The global financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007 has brought the financial industry to centre stage. While most current analysis focuses on the way finance can be regulated in the topical context of the economic crisis, this book aims to show how financial activities actually shape and transform the world. Highlighting that the true regulators of the economy are not only regulatory state authorities, the book demonstrates that the financial sphere really does contribute to rule-setting. It argues that actors that seem to be the objects of regulation or intervene only at its fringe are in fact 'discreet regulators' which provide the institutional framework that fosters the creation and globalization of markets. Building on a series of case studies, Finance: The Discreet Regulator highlights how public authorities and private actors jointly regulate the real world, with joint regulation being dominated by a multiplicity of financial actors, and looks at a variety of key players, who take part in the very heart of the regulatory process.
Foreword; M.Power Introduction: Finance: The Discreet Regulator; I.Huault, E.Lazega & C.Richard PART I: POLYMORPHIC ACTORS AS NETWORKS OF INFLUENCE Financialization through Hybridisation: the Subtle Power of Financial Controlling; J.Morales & A.Pezet How Big Four audit firms control standard setting in accounting and auditing; C.Ramirez Ambivalence and ambiguity: The interpretative role of compliance officers; M.Lenglet Maintaining the regulative order in the credit rating agency industry; B.Taupin PART II: MARKETS AND STATES: FORMS OF JOINT REGULATION Banks as Masters of Debt, Cost Calculators, and Risk-sharing Mediators: A Discreet Regulatory Role in the Case of French Public-Private Partnerships; E.Penalva-Icher, C.Richard, A.Jeny-Cazavan & E.Lazega Market Information as a Public Good. The Political Economy of the Revision of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID); P.Lagneau-Ymonet & A.Riva Finance in Public Service: Discreet Joint Regulation and Institutional Capture at the Commercial Court of Paris; E.Lazega & L.Mounier PART III: THE PROCESS OF RULES' PRODUCTION How finance regulates trade union involvement in French SRI; E.Penalva-Icher Constructing the Market for Credit Derivatives. How Major Investment Banks Handle Ambiguities; I.Huault & H.Rainelli-Weiss Legitimizing an Ambiguous Financial Innovation: the case of Exchange Traded Funds in France; L.Deville & M.Oubenal
