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A worldwide financial crisis of enormous magnitude continues to unfold rapidly. Unlike other crises in recent decades, the current episode is rooted in industrial countries' financial systems and is affecting low-income and middle-income countries (MICs) alike. Defaults on securitized sub-prime mortgages as a real estate market bubble burst led to failures or near-failures of several large financial institutions and a collapse of inter-bank and commercial paper markets. A tightening of credit, combined with declining consumer confidence, has brought on worldwide recession with growing unemployment, and many fear that the downturn will be severe and protracted. At the same time, the rapidly multiplying signs of contraction are prompting strong responses, including fiscal stimulus packages and reductions in benchmark lending rates, on the part of several of the affected developed countries. The Bank Group is well placed to help mitigate the impact of the current crisis with financing and advisory services, and its clients are already requesting increased support. A rapid, high-quality response that combines financial and advisory support can do much to ease the inevitable ramifications of the crisis. Lessons from evaluations of previous Bank Group responses to past crises can help inform the response to the current crisis in order to increase its effectiveness.

The responsibilities of the regulator should be clearly and objectively stated. The regulator should be operationally independent and accountable in the exercise of its functions and powers. The regulator should have adequate powers, proper resources and the capacity to perform its functions and exercise its powers. The regulator should adopt clear and consistent regulatory processes. The staff of the regulator should observe the highest professional standards including appropriate standards of confidentiality. The regulatory regime should make appropriate use of Self-Regulatory Organizations (SROs) that exercise some direct oversight responsibility for their respective areas of competence, and to the extent appropriate to the size and complexity of the markets. SROs should be subject to the oversight of the regulator and should observe standards of fairness and confidentiality when exercising powers and delegated responsibilities. The regulator should have comprehensive inspection, investigation and surveillance powers. The regulator should have comprehensive enforcement powers. The regulatory system should ensure an effective and credible use of inspection, investigation, surveillance and enforcement powers and implementation of an effective compliance program. The regulator should have authority to share both public and non-public information with domestic and foreign counterparts. Regulators should establish information sharing mechanisms that set out when and how they will share both public and non-public information with their domestic and foreign counterparts. The regulatory system should allow for assistance to be provided to foreign regulators who need to make inquiries in the discharge of their functions and exercise of their powers.

Systemic risks are a product of profound and rapid technological, economic and social changes that the modern world experiences every day. They are characterised by high complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity, and ripple effects. Due to these characters systemic risks are overextending established risk management and creating new, unsolved challenges for policy making in risk governance. Their negative effects are often pervasive, impacting fields beyond the obvious primary areas of harm. The article relates to an integrative risk concept including evaluation criteria, different risk classes and corresponding management strategies for the handling of systemic risks. We argue that a deliberative approach is needed for risk management and policy making in risk governance to prevent, mitigate or control systemic risks. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0601330, Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol 7, No 1 (2006): Learning About Risk

This paper develops the concept of converging institutions and applies it to nanotechnologies. Starting point are economic and socialogical perspectives. We focus on the entire innovation process of nanotechnologies beginning with research and development over diffusion via downstream sectors until implementation in final goods. The concept is applied to the nano-cluster in the metropolitan region of Grenoble and a possible converging institution is identified.

Earlier analyses of area yield crop insurance schemes used a reduced form linear relationship between individual and area yield. However, without knowledge of the structural framework, the analysis and design of alternative schemes is problematic. This paper resolves this problem. The paper characterizes the entire class of structural models equivalent to the reduced form. As a result, the beta, the slope coefficient of the reduced form is expressed as a function of structural parameters. Second, the structural model is used to analyze the relation between the aggregation (that determines area yields) and the risk reduction due to area yield insurance. Third, we consider optimal area yield insurance for an important class of structural models not consistent with the reduced form.

A Complex Regulation within Financial Globalisation. The forming of a global financial market did not succeed in simplifying financial regulation. On the contrary, the global financial market was faced with a multiplicity of enforceable rules. Besides states, other civil society actors participate in increasing the regulation sources of financial markets. The complexity of the financial regulation results from both the multiplicity of the market rules and the links of recursiveness governing the different regulation authorities. In fact, is not the complexity also intrinsic to the mechanisms of the markets and their instruments ? The response to a complex regulation of financial globalisation could only be a pragmatic one., La formation d'un marché financier global n'a pas abouti à simplifier la réglementation financière. Au contraire, le marché financier global s'est trouvé face à une pluralité de règles applicables. Outre les États, d'autres acteurs issus de la société civile concourent à multiplier les sources de régulation des marchés financiers. La complexité de la régulation financière résulte à la fois de la multiplicité des règles et des liens de récursivité qui régissent les différentes instances de régulation. En fait, la complexité n'est-elle pas aussi inhérente aux mécanismes des marchés et à leurs instruments ? La réponse à une régulation complexe de l'intégration financière ne pourrait qu'être pragmatique., Xue-Bacquet Beinan. Une régulation complexe dans l'intégration financière. In: Droit et société, n°46, 2000. Complexités à l’œuvre. pp. 457-473.

Even though globalization has led to larger, faster, and more efficient supply chains, at the same time the new worldwide interconnection has also resulted in major challenges with respect to hidden systemic risks. In particular, there is a lack of a holistic perspective on the entire supply network. This missing global view prohibits the anamnesis and management of underlying risks. Against this backdrop, in this paper we discuss the potential contributions of Blockchain technology to systemic risk management in global supply chains and networks. Given the increasing number of recent initiatives of businesses in the context of Blockchain, we argue that Blockchain technology can lower the hurdle for the use of secure multiparty computation. Ultimately, it may be possible to implement a corresponding monitoring mechanism for systemic risks without (i) the need of a central authority and (ii) revealing competition relevant, confidential information to other supply network participants.

IRGC’s guidelines for the governance of systemic risks addresses the question of how to deal with systemic risks in the context of system transitions, i.e., in situations that require adaptation to new context conditions or transformation of an organisation or ecosystem. The guidelines comprise seven interlinked steps. The guidelines successful implementation depends on strong leadership and the willingness to adapt or revise processes, focus on mid- and long-term issues, and accept and resolve trade-offs.