Securities Regulation and Financial Markets, Sociology and Politics of

The globalization of capital markets greatly complicates the task of financial regulators, as the evolving regulatory regime must incorporate concerns and aspirations of a diverse sociopolitical and economic marketplace. All across the regulatory spectrum, from bank supervision to securities regulation, from accounting requirements to anti-money laundering efforts, national authorities are finding that the ability to achieve their objectives at a reasonable cost is influenced by the action of their counterparts in foreign jurisdictions. Increasingly, it is impossible to regulate the activities of securities and banking firms and the broad range of transactions in which they engage on a purely national level. As a way out, there is a visible trend toward a global regulatory regime—a wider convergence among diverse national regulatory regimes. Hence, efforts to ...