Multi-Polar Regulation

The financial crisis has brought about a fundamental rethink of both the source and scale of systemic risk in the financial system and the regulatory framework needed to guard against them. The papers by Alter, Craig, and Raupach (this issue) and Kharroubi (this issue) speak to some of the risks and the regulatory response that might be most appropriate to mitigate them. But underlying both is a more fundamental question about the emerging framework for regulatory policy—multi-polar regulation. This commentary considers the impact and cumulative consequences of multiple regulatory constraints on banks’ asset allocation. Using a simple framework, these effects are shown to be complex and interconnected. The impact of this regime shift, on analytical models and real-world behavior, remains largely uncharted territory. This defines a whole new, and exciting, research frontier.