Anspruch und Wirklichkeit der Finanzmarktreform: Welche G20- Versprechen wurden umgesetzt?

After the onset of the global financial and economic Crisis of 2008, the G20 leaders have repeatedly promised to re-regulate the financial sector and tackle global imbalances. This study examines in how far these promises have been met by action. In contrast to public perception, it is shown that policy makers both in the US and in the EU have indeed passed a large number of new rules for the financial sector and that they have delivered on a large share of their commitments. However, it is questionable whether this will be enough to prevent future financial crisis such as the one from 2008/9. While the new rules are tightening regulation on a number of practices in the financial sector, they do not contain a comprehensive approach to boldly reduce complexity and increase transparency of the financial sector or to set the right incentives for the financial sector to focus on financing productive investment in real assets again. Moreover, the issue of global imbalances has not been tackled in a consistent and decisive matter by policy makers. As these imbalances have been an important reason for the crisis, this lack of action might prove dangerous in the future.