3. Prudential Regulation II: Structural Reform, Deposit Insurance, Corporate Governance

Author(s):  
Ross Cranston ◽  
Emilios Avgouleas ◽  
Kristin van Zweiten ◽  
Theodor van Sante ◽  
Christoper Hare

This chapter discusses bank structural reform. Most structural reform initiatives that have been undertaken since 2008 were aimed at reversing the effects of the repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act in the late 1990s and of the EU legislation that promoted universal banking. The chapter first considers the financial stability concerns and the mechanics of contemporary structural reform legislation in the USA, the UK, and the EU, and the actual legal framework underpinning these reforms. It then covers the regulation of bank involvement in derivatives markets. Today, derivatives regulation is a clear part of macroprudential regulation to the extent that centralized clearing and settlement and increased transparency battle opacity and interconnectedness and limit systemic risk. The remainder of the chapter covers deposit insurance, bank corporate governance, risk control, and executive remuneration.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the withdrawal agreement concluded between the United Kingdom and the European Union to create the legal framework for Brexit. Building on a prior volume, it overviews the process of Brexit negotiations that took place between the UK and the EU from 2017 to 2019. It also examines the key provisions of the Brexit deal, including the protection of citizens’ rights, the Irish border, and the financial settlement. Moreover, the book assesses the governance provisions on transition, decision-making and adjudication, and the prospects for future EU–UK trade relations. Finally, it reflects on the longer-term challenges that the implementation of the 2016 Brexit referendum poses for the UK territorial system, for British–Irish relations, as well as for the future of the EU beyond Brexit.


2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (6-8) ◽  
pp. 602-622
Author(s):  
Dennis Lichtenstein ◽  
Christiane Eilders

The Euro crisis has revealed severe conflicts between EU member states and challenged a shared European identity. This article investigates how the crisis was reflected in identity constructions in media discourses in EU key countries. European identity construction is conceptualized as framing of the EU in favour or against belonging to the EU and togetherness with other members. Conducting a systematic content analysis of two weekly newspapers and magazines in Germany, France and the UK, we compare identity constructions between 2011 and 2014. Findings show that while support of belonging to the EU is low in general, the countries differ remarkably in terms of their sense of togetherness. This particularly applies to strong or weak political integration, market regulation or market freedom and financial stability or impulses for economic growth. The positions reflect long-term political conflicts between the countries but are also flexible enough to adapt to the particular event context.


2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-158
Author(s):  
Ognjen Pribicevic

Leaving the EU is one of the major political decisions made in the UK over the past half-century. Brexit brought about a virtual political earthquake not only in EU-UK relations but also in terms of UK future place and role on the international scene. Immediately after the decision of UK citizens to leave the EU at a referendum held on 23 June 2016, the question arose as to whether the UK will lose some of its international influence, whether Scotland will remain part of the Union, whether the UK will retain its privileged relations and special status with the USA, and what its future relations with the EU will be. The purpose of this article is to point to the basic priorities of the contemporary British foreign policy as well as to place and role of the UK on the contemporary international scene particularly in view of its decision to leave the EU. We shall first try to define the status of present-day Britain in international relations. Second, we shall address the traditional dilemma of the UK foreign policy - what should be given priority - relations with the USA, Europe or the Commonwealth? After that, we shall discuss in more detail the phases the UK foreign policy went through following the end of the cold war. In the third phase, we shall analyze the British contemporary foreign and economic policy towards Gulf countries and China. In the fourth part of the article, we shall discuss relations with the USA. It should be pointed out that the article does not seek to analyze all aspects of British foreign policy, even if we wanted to, due to a shortage of time. Of course, the topic of Brexit will be present in all chapters and especially in the last one and conclusion remarks. By its decision to leave the EU, the UK appears to have given priority to its relations with the USA, China, Gulf countries as well as Commonwealth countries instead of the EU which has been economically and politically dominant over the past few decades. This decision taken by UK citizens will no doubt have a great impact not only on their personal lives and standard of living but on the UK role in international relations. Despite its military, political, economic and cultural capacities, it is highly unlikely that the UK will manage to overcome the consequences of an exit from the single market, currently generating 18 trillion dollars on an annual basis as well as the loss of a privileged partner role with the USA within the Union. We are, therefore, more likely to believe that in the foreseeable future, the role of the UK on the international scene will continue to decline and be increasingly focused on its economic and financial interests. Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. III 47010: Drustvene transformacije u procesu evropskih integracija - multidisciplinarni pristup]


