Regulating the Financial Services Sector

In this era of late-modern capitalism the forces of internationalization and technological innovation are transforming both global and national economies. A key feature of these transformation processes is the increasing strategic economic, political and social importance of the financial services sector to nation states and trading blocs. The increasing size and volatility of the world's financial markets underline the importance of better understanding: how financial markets work; how they should be regulated; and the significance of the problem of white collar crime in the financial services sector. This text addresses these key questions through a synthesis of legal, historical and sociological approaches in its critique of financial services regulation. This strategy integrates perspectives based in structuration theory, censure theory, modernity theory and the literature on legitimacy in its analysis of the actors, structures and processes that construct regulation and deviancy in the financial services sector. Based on a detailed analysis of regulation in the UK, the book examines the global and national forces and processes which interact to produce systems of financial services regulation. The UK regulatory system is contrasted with those of other jurisdictions, in particular the US, demonstrating the role of national and cultural factors in shaping such systems. This work should be of specific interest to financial services professionals, corporate lawyers, regulators and academics.