Policeman for the World: The Impact of Extraterritorial FCPA Enforcement on Foreign Investment and Internal Controls

We show that a mid-2000s increase in extraterritorial enforcement of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), characterized by greater international regulatory cooperation and more frequent use of the FCPA’s accounting provisions, has a significant deterrent effect on foreign direct investment in high-corruption-risk countries. The decrease in investment is at least as large for non-US as for US firms, suggesting that widespread extraterritorial enforcement helps to create a level foreign-investment playing field. Firms under US jurisdiction with fundamental characteristics that make it more difficult to maintain effective internal controls invest less in high-corruption-risk countries after the FCPA enforcement increase, suggesting regulatory compliance costs play a role in deterring investment. Consistent with investments in accounting systems being one way firms limit enforcement risk when investing in high-corruption-risk countries, firms pursuing new investments spend more time evaluating potential targets and firms with existing investments report fewer restatements related to unintentional errors.

Regulatory Cooperation and International Relations

The rise of regulation is perhaps one of the most critical transformations of the capitalist system. Not surprisingly, this development has triggered a surge in the interest in regulation in social and political sciences since the 1990s. A contested notion, regulation can denote different meanings and can be understood in different ways. Given this multiplicity of meanings, studying regulatory cooperation requires exploring some fundamental elements to understand the main concepts and approaches used, and to capture its multiple levels and dimensions. The adopted denominations and utilized concepts are many—“regional regulatory cooperation,” “regional regulatory regime,” “regional regulatory integration,” “regulatory regionalism,” and “regional regulatory governance,” among others—and each captures, in its own way, particular dimensions or aspects of the field. In terms of levels, whereas a rich and dense literature has attested to the fact that global governance increasingly proceeds through transnational regulations, studies with a focus on the regional level are scant, especially when compared to the former, and remain scattered under various labels and denominations. However, regulatory cooperation leads to the creation of regulatory spaces that blur the distinction not only between the national and global arenas, but also between the national and the regional. Studies have thus translated these theoretical claims into empirical research showing that there is a growing regulatory cooperation space at the regional level, where various constellations of actors and networks that bridge the state and nonstate, and public and private, distinctions operate across levels and policy sectors. Analyses and scholarship on regulation and regulatory cooperation have made relevant progress, and in so doing, they have opened new avenues for research to explore and understand the place and role of regulatory cooperation and regions in a complex regulatory world.

Digital transformation of the banking system in the context of sustainable development

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the current state of the Russian banking system in the context of digital economy development, to establish and identify the benchmarks and needs of legal regulation, to study the potential possibilities of digitalization of relations in the banking sector in the mechanism of implementing prudential rules. Design/methodology/approach Using the method of political and legal analysis used in this study, the legal guidelines for the digitalization of the banking sector and the financial services market have been determined, which in the Russian legal system are strategic planning documents. Findings International research in the field of banking indicates that digitalization and globalization of the economy stimulate the processes of international regulatory cooperation and harmonization of legislation, the use of new approaches in the development and adoption of regulations in the financial market. The growth of digitalization of relations in the banking sector will contribute to the effective implementation of prudential rules, including those related to the need to protect public interests. Originality/value The study revealed a number of issues related to the digitalization of the activities of credit institutions that are professional participants in the securities market and the central bank as a financial mega-regulator, requiring a legal solution. Measures aimed at improving the current legislation and procedures of state regulation and supervision are proposed.

Legal, Regulatory, and Institutional Framework of Water and Sanitation Services in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region

Deteriorating quality of service provision and disease outbreaks (such as cholera) led to the institution of water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector reforms in Eastern and Southern Africa region in the 1990s. The realization of the urgent need to improve the performance of the sector, especially as related to health impacts, resulted in the formulation of new policy and legal and institutional frameworks to reorganize the sector and establish regulators who could address networked and nonnetworked WSS systems. Regulators as policy implementers have the delicate role of balancing the interests of government, service providers, and consumers. Decision- makers continue to design, implement, and evaluate the outcomes associated with new frameworks. Regional regulatory cooperation can accelerate improvements in service provision to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through development of common frameworks and approaches for WSS that can be adapted to unique country situations.