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Project

Regulating Finance in a Post-Sectoral world

European Financial law as we know it today mirrors the traditional structure of the financial industry: it is thus divided into banking, securities and insurance law. In recent decades however, the clear separation between financial sectors has gradually evaporated, as business lines have converged across sectors. The diverging regulatory treatment of these sectors has therefore become increasingly at odds with economic reality. This has caused marked inefficiencies.

The EU legislature recognizes the problem of blurring of sectors, but initiatives to deal with this problem are only limited in scope. The overall sectoral approach of European financial regulation is not put into question by policymakers.

The goal of this project is to re-examine the entire body of financial regulation from an innovative, cross-sectoral perspective (i) to reveal common principles applicable to the entire industry and (ii) to determine to what extent, on top of those common principles, differentiation is necessary for specific institutions, products and services. All main areas of EU financial regulation (including (i) governance rules; (ii) prudential requirements; (iii) conduct of business rules; (iv) rules for the management of conflicts of interests; (v) product information; and (vi) financial supervision) will be thoroughly examined from this perspective. The underlying conceptual framework of the project will be based on legal history and law and economics research.

Date:1 Jan 2017 →  31 Dec 2020
Keywords:Finance, Post-Sectoral world
Disciplines:Applied economics