Trends in der Bankenaufsicht als Motor der Uberregulierung des Bankensektors - Anmerkungen aus einer politokonomischen Perspektive*

Abstract

: In this article it is argued that overregulation in the German banking industry is driven by deficient incentives. One important piece in this picture is the rule that resources used by the supervision authority are financed, basically, through an industry tax. Overregulation arises in such a context because the social cost of regulation is neither internalised by the supervision authority nor by the government. The natural antagonism of the industry against too much regulation is attenuated because of a highly unequal impact of the regulation cost on different industry groups. In line with this picture we present evidence in favour of the hypothesis that international harmonisation in banking regulation evolved as a means of overregulation.