Moving away from the single regulator? : a comparative analysis of recent developments and reform in financial services supervision

Abstract

The thesis shall primarily deal with the salient features of a number of national financial services regulators, together with the European Union regulators, including common trends which may result from exposition and comparison. It shall also take into consideration the involvement of the Central Bank in a given regulatory scenario and whether particular stakeholders do influence the choice of a regulatory architecture. The outline of the number of financial services regulatory regimes shall take into account the background that has set the present regulatory structure, the functions and objectives of the concerned authorities, the extent of collaboration of the said authorities with the Central Bank of the same state, and the accountability mechanism of each regulatory entity. A chapter of the thesis shall also attempt to pinpoint the main motivations for the setting up of individual regulatory architectures. Every regulatory policy is brewed primarily through mutually interactive economic social and political forces. The very context from which the logistics of any financial regulation regime derive tends to qualify the choice of the particular regime under scrutiny. A following chapter shall draw a comparative analysis of the various financial services regulatory models so that ultimately one could conclude whether it would be really feasible to choose between the types of models. Finally a criticism of the Maltese financial services regulatory structure has been undertaken in order to apply the arguments of the thesis to the Maltese scenario.