The World Trade Organization and financial stability: the balance between liberalisation and regulation in the GATs

The WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services and its Annex on Financial Services provide the international legal framework for the regulation of cross-border trade in financial services. This paper analyses some of the main provisions of the GATS and the Annex on Financial Services to determine its impact on domestic financial regulation and whether the GATS framework can achieve its objectives of liberalising international trade in financial services while allowing states to maintain adequate domestic regulatory institutions. The paper argues that the GATS provides a flexible framework for states to negotiate liberalisation commitments while allowing sufficient domestic regulatory authority to achieve financial stability objectives. The extent to which states can depart from their GATS obligations to achieve regulatory objectives has become the source of academic debate and policy interest. Although the WTO has played little or no role in the financial regulation debate, the GATS contains certain disciplines that could potentially have significant implications for limiting regulatory discretion over financial markets. The paper suggests that the Doha Development Agenda should address some of these issues as they relate to the regulation of cross-border trade in financial services. The role of the WTO in this area raises important issues regarding the institutional design of financial regulation and related issues of global financial governance

Corporate governance and banking regulation

The globalisation of banking markets has raised important issues regarding corporate governance regulation for banking institutions. This research paper addresses some of the major issues of corporate governance as it relates to banking regulation. The traditional principal-agent framework will be used to analyse some of the major issues involving corporate governance and banking institutions. It begins by analysing the emerging international regime of bank corporate governance. This has been set forth in Pillar II of the amended Basel Capital Accord. Pillar II provides a detailed framework for how bank supervisors and bank management should interact with respect to the management of banking institutions and the impact this may have on financial stability. The paper will then analyse corporate governance and banking regulation in the United Kingdom and United States. Although UK corporate governance regulation has traditionally not focused on the special role of banks and financial institutions, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 has sought to fill this gap by authorizing the FSA to devise rules and regulations to enhance corporate governance for financial firms. In the US, corporate governance for banking institutions is regulated by federal and state statute and regulation. Federal regulation provides a prescriptive framework for directors and senior management in exercising their management responsibilities. US banking regulation also addresses governance problems in bank and financial holding companies. For reasons of financial stability, the paper argues that national banking law and regulation should permit the bank regulator to play the primary role in establishing governance standards for banks, financial institutions and bank/financial holding companies. The regulator is best positioned to represent and to balance the various stakeholder interests. The UK regulatory regime succeeds in this area, while the US regulatory approach has been limited by US court decisions that restrict the role that the regulator can play in imposing prudential directives on banks and bank holding companies. FSA regulatory rules have enhanced accountability in the financial sector by creating objective standards of conduct for senior management and directors of financial companies. The paper suggests that efficient banking regulation requires regulators to be entrusted with discretion to represent broader stakeholder interests in order to ensure that banks operate under good governance standards, and that judicial intervention can lead to suboptimal regulatory results

Establishing a European securities regulator: is the European Union an optimal economic area for a single securities regulator?

The paper’s purpose is to address the economic, institutional, and legal issues confronting the establishment of a more centralised approach to EU securities regulation and to suggest that the theory of optimum currency areas can be used as a model to assess the economic benefits and costs of further centralisation of securities regulation in the European Union. The European Union’s Financial Services Action Plan seeks to achieve an integrated market in financial services in order to accomplish the economic and political objectives of the Treaty of Rome. The FSAP is premised on the notion that the adoption of legal and regulatory measures to achieve liberalisation in cross-border trade in financial services will also achieve integration of EU financial markets. This paper argues that liberalisation of financial markets does not necessarily lead to integration of financial markets. Furthermore, it argues that the institutional design and scope of financial regulation should be based, in part, on the extent of integration in the financial market. That is, the domain of the regulator should be the same as the domain of the market. European capital and financial markets remain fragmented and segmented. This paper argues therefore that, until EU financial markets become more integrated, a single EU securities regulator would not be an efficient or effective institutional model for EU securities markets. In other words, at present, the EU is not an optimal economic area for a single securities regulator

Simulation and measurement of melting effects on metal sheets caused by direct lightning strikes

Direct lightning strikes melt metal parts of various systems, like fuel and propellant tanks of rockets and airplanes, at the point of strike. Responsible for this melting are the impulse current and, if occurring, the long duration current, both carrying a remarkable charge Q. For studying these meltings the simulation in the laboratory has to be based on the parameters of natural lightnings. International standards exist defining certain threat levels of natural lightnings and giving possible generator circuits for the simulation. The melting caused by both types of lightning currents show different appearance. Their characteristics, their differences in melting and heating of metal sheets are investigated. Nevertheless the simulation of lightning in the laboratory is imperfect. While natural lightning is a discharge without a counter electrode, the simulation always demands a close counter electrode. The influence of this counter electrode is studied

UA3/7/1 Presentation to the Council on Higher Education

Presentation of statistics regarding Kentucky universities\u27 extended campuses, community colleges, enrollment, appropriations and comparisons with universities in surrounding states

Reforming European financial supervision: adapting EU institutions to market structures

EU policymakers have created a new European System of Financial Supervision, consisting of three European Supervisory Authorities and a European Systemic Risk Board. This article examines some of the legal and institutional issues, including the ESAs' authority to develop an EU code of financial regulation and to oversee its implementation by Member States and resolve related disputes. The article argues that the creation of the ESAs and ESRB is a proportional response to the increased integration of EU financial markets and the cross-border nature of systemic risk. The article suggests, however, that the ultimate effectiveness of these supervisory reforms will depend on whether they achieve a balance between crisis prevention supervisory measures and crisis management involving the rescue or resolution of financial firms. Abetter balance needs to be struck to achieve financial stability objective

UA3/7/4/2 Press Conference

Transcript of recorded press conference segment during the search process for new president. Kern Alexander fielding unidentified reporters\u27 questions. On tape with Board of Regents meeting

Reforming European financial supervision and the role of EU institutions

Article by Professor Kern Alexander considering the current and potential role of European Union institutions in the supervision of European financial markets, in the light of the financial crisis 2007-2009 and increasingly integrated financial markets. Published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Bank resolution and recovery in the EU: enhancing banking union?

The article analyses some of the legal and economic policy issues concerning proposals to establish a European Banking Union. It discusses the role of the European Central Bank as a bank supervisor and the creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). The article then critically analyses the draft Directive on Bank Recovery and Resolution (RRD) and argues that it is inadequate to serve as one of the pillars of banking union. The article reviews the difficulties of Member States in implementing the RRD by analysing the United Kingdom's resolution framework as a case study. Finally, the article suggests that although strengthened powers for national resolution authorities are necessary to enhance the RRD, the logic of banking union demands further centralisation of sovereign authority in the Euro area in order to manage more effectively the resolution and recovery of financial institutions and to establish more institutional coherence with the ECB/SSM as bank supervisor. Further centralisation of banking supervision and resolution powers, however, could result in a deepening split in the EU internal market between member states not participating in banking union and participating state