Capital Market Openness After Financial Turmoil

Abstract

After a brief period during the financial crisis when countries appeared to be lurching towards economic nationalism, the international community has reaffirmed its commitment to open markets that are regulated in balanced ways that promote innovation while discouraging abuse. Hence, it remains important to look closely at market-opening regulatory strategies. Before the crisis a lot of momentum had built up behind flagship market-opening projects in financial reporting and international mutual recognition. This article looks at those projects through a post-crisis lens and finds that much has changed. Considerations that have led US authorities to step back from ambitious proposals are reviewed, as are efforts by European Community bodies to maintain momentum.

International standard setting and bilateral regulatory dialogues are the two key routes that lead to international regulatory convergence towards a consistent set of rules. Post crisis, global solutions worked out by international standard-setting bodies have assumed particular prominence but the review in this article indicates that bilateral exchanges still have an important role to play and that the two routes complement each other rather than being entirely separate parallel tracks.

Keywords: international capital markets regulation, international standard setters, bilateral dialogues, accounting standards, convergence, equivalence, international mutual recognition

JEL Classification: F30, F36, G1, G15, G2, G28, K22