Bank Regulation Objectives and Tools Workout A
- 02:42
Overview of why we have financial regulation and what the key tools of financial regulation are
Transcript
Let's have a look at a number of statements here and see whether they are objectives of financial regulation or not. First one up, to make sure retail clients can ensure the cheapest mortgage rate possible. Well, this one is a bit hard. Let's think about this. While efficient credit allocation is of course an overriding principle of bank regulation, however, of course, it does not say that banks have to provide competitive pricing necessarily to its customers. So this one's a bit sneaky. I'm tempted to put this one as true because of the efficient credit allocation objective, but false of course, because it doesn't force players to have the cheapest rates possible. Second one up, to make sure banks have enough capital to survive adverse market conditions. Well, prudential oversight is one of the main objectives of bank regulation, as we know. And the regulator would want to ensure that banks have large enough capital, that's equity, buffers to counter adverse conditions. So yes, this is definitely an objective of financial regulation. Three, to make sure banks could meet large, unexpected cash withdrawals. Prudential oversight is one of the main objectives of bank regulation, the regulator will want to ensure that banks have cash reserves enough and stable funding enough in order to meet big withdrawals. So this is definitely true.
What about the next one? To make sure banks do not let customers deposit proceeds of crime? Well, that sounds like that's probably an objective of financial regulation, right? Well, let's have a think about it. This is covered by the objective to avoid the misuse of banks. If you deposit proceeds of crimes, that would be a misuse of a bank. So that's definitely true. Next one up, to ensure banks do not have too large exposures to individual counterparts. Well, this again, would be consistent with the objective of controlling systemic risk, to reduce potential contagion throughout the system. But of course, it's also a good risk management principle to not put all your eggs in the same basket. So again, this one is true.
And then finally, is it an objective of financial regulation to ensure that if one bank faces difficulties, contagion to other banks is limited? Well, this is definitely true, and again, this would be consistent with the objective of controlling systemic risk, to reduce potential contagion throughout the system.