Almost every country in the world has sophisticated systems to prevent banking crises. Yet such crises - and the massive financial and social damage they can cause - remain common throughout the world. Does deposit insurance encourage depositors and bankers to take excessive risks? Are banking regulations poorly designed? Or are banking regulators incompetent? Jean-Charles Rochet, one of the world's leading authorities on banking regulation, argues that the answer in each case is "no." In "Why Are There So Many Banking Crises?", he makes the case that, although many banking crises are precipitated by financial deregulation and globalization, political interference often causes - and almost always exacerbates - banking crises.If, for example, political authorities are allowed to pressure banking regulators into bailing out banks that should be allowed to fail, then regulation will lack credibility and market discipline won't work. Only by insuring the independence of banking regulators, Rochet says, can market forces work and banking crises be prevented and minimized. In this important collection of essays, Rochet examines the causes of banking crises around the world in recent decades, focusing on the lender of last resort; prudential regulation and the management of risk; and solvency regulations. His proposals for reforms that could limit the frequency and severity of banking crises should interest a wide range of academic economists and those working for central and private banks and financial services authorities.
Why Are There So Many Banking Crises? 19
Ch. 1 Why Are There So Many Banking Crises? by Jean-Charles Rochet 21
Pt. 2 The Lender of Last Resort 35
Ch. 2 Coordination Failures and the Lender of Last Resort: Was Bagehot Right After All? by Jean-Charles Rochet and Xavier Vives 37
Ch. 3 The Lender of Last Resort: A Twenty-First-Century Approach by Xavier Freixas and Bruno M. Parigi and Jean-Charles Rochet 71
Pt. 3 Prudential Regulation and the Management of Systemic Risk 103
Ch. 4 Macroeconomic Shocks and Banking Supervision by Jean-Charles Rochet 105
Ch. 5 Interbank Lending and Systemic Risk by Jean-Charles Rochet and Jean Tirole 126
Ch. 6 Controlling Risk in Payment Systems by Jean-Charles Rochet and Jean Tirole 159
Ch. 7 Systemic Risk, Interbank Relations, and the Central Bank by Xavier Freixas and Bruno M. Parigi and Jean-Charles Rochet 195
Pt. 4 Solvency Regulations 225
Ch. 8 Capital Requirements and the Behavior of Commercial Banks by Jean-Charles Rochet 227
Ch. 9 Rebalancing the Three Pillars of Basel II by Jean-Charles Rochet 258
Ch. 10 The Three Pillars of Basel II: Optimizing the Mix by Jean-Paul Decamps and Jean-Charles