Financial regulation

financial regulation legislation on Capitol Hill in Washington,

Financial regulation is a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the integrity of the financial system. This may be handled by either a government or non-government organization.

Aims of regulation

The specific aims of financial regulators are usually:

To enforce applicable laws

To prosecute cases of market misconduct, such as insider trading

To license providers of financial services

To protect clients, and investigate complaints

To maintain confidence in the financial system

Authority by Country

Financial regulatory authorities by country

The following is a short listing of regulatory authorities in various jurisdictions, for a more complete listing, please see list of financial regulatory authorities by country.

United States;

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

Federal Reserve System ("Fed")

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)

National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)

Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), USA

Financial Services Authority (FSA), UK

Financial Services Agency (FSA), Japan

Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), Germany

Autorité des marchés financiers (France) (AFM), France

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore

Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), Switzerland

Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB), Italy

Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM), Netherlands

People's Republic of China

China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)

China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC)

China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC)

Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), Brazil

Canada

Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA)

Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)

Unique jurisdictions

In most cases, financial regulatory authorities regulate all financial activities. But in some cases, there are specific authorities to regulate each sector of the finance industry, mainly banking, securities, insurance and pensions markets, but in some cases also commodities, futures, forwards, etc. For example, in Australia, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) supervises banks and insurers, while the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is responsible for enforcing financial services and corporations laws.

Sometimes more than one institution regulates and supervises the banking market, normally because, apart from regulatory authorities, central banks also regulate the banking industry. For example, in the USA banking is regulated by a lot of regulators, such as the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of Thrift Supervision.

In addition, there are also associations of financial regulatory authorities. In the EU, there are the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR), the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS), which are Level-3 committees of the European Union in the Lamfalussy process. And, at a world level, we have the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Joint Forum, and the Financial Stability Board.

The structure of financial regulation has changed significantly in the past two decades, as the legal and geographic boundaries between markets in banking, securities, and insurance have become increasingly "blurred" and globalized.

(source:wikipedia)