Banking after regulatory reforms - business as usual?

In response to the global financial crisis and the large trading losses at many banks, the regulatory reform agenda to limit excesses in banks' risk taking and to make banks more easily resolvable has grown quite ambitious.

The Euro crisis has also strengthened the need for an overhaul. In addition to the Basel III reform and the plans to create or strengthen resolution and recovery frameworks for banks, structural reforms have been adopted or proposed, led by the Liikanen Group, Vickers Report and Volcker Rule of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The aim of the regulatory reform agenda should be to improve banks' resilience and to correct for distorted risk-taking incentives, arising from explicit and implicit public safety nets. Prerequisites for stable long-term economic growth should hence be improved.

However, significant short-term costs might be involved, arising from the transition and increased uncertainty as regards the final form of the reforms. What will bank business models ultimately look like? Will safety, economic efficiency and true risk-awareness actually improve?

All conference speakers will be invited from among leading experts and academic researchers on banking, regulation and supervision.

Background Links

• Final Report of the High-level Expert Group on reforming the structure of the EU banking sector chaired by Erkki Liikanen
• The Vickers Report - Final Report of the Independent Commission on Banking
• Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act