Balancing the Governance of the Modern Financial Ecosystem: A New Governance Perspective and Implications for Market Discipline

Abstract

Governance in the contemporary financial ecosystem is very unbalanced. It is neither sincere about nor effective at seeking the collaboration of regulators and all market participants in the exertion of regulatory power, or in the channeling of market force. Nor does it aim to manage the system-wide complexity by balancing its less flexible, prescriptive regulations and the more adaptive, experimental measures. This article maintains that a more balanced governance regime is urgently needed for the modern financial system. It offers a brief but comprehensive review of post-Crisis financial regulations, then identifies the major insufficiencies or limitations of these reform efforts. It proceeds to explore the prospect of using New Governance scholarship to rethink the current regulatory regime, and analyzes how such exploration yields implications for the use of market discipline. It concludes that a well-crafted collaborative standards-setting process that effectively incorporates the New Governance elements of collaboration and experimentation will Bring a much-needed difference to the restoration of market discipline.