoil and financial crisis, they identify the relative strengths of the risk diversification and risk transmission processes and examine the empirical evidence to date. The book considers the relative roles of banks, nonbank financial institutions and capital markets in both risk diversification and risk transmission. It then evaluates the current status of crisis resolution in a global context, and speculates where to go from here in terms of understanding, resolution, prevention and public policy.

This book explores the potential and problems of bank safety and efficiency arising from the rapidly growing area of cross-border banking in the form of branches or subsidiaries with primarily only national prudential regulation. There are likely to be differences in the treatment of the same bank operating in different countries or of different banks from different home countries operating in the same country with respect to deposit insurance provisions, declaration of insolvency, resolution of insolvencies, and lender of last resort protection. The book identifies these protection problems and discusses possible solutions, such as greater cross-border cooperation, harmonization and organizations.The contributors to this book include experts from different countries and from a wide range of affiliations, including academia, regulators, practitioners, and international organizations.