La trayectoria de la reforma regulatoria en el Reino Unido en el despertar de la crisis financiera
| Autor | Iain MacNeil |
| Cargo | Alexander Stone Professor of Commercial Law, University of Glasgow, Escocia |
| Páginas | 137-184 |
THE TRAJEC TORY OF REGULATORY REFORM
IN THE UK IN THE WAKE OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
Iain MacNeil
iain.mcneil@glasgow.ac.uk
Alexander Stone Professor of Commercial Law, University of Glasgow, Escocia. He worked
for eight years as an investment analyst in the City of London. He is the general editor of the
Law and Financial Markets Review and a member of the editorial board of the Capital Mar-
kets Law Journal. In 2011, Iain was appointed to the Law Panel for the UK’s Research Evalu -
tion Framework (REF), which will undertake a review of academic research in law in 2014.
Recibido: 30 de mayo de 2014 Aceptado: 16 de junio de 2014
SUMMARY
Introduction
Causes of the financial crisis
Regulatory accountability and reform
Institutional structure
Regulatory style and objectives
- Moral hazard and ‘too big to fail’
- Crisis management and the resolution regime
- ‘Light-touch’ regulation
- Principles-based regulation
- Macro-prudential regulation
Scope of regulation
- Hedge Funds
- Credit rating agencies
- The role of home and host states
- Adjustments to the FSMA 2000 regime
Capital adequacy
Market transparency and integrity
- Market transparency
- Market infrastructure
- Market integrity
Conduct of business regulation
Corporate governance
- The causal role of weak governance
- Remuneration practices.
Conclusion
ABSTRACT
There has been much talk about regulatory reform around the world
in the wake of the financial crisis but relatively little action. As a
VOX JURIS (27) 1, 2014 iain.mcneil@glasgow.ac.uk
VOX JURIS, Lima (Perú) 27 (1): 137-184,2014
138 IAIN MACNEIL
major international financial centre the UK is very much at the centre
of the debate and has a particular interest in the ultimate outcome.
The financial crisis has exposed the weaknesses of ‘light-touch’
regulation and ‘principles-based’ regulation, which characterised
the UK system in the pre-crisis phase. Changes to the institutional
structure of regulation recently announced by the new coalition
government, combined with changes to regulatory style, are likely
to have far reaching consequences for the practice and intensity of
regulation in the UK. This article reviews and assesses recent and
proposed regulatory changes and considers the relationship between
corporate governance and regulation. It evaluates the impact on the
UK system of initiatives undertaken at the international and EU
levels as well as various interests and incentives within the UK that
are likely to be influential in shaping the regulatory regime in years
to come.
RESUMEN
Ha habido mucho que hablar de la reforma regulatoria alrededor
del mundo a raíz de la crisis financiera pero relativamente poca
acción. Como un importante centro financiero internacional,
el Reino Unido está muy en el centro del debate y tiene un
particular interés en el resultado final. La crisis financiera ha
expuesto las debilidades de la
“light-touch”’ y “principles-
based”, que caracteriza el sistema del Reino Unido en la fase
previa a la crisis. Los cambios en la estructura institucional de
la regulación recientemente anunciado por el nuevo gobierno de
coalición, combinado con cambios al estilo de reglamentación,
son propensos a tener consecuencias de gran alcance para la
práctica y la intensidad de la regulación en el Reino Unido. Este
artículo revisa y evalúa cambios normativos recientes y cambios
propuestos en la regulación y considera la estrecha relación entre
el gobierno corporativo y regulación. Se evalúa el impacto en el
sistema del Reino Unido de las iniciativas emprendidas a nivel
EU e internacional así como diversos intereses e incentivos
en el Reino Unido que son susceptibles de ser influyente en la
conformación del régimen regulatorio en años venideros.
KEYWORDS
Financial regulation, regulatory reform, financial crisis, corporate
governance.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Regulación financiera, reforma regulatoria, crisis financiera,
gobierno corporativo.
iain.mcneil@glasgow.ac.uk ISSN: 1812-6864
VOX JURIS, Lima (Perú) 27 (1): 137-184,2014
The trajectory of regulatory reform in the UK in the wake of the financial crisis 139
INTRODUCTION
Almost two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the debate about
how to respond to the global financial crisis continues.
While there is no shortage of proposals, relatively little has been
agreed and implemented either at the international, regional or
national level. The UK is no exception and the recent change of
government has created further uncertainty as to the trajectory of
reform at the national level. Several local considerations make the
UK an interesting case study of the dynamics of financial regulatory
reform at this time. One is the tradition of ‘light touch regulation’
that was adopted with political approval during the past decade but
now faces an evolutionary crisis in the face of criticism at home and
abroad. While the rhetoric of government and regulators has already
shifted, it is open to question whether regulatory practices can move
quite so quickly. Another consideration is the disproportionately
large scale of the financial sector (both domestic and international)
in the UK by comparison with many other countries. The reliance
on financial services inevitably imposes political constraints on the
extent to which tighter regulation leading to contraction and job
losses can be countenanced. Also relevant is the UK government’s
position as a shareholder or guarantor of companies controlling
a large part of the UK’s banking assets. That brings into focus a
different perspective from the government’s traditional focus on
legislation and regulation. As an owner, the government has profit
objectives that may run counter to its regulatory objectives and also
faces the challenge of acting as an effective owner at a time when
institutional investors stand accused of ignoring their monitoring
and broader fiduciary obligations during the financial bubble that
preceded the crisis.
The paper begins by considering the causes of the crisis and the
mechanisms of regulatory accountability. Both are important for
an understanding of the framing of the reform agenda in the UK
and further afield, since reform proposals do not respond to some
objective analysis of what went wrong, rather they are the outcome
of a contested process of identification of causal factors, itself
linked with concepts of responsibility and accountability for what
went wrong. The paper then goes on to consider proposed reforms
to the institutional structure of regulation and to style of regulation,
both of which have attracted criticism over their role in the crisis.
The paper then shifts its focus to regulatory rules, beginning with
the delimitation of the regulatory perimeter, which has been widely
viewed as too narrowly drawn at a time of significant innovation
and expansion in financial techniques. Proposals for strengthening
capital requirements are then considered in the light of developments
at the international and EU level. Attention is then focused on market
transparency and integrity, which have been linked with the fall in
VOX JURIS (27) 1, 2014 iain.mcneil@glasgow.ac.uk
VOX JURIS, Lima (Perú) 27 (1): 137-184,2014
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