Forum Debate: Global financial stability

We’re holding a series of webcast debates in Davos. Join our cast debating the following motion

Post-crisis financial reforms have made the system sufficiently resilient.

• Add your voice to this Davos debate
• Vote on the motion in the poll below, and comment to support your opinion.
• The poll will close at the start of the session. Results and comments will be available to the moderator to frame the debate.

Following the financial crisis of 2007/2008, the urgency to create a global regulatory framework to neutralize the risks of future global financial instability became clear.

Seven years on, many reforms have been implemented.

Yet the world of finance has continued to grow more complex and interconnected.

But is the financial system now sufficiently resilient?

Has the too-big-to-fail problem been solved? Should the giants be broken up? Is there a place for a global financial regulator? What risk does the shadow banking system – financial institutions outside the banking regulatory framework – represent? Is global financial regulation too reliant on self-regulation?

Recent financial scandals including the Libor crisis, the London Whale, the gold and the foreign exchange fixings suggest a reluctance or inability of financial services entities to change. Can regulation control a culture that thrives on risk and big gain?

This debate will consider whether regulatory changes in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007/2008 have gone far enough to create stability in the global financial system.

We invite you to provide your point of view in the lead up to and during the debate. Below are some resources to provide background.

Resources
What financial regulation is still failing. Blog post by Howard Davies, professor at Sciences Po, Paris, and first chairman of the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority.
Is the US taking too many financial risks again? Blog post by David Jones, Senior Financial Sector Expert in the Monetary and Capital Markets Group of IMF and Sanjay Hazarika, Senior Financial Sector Specialist in the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department.
How vulnerable is Europe to another financial crisis? Blog post by Robert Engle, Michael Armellino Professor of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business; Eric Jondeau, Professor of Finance at HEC, University of Lausanne; Michael Rockinger, Professor of Finance at HEC, University of Lausanne.
How can central bankers avoid another financial crisis? Blog post by Avinash Persaud, Founder and Chairman of Intelligence Capital and Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the International Monetary System.
The New Global Imbalance: Too Much Financial Risk-Taking, Not Enough Economic-Risk Taking Blog post via IMFdirect, the blog of the International Monetary Fund, by José Viñals
Preparing for the next financial crisis. Video interview with Andy Haldane, Bank of England chief economist.

Author: Mike Hanley is Senior Director of Communications, Digital Content and Editing, at the World Economic Forum.

Image: A man rides an escalator near Shanghai Tower (R, under construction), Jin Mao Tower (C) and the Shanghai World Financial Center (L) at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai July 4, 2013. REUTERS/Carlos Barria