The need for international regulation of financial markets became apparent in the mid‐1970s in response to the post‐Bretton Woods liberalisation of financial markets. The…
Abstract
The need for international regulation of financial markets became apparent in the mid‐1970s in response to the post‐Bretton Woods liberalisation of financial markets. The elimination of the fixed exchange rate parity with gold resulted in the privatisation of financial risk, which created pressure to eliminate controls on cross‐border capital movements and the further deregulation of financial markets. It became necessary for national regulatory authorities to promote safe and sound banking systems through the effective management of systemic risk in national markets. Similarly, the need for international standards of prudential supervision was also recognised, to prevent solvent banking institutions in one jurisdiction from losing business to less respectable institutions operating in other jurisdictions whose laws permitted cut‐rate financial services and other risky financial practices. The privatisation of financial risk also created the need for financial institutions to spread their risks over many assets and activities, which led, in turn, to a significant increase in short‐term cross‐border portfolio investment that has, in many instances, exposed capital‐importing countries to increased systemic risk due to the volatility of such investments.
Kern Alexander and Richard C. Hunter
Public school educators are confronted daily with myriad issues that demand unique knowledge of not only educational processes, but of political and financial ones as well. Among…
Abstract
Public school educators are confronted daily with myriad issues that demand unique knowledge of not only educational processes, but of political and financial ones as well. Among the most important of these issues are the social and moral responsibilities to educate children with disabilities. During the late 1960s and 1970s, the nation experienced a new sensitivity to human rights as well as an increased awareness of the indignities suffered as a result of discrimination and the denial of rights of persons with disabilities. Of late, the mood of the people and the national leadership has appeared to turn somewhat away from the abiding interest in human rights; nonetheless, the recognition of rights continues, as they have emanated from federal Constitutional interpretations and statutes. Both sources of rights constitute a persistent reflection of civil and cultural advancements of significant proportions. Thus, rights have become vested by action of government, and the public schools have been, in large part, the vehicle for ensuring the realization of these rights. School administrators, by virtue of their public responsibilities, have been the advance guard in effectively achieving and implementing these rights. Children with disabilities have posed a particular educational challenge because remediation of disabilities was intensely personal and many times unique to the individual child. Thus, of necessity, the educational responses and procedures were correspondingly singular and in most cases very complex, requiring a substantial commitment of public school financial resources. It goes without saying that the right to an appropriate education remains a hollow promise without provision of adequate and continuing public support.
This paper examines the need for international regulation of financial markets and suggests the possible role that a global financial supervisor might play in providing effective…
Abstract
This paper examines the need for international regulation of financial markets and suggests the possible role that a global financial supervisor might play in providing effective regulation of international financial markets. The first part discusses the nature of systemic risk in the international financial system and the necessity for international Minimum Standards of prudential supervision for banking institutions. The second part examines the efforts of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to devise non‐binding international standards for managing systemic risk in financial markets. Recent financial crises in Asia, Russia and Latin America suggest, however, that informal efforts by international bodies such as the Basel Committee are inadequate to address the risk of systemic failure in financial systems. The third part therefore argues that efficient international financial regulation requires certain regulatory functions to be performed by a global supervisor acting in conjunction with national regulatory authorities. These functions should involve the authorisation of financial institutions, generation of rules and standards of regulatory practice, surveillance of financial markets, and coordination with national authorities in implementing and enforcing such standards.
Kern Alexander and Richard C. Hunter
In the United States, a child with a disability is vested with the statutory right to a free appropriate public education. Public school districts fulfill this right with an…
Abstract
In the United States, a child with a disability is vested with the statutory right to a free appropriate public education. Public school districts fulfill this right with an individualized education program designed to address the educational needs of the child. As with all governmental programs designed to extend positive benefits, statutory rights to a free appropriate public education come with attendant and commensurate costs that must be paid by the taxpayer. Rights have costs, and while the rights may be absolute, the remedy to a rights deficiency is subject to political processes. To borrow from Ronald Dworkin’s famous aphorism, costs and politics ultimately trump the right to a free appropriate public education.
This paper analyses the international regime of rules, principles and standards designed to reduce the risk of money laundering in the international financial system. The…
Abstract
This paper analyses the international regime of rules, principles and standards designed to reduce the risk of money laundering in the international financial system. The international anti‐money‐laundering regime ranges from a variety of soft law (non‐binding) principles and rules that involve voluntary cooperative arrangements among states that have evolved in recent years, to a more specific legal framework that binds an increasing number of major states. In particular, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and its member states have played a crucial role in developing international norms and rules that require financial institutions to adopt minimum levels of transparency and disclosure to prevent financial crime. The FATF has focused its anti‐money‐laundering efforts on financial institutions because of the ease with which criminal groups have used financial institutions to transmit the proceeds of their illicit activities and because of the threat that money laundering poses to the systemic stability of financial systems.
On 12th March, 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act. The Act, better known as the Helms‐Burton bill, intends to increase…
Abstract
On 12th March, 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act. The Act, better known as the Helms‐Burton bill, intends to increase pressure on the Castro regime by tightening the 35‐year‐old US trade embargo against Cuba. Title III of the Act permits US nationals whose property was expropriated without compensation by the Castro regime to sue foreigners in the US federal court if they benefit from the use of such confiscated property. Title III also contains sweeping language which allows US nationals to sue any US lending institution which finances any type of business activity affecting expropriated property. Further, Title IV requires the revocation of travel visas issued by the US Government to any foreign person who is the officer or controlling shareholder of a foreign corporation which docs business affecting expropriated property in Cuba. These provisions have already angered US trading partners and will almost certainly invite retaliation against US exporters.
Kern Alexander and Robert Munro
Advancing technology has improved the ability of financial institutions and their users to conduct cybercommerce. Improved technology, however, has also provided an opportunity…
Abstract
Advancing technology has improved the ability of financial institutions and their users to conduct cybercommerce. Improved technology, however, has also provided an opportunity for criminals and fraudsters to use computer software systems to transfer their illicit gains and thereby sustain their criminal enterprises. Cybercommerce depends on rapid, anonymous and unsupervised transactions. Such a system is extremely vulnerable to criminals seeking to launder money on the Internet. In a system where there are millions of transactions unsupervised by financial institutions, comprehensive oversight becomes impractical.
Since the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, the rise of organised crime has been swift and substantial. It has taken control of many sectors…
Abstract
Since the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, the rise of organised crime has been swift and substantial. It has taken control of many sectors of the economy in these countries and, because of its newly amassed wealth, it has attained significant political influence. Organised crime groups have used their political and economic influence to persuade certain provincial governments in the former Soviet Union to assist them in transferring their ill‐gotten proceeds to apparently legitimate investments in western countries. Some provincial governments, acting on behalf of certain organised crime groups, have exploited their ongoing relationships with leading international banks to obtain documentary credits to transfer billions of dollars of criminally derived money into investments in developed countries.