Financial Innovation and Flexible Regulation: Destabilizing the Regulatory State

Abstract

The author examines the regulatory failures leading up to the financial crisis, the rise of “flexible regulation,” the effects of financial innovation on regulation, and three different case studies that illuminate the drastic effects of that innovation: the Basel II banking regulations, the Canadian Asset-Backed Commercial Paper market, and the process for writing the Volcker Rule. Finally, she examines the underlying assumptions that should be re-examined in order to create more effective regulatory policies.

Keywords: Securities, Financial Regulation, Regulatory state