Post-crisis international financial regulatory reforms: a primer

This paper reviews post-crisis financial regulatory reforms, examines how they fit together and identifies open issues. Specifically, it takes stock of the salient new features of bank and CCP international standards within a unified analytical framework. The key notion in this framework is "shock-absorbing capacity", which is higher when (i) there is less exposure to the losses that a shock generates and (ii) there are more resources to absorb such losses. How do the reforms strengthen this capacity, individually and as a package? Which areas merit further attention? We argue that, given the political economy pressures and technical obstacles that the reforms have faced, as well as the inherent uncertainty about the reforms' effects, it is important to maintain a conservative regulatory approach. A higher cost of balance sheet space is a healthy side effect of the backstops underpinning such an approach.