Improving Banking Supervision shows how greater market discipline can be used to help improve the quality of banks and their management in a world of increasing complexity, size and innovation. The book is based on research undertaken in the Nordic countries and New Zealand, and set in an international context through reference and comparison to the experiences of banks throughout the EU and the US. The authors show how traditional methods of regulation, particularly across borders face limits and can impose substantial costs on customers. They propose alternatives for today's international banks, based on a network of incentives to prudential behaviour and focusing on three main issues: - the development of transparent corporate structures - the public disclosure of comparable meaningful information so that markets can assess banks - the implementation of effective means to allow banks to exit without unacceptable costs to society

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Since banking systems play a crucial role in maintaining the overall health of the economy, the adverse effects of poorly supervised systems may be quite severe. Without some form of vigilant external oversight, banking systems could fall prey to excessive risk taking, moral hazard, and corruption. Prudential supervision provides that oversight, using government regulation and monitoring to ensure the soundness of the banking system and, by extension, the economy at large. The contributors to this thoughtful volume examine the current state of prudential supervision, focusing on fundamental issues and key pragmatic concerns. Why is prudential supervision so important? What kinds of excess must it guard against? What particular forms does it take? Which of these are the most effective deterrents against mismanagement and system overload in today's rapidly shifting financial climate? The contributors foresee a continued movement beyond simple regulatory rules in banking and toward a more active evaluation and supervision of a bank's risk management practices.

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This paper identifies macroeconomic stability, effective bank supervision, and an appropriate sequencing of stabilization, banking regulations, and interest rate policies as common characteristics of the relatively successful experiments in financial sector liberalization. Recent theoretical developments help to explain why interest rates in free markets for bank credit may fall short of market-clearing levels, or may rise to risky levels with adverse consequences for financial institutions and the economy at large. To prevent such outcomes, macro-economic stabilization and improved bank supervision should generally precede complete removal of control on bank interest rates.

This report focuses on the effectiveness of the Japanese Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) and the Bank of Japan in supervising and regulating the Japanese financial system during the March 2011 earthquake. The report also highlights Japan’s compliance with the Basel Core Principles (BCPs) for Effective Banking Supervision. Japan has introduced various improvement measures to its regulatory framework and has an operational set-up that largely complies with the norms of the BCP's. In general, the mandates for supervision are structured and FSA given a free hand on supervisory responsibilities.

This open access book is the first attempt to elaborate the formalization phase of banking supervision in eight developed countries—USA, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, and UK. This innovative study in the field of banking supervision history identifies why national histories of banking supervision share similarities, but also remain different and are heavily path dependent. This book will be of great interest not only to financial/economic historians but also to general readers interested in banking supervision, i.e., students, bankers, supervisors, and international officials.