This article examines the costs of banking pollution and the role of regulation and restrictions on the financial system in tackling it. It studies the benefits of such restrictions in terms of modularity, robustness and incentives, and the costs in terms of the economies of scale and the...

Financial regulation is normally imposed in reaction to some prior crisis, rather than founded on theoretical principle. In the past, regulation has been deployed to improve risk management practices in individual banks. This was misguided. Instead, regulation should focus first on systemic...