Global Standards for Domestic Financial Regulations: Concourse, Competition and Mutual Reinforcement between Different Types of Global Administration

Abstract

Over the last decades, the number of international standards for financial regulation has increased remarkably. Transgovernmental networks for banking, securities and insurance regulation, such as the Basel Committee, IOSCO and IAIS, all constitute standards setting bodies. Similarly, also international organizations like the IMF and the World Bank produce international financial standards. Furthermore, the Financial Stability Forum – FSF brings together not only the transgovernmental regulatory networks mentioned above, but also intergovernmental international organizations (the IMF and World Bank, in particular) and private bodies with regulatory functions, such as the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), one of the International Federation of Accountants' (IFAC) technical committees. This article aims to analyse the mutual interaction between global financial standards established by organisms corresponding to different models of global administration. What kind of connection links rules which have been developed by different types of global regulators? Is there competition between global financial standards originating from different bodies or are these standards mutually reinforcing? How are conflicts between global rules solved? The analysis will seek to answer such questions by examining three possible ways of interaction between global financial standards. In the first place, I will look at the trend towards a codification of global financial standards, the most obvious product of which is the development of the FSF's "Compendium of Standards". Secondly, the incorporation of standards established by private bodies within regulatory regimes referring to public bodies will be taken into account. Thirdly, I will examine if, and to what extent, the emergence of new mechanisms for the assessment on countries' compliance with global financial standards may result in the prevalence of some global rules over others.