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A financial regulatory authority or financial supervisory authority is a public authority whose role is to ensure the proper implementation of financial regulation within its scope of responsibility.
Financial regulatory authorities include those in charge of bank supervision; of securities regulation, often referred to as securities commissions; of anti-money laundering supervision of financial firms; and of consumer protection in financial services, and more generally of enforcing "conduct-of-business" requirements, not to mention macroprudential regulation.
Some or all of these distinct mandates are often brought together in a single authority. Different jurisdictions have addressed the challenge of organizing financial regulation in multiple ways that have often evolved over time and display significant path dependence. In general, three types of financial supervisory architecture have been identified by scholars:
As of 2023, examples of sectoral architecture include Brazil, Hong Kong, and India; examples of integrated architecture include Japan, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, and South Korea; and examples of twin-peaks architecture include Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. China, the European Union, and the United States have more complex supervisory systems that defy simple classification. [2]
Whereas most financial regulatory authorities have a national mandate, there are instances of both subnational and supranational authorities:
In addition, both the European Securities and Markets Authority (since 2011) and the European Banking Authority (since 2023) have been granted direct supervisory mandates over limited market segments within the European Economic Area.
Several international or global bodies have financial regulatory authorities as their main membership. Given the variety of supervisory mandates and choices of supervisory architecture, the lists of members of these bodies occasionally overlap. These bodies include:
Financial regulatory authorities from several jurisdictions are also represented in the Financial Stability Board, alongside finance ministries and central banks.
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) is a supranational central bank that serves Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, all members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) that use the ECCB-issued Eastern Caribbean Dollar as their currency. The ECCB was established in 1983, succeeding the British Caribbean Currency Board (1950–1965) and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Authority (1965–1983). It is also in charge of bank supervision within its geographical remit.
Banking regulation and supervision refers to a form of financial regulation which subjects banks to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, enforced by a financial regulatory authority generally referred to as banking supervisor, with semantic variations across jurisdictions. By and large, banking regulation and supervision aims at ensuring that banks are safe and sound and at fostering market transparency between banks and the individuals and corporations with whom they conduct business.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is a committee of banking supervisory authorities that was established by the central bank governors of the Group of Ten (G10) countries in 1974. The committee expanded its membership in 2009 and then again in 2014. As of 2019, the BCBS has 45 members from 28 jurisdictions, consisting of central banks and authorities with responsibility of banking regulation.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is South Korea's integrated financial regulator that examines and supervises financial institutions under the broad oversight of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the government regulatory authority staffed by civil servants.
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is a European Union financial regulatory agency. It was established in 2011 under EU Regulation 1094/2010.
The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) was an independent committee of European Securities regulators, in place from 2001 to 2010. On 1 January 2011, it was replaced by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) was an independent advisory group on banking supervision in the European Union (EU), active from its establishment in 2004 to its replacement on 1 January 2011 by the European Banking Authority (EBA) which took over all its tasks and responsibilities following Regulation (EC) No. 1093/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010.
The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) is the Spanish government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets in Spain. It is an independent agency that falls under the Ministry of Economy.
The Financial Services Board (FSB) was the government of South Africa's financial regulatory agency responsible for the non-banking financial services industry in South Africa from 1990 to 2018. On 1 April 2018, its responsibilities were split into two new agencies the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for conduct regulation and the Prudential Authority (PA) for prudential regulation.
The European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) is the framework for financial supervision in the European Union that has been in operation since 2011. The system consists of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), the European Systemic Risk Board, the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities, and the national supervisory authorities of EU member states. It was proposed by the European Commission in 2009 in response to the financial crisis of 2007–08.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is an agency of the European Union located in Paris.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) is a regulatory agency of the European Union headquartered in La Défense, Île-de-France. Its activities include conducting stress tests on European banks to increase transparency in the European financial system and identifying weaknesses in banks' capital structures.
European Banking Supervision, also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for the prudential supervision of banks in the euro area. It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is referred to as ECB Banking Supervision. EU member states outside of the euro area can also participate on a voluntary basis, as was the case of Bulgaria as of late 2023. European Banking Supervision was established by Regulation 1024/2013 of the Council, also known as the SSM Regulation, which also created its central decision-making body, the ECB Supervisory Board.
The European banking union refers to the transfer of responsibility for banking policy from the member state-level to the union-wide level in several EU member states, initiated in 2012 as a response to the 2009 Eurozone crisis. The motivation for the banking union was the fragility of numerous banks in the Eurozone, and the identification of a vicious circle between credit conditions for these banks and the sovereign credit of their respective home countries. In several countries, private debts arising from a property bubble were transferred to the respective sovereign as a result of banking system bailouts and government responses to slowing economies post-bubble. Conversely, weakness in sovereign credit resulted in deterioration of the balance sheet position of the banking sector, not least because of high domestic sovereign exposures of the banks.
The Austrian Financial Market Authority is Austria's integrated financial regulatory authority and has been its national competent authority within European Banking Supervision since 2014. It is responsible for the supervision of credit institutions, payment institutions, insurance companies, pension funds, Fund managers, licensed securities service providers, and stock exchanges.
The Banking Commission of the West African Monetary Union is a supranational bank supervisor established in 1990 and based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It is institutionally part of the Central Bank of West African States and is the single banking supervisor for the eight countries of the West African Monetary Union (UMOA), namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
The Central African Banking Commission is a supranational bank supervisor established in 1993 and based in Libreville, Gabon. It is institutionally part of the Bank of Central African States and is the single banking supervisor for the six countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), namely Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo.
The Financial Markets Authority of the West African Monetary Union is a supranational markets regulator established in 1996 and based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It is the single securities authority for the eight countries of the West African Monetary Union, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. It was known from 1996 to 2020 as the Regional Council for Public Savings and Financial Markets.