Financial Regulation Reform: A European Perspective
Do Europe and the US share views on global financial service reform?
WEBCAST WITH PROFESSORS RICHARD PORTES, XAVIER VIVES AND ABEL MATEUS
The Financial Crisis has shown the need for a global approach to regulation. The European Commission, the European Central Bank and think-tanks like the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research have been producing important proposals for financial regulation in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, including a number of proposed reforms akin to several US proposals. One in particular, the de Larosiere Report proposes tighter regulation of derivatives and rating agencies.
Does Europe share the same views about regulatory reform than the U.S.?
Two leading European scholars on monetary policy and banking regulation -- Professor Richard Portes of the London Business School and Xavier Vives of IESE Business School -- join Professor Abel Mateus in debating recent European proposals for financial regulation.
Key points for the discussion:
• Imbalances of the global economy as a cause of the financial crisis. How to solve those imbalances
• Should the ECB engage in QE? Why the criticism of German policy-makers. • Is there a need for a systemic regulator in the euro area? What role for the ECB? The proposals of the de Larosiere Report.
• Why not move towards a Community Financial Regulator to harmonize regulation across the EU? Did the diversity of regulatory authority cause or deepen or mitigate the financial crisis?
• Can the recent financial crisis be explained by theories of rational agents? What went wrong in the micro structure of markets? What role incentives within financial institutions played a role?
• What should be the general principles on which to base banking regulation? How should market regulation be reformed? Should the trade of OTC derivatives be regulated? Should short sales be prohibited?
• How to give rating agencies the right incentives? Do you think that Basel II needs to be revised?
• What are the implications of the crisis for competition policy and state aid regulation in banking?
Presenter Bios
Xavier Vives, Professor of Economics and Finance, IESE Business School, is Academic Director of the Public-Private Sector Research Center, Director of the Abertis Chair of Regulation, Competition and Public Policy, Adjunct Professor, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Research Professor of the Spanish High Research Council, CSIC (on leave). He is also a member of the steering committee of the European Symposium in Economic Theory (ESSET) at Gerzensee, author of the recent book Information and Learning in Markets, co-editor of Financial Intermediation, Symposium issue (European Economic Review), and Capital Markets and Financial Intermediation. He has written extensively in industrial organization, banking, game theory and competition policy.
Abel Mateus, is Professor of Economics at New University of Lisbon, Visiting Professor at New York University and University College of London. He was President of the Competition Authority (Portugal), a member of the Executive Board of the Bank of Portugal and of the EU Monetary Committee. Mateus is the author of the The Great Financial Crisis of the Beginning of the XXI Century, and has published extensively about competition policy, microeconomics and economic development. 
