The Comparative Political Economy of Basel III in Europe

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Comparative Political Economy of Basel III in Europe

AU - Quaglia, Lucia

AU - Howarth, David

N1 - © 2016 Policy and Society Associates (APSS). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - The Basel III Accord was the centrepiece of the international regulatory response to the global financial crisis, setting new capital requirements for internationally active banks. This paper explains the divergent preferences on Basel III of national regulators in three countries that approximate what are frequently presented as distinct varieties of capitalism in Europe — Germany, the United Kingdom and France. It is argued that national regulators setting post crisis capital requirements had to reconcile three inter-related and potentially conflicting objectives: banking sector stability, the competitiveness of national banks and short to medium term economic growth. The different national preferences on Basel III reflected how different national regulators defined and pursued these objectives, which in turn reflected the structure of national banking systems — specifically, systemic patterns of bank capital and bank-industry ties.

AB - The Basel III Accord was the centrepiece of the international regulatory response to the global financial crisis, setting new capital requirements for internationally active banks. This paper explains the divergent preferences on Basel III of national regulators in three countries that approximate what are frequently presented as distinct varieties of capitalism in Europe — Germany, the United Kingdom and France. It is argued that national regulators setting post crisis capital requirements had to reconcile three inter-related and potentially conflicting objectives: banking sector stability, the competitiveness of national banks and short to medium term economic growth. The different national preferences on Basel III reflected how different national regulators defined and pursued these objectives, which in turn reflected the structure of national banking systems — specifically, systemic patterns of bank capital and bank-industry ties.

KW - Banking systems

KW - Capitalism

KW - Finance

KW - Regulation

KW - Varieties of

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85006110331&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.polsoc.2016.09.003

DO - 10.1016/j.polsoc.2016.09.003

M3 - Article

SN - 1449-4035

VL - 35

SP - 205

EP - 214

JO - Policy and Society

JF - Policy and Society

IS - 3

ER -