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1125-1147
Author(s):  
Maria O'Neill

AbstractWith increasing globalization, transnational crime in general, and human trafficking in particular, a design of new legal framework is required in order to effectively operationalize interstate law enforcement operations and prosecutions. The development of a transnational criminal legal framework—or frameworks—can build on pre-existing transnational economic frameworks. There is also the need to extend the application of domestic law beyond national borders to influence transnational corporate behavior. Regulations based on reflexive law are one possible approach. Teubner's idea of reflexive law has been informing developments in this area. This approach uses traditional national law to inform corporate governance strategies in order to achieve effects on the market. A few jurisdictions have already adopted measures modeled on this approach to tackle human trafficking and slavery-like conditions in global supply chains. Weaknesses in the approaches adopted by the UK and the State of California have already been identified. If strengthened, this approach could be adopted in more jurisdictions—including the EU—and also to combat more areas of transnational crime—such as money laundering. This paper will examine the resulting challenges using human trafficking as a case study.


2003 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Richardson

Wholegrain foods are important sources of nutrients and phyto-protective components, which are in short supply in many member states of the EU, including the UK. Encouraging the public to increase consumption of whole-grain foods is a positive health message that has critical public health implications. In February 2002 the UK Joint Health Claims Initiative (JHCI) published its authoritative endorsement that whole-grain foods are associated with a healthy heart (Joint Health Claims Initiative, 2002). This new health claim reflects a similar one in the USA based on the accumulation of epidemiological evidence between 1996 and 2001 from several very large cohort studies in the USA, Finland and Norway, which show a consistent protective effect of whole grain and reduced risk of CHD. The JHCI code of practice on health claims requires that the claimed benefit must be scientifically valid, with evidence supporting efficacy of the food in human consumers, under typical conditions of use. The evidence-based approach consists of the identification of studies, an evaluation of individual references, a critical evaluation of the totality of the evidence and a statement that there is significant scientific agreement to establish the validity of the claim. The studies suggest that an intake of three servings per d may have an important cardio-protective effect. The development of a process for the substantiation of health claims in the UK and in the EU is important to underpin regulatory developments, which should protect the consumer, promote fair trade and encourage innovation in the food industry. The present paper sets out the format of the scientific dossier that was presented to the JHCI and includes a call to promote further research to identify the important protective components in the whole grain ‘package’ and the biological mechanisms behind the observed beneficial effects on health. The major sources of whole grain in the UK are bread and breakfast cereals, and >90% of adults in the UK consume less than three servings per d. Increasing the variety and availability of acceptable whole-grain foods could lead to greater consumption levels, which has important public health implications and offers an attractive and food-based dietary strategy for targeting the whole population.


Author(s):  
Sebastian MEYER ◽  
Lorenzo GENESIO ◽  
Ines VOGEL ◽  
Hans-Peter SCHMIDT ◽  
Gerhard SOJA ◽  
...  

It is a relatively new concept to use biochar as soil amendment and for climate change mitigation. For this reason, the national and supranational legislation in the EU is not yet adequately prepared to regulate both the production and the application of biochar. Driven by this “regulatory gap”, voluntary biochar quality standards have been formed in Europe with the European Biochar Certificate, in the UK with the Biochar Quality Mandate and in the USA with the IBI Standard which is intended to be used internationally. In parallel to this, biochar producers and biochar users in a number of EU countries were partly successful in fitting the new biochar product into the existing national legislation for fertilisers, soil improvers and composts. The intended revision of the EC Regulation 2003/2003 on fertilisers offers the opportunity to regulate the use of biochar at the EU level. This publication summarizes the efforts on biochar standardization which have been carried out by voluntary products standards and illustrates existing legislation in EU member states, which apply to the production and use of biochar. It describes existing and planned EU regulations, which impact biochar applications and it develops recommendations on the harmonization of biochar legislation in the EU.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
Raef Gouiaa ◽  
Alexander Kostyuk

This issue of the journal “Corporate Ownership and Control” is absolutely unique from the point of view of the geodiversity of the research. Thus, having published 16 papers in this issue of the journal we can count the research on corporate governance in the USA, the UK, Norway, Australia, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Greece, Ireland, Poland, France, Brazil, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and others. This provides a very solid vision of the corporate governance national practices worldwide. This issue of the journal proves once again that corporate governance became a global subject for research during the last decade. Scholars from all the countries of the world try to deliver the new research results related to the national markets providing room for further comparison and research and we hope that the readers will enjoy the results of the recently published papers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 520-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khurram Parvez Raja ◽  
Alex Kostyuk

The paper outlines shareholder activism development in common law and civil law countries and identifies features of these legal systems that create preconditions and obstacles for shareholder activism. Our findings show that tendencies of shareholder activism depend on the type of the legal system, but also vary within the countries that share the same legal system. Thus, we conclude that the type of legal system is not the chief determinant of shareholder activism. A comparative analysis of shareholder activism in Germany and Ukraine (civil law countries) and the USA and the UK (common law countries) shows that the system of domestic corporate regulation, development of the stock market, companies’ capitalization and corporate governance influence the development of shareholder activism in equal measure.


Author(s):  
Tiago N. P. dos Reis ◽  
Vinicius Guidotti de Faria ◽  
Gabriela Russo Lopes ◽  
Gerd Sparovek ◽  
Chris West ◽  
...  

Abstract Consumer countries and blocs, including the UK and the EU, are defining legal measures to tackle deforestation linked to commodity imports, potentially requiring imported goods to comply with the relevant producer countries’ land-use laws. Nonetheless, this measure is insufficient to address global deforestation. Using Brazil’s example of a key exporter of forest-risk commodities, here we show that it has ~3.25 Mha of natural habitat (~152.8 million tons of CO2) at a high risk of legal deforestation until 2025. Additionally, the country’s legal framework is going through modifications to legalize agricultural production in illegally deforested areas. What was illegal may become legal shortly. Hence, a legality criterion adopted by consumer countries is insufficient to protect forests and other ecosystems and may worsen deforestation and conversion risks by incentivizing the weakening of social-environmental protection by producer countries.


Author(s):  
Kleftouri Nikoletta

The 2007–08 global financial crisis proved that the interests of bank depositors are inadequately protected. Although a vast expansion in deposit protection systems around the world followed, our understanding of the impact of those systems and their interaction with bank resolution is still in its infancy. The focus of bank resolution studies has been on the largest systemically important banks, which have wholesale creditors who would be bailed in, leaving retail depositors untouched. However, many banks rely mostly on deposits for financing, and the number of banks of this form is expected to increase. This book aims to explain and provide current material analysis of deposit protection and bank resolution regimes. The analysis is based on an examination of the traditional rationales for creating deposit insurance and bank resolution, and a specific study of the UK, EU, and US legal frameworks. It aims to offer an analysis of this topic and to cover all relevant regulations, from its origins to its most recent developments, in a systematic and thorough way. It approaches the much-desired objective of financial stability from a different angle: that of depositor protection. This book comprises ten chapters, analysing: the rationales for creating a deposit protection system; the limitations of deposit protection systems; the European deposit insurance framework; the European banking union; recent cases on deposit guarantee schemes; international standards on deposit insurance; the UK deposit insurance framework; international and European regulatory developments on bank resolution; the UK Special Resolution Regime; and the US paradigm.


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