This paper reviews academic studies of bank capital regulation in an effort to evaluate the intellectual foundation for the imposition of the Basel I and Basel II systems of risk-based capital requirements. The theoretical literature yields general agreement about the immediate effects of...

This policy brief examines issues associated with the design and implementation of regulatory policymaking in interconnected financial markets. The policy brief explains why international interdependence among nations’ financial markets and regulations can provide an incentive for national...

This policy brief assesses the implications of Basel II for bank regulatory compliance costs. In spite of widespread complaints by bankers about the costs of complying with Basel II rules, the academic literature has given surprisingly little attention to quantifying these costs. The brief...

This policy brief reviews recent studies that have sought to apply analysis of network externalities and the theory of two-sided markets to card payment networks, and it evaluates the public policy implications of this body of work. Three general conclusions emerge from the bulk of the research...

This paper discusses and critically appraises recent developments in the definition, measurement, and regulation of systemic risks. Although the issue of systemic risks has been subjected to considerable study, there is not widespread agreement on how to define this concept. Initial efforts to...

The application of U.S. antitrust policy toward mergers in the banking industry is based on past research suggesting that there is a trade-off between adverse effects on consumer welfare owing to potentially augmented market power and possible welfare-improving effects arising from efficiency...

This brief evaluates the supervisory-process and market-discipline pillars of the Basel II bank regulatory framework. It reviews and critiques their fundamental features and reaches three conclusions. First, the supervisory-process pillar provides too much scope for supervisory discretion and...

This paper examines the market-discipline and supervisory-process "pillars" of the Basel II framework. It reviews the key features of these Basel II pillars and discusses and evaluates associated conceptual issues in relation to theoretical predictions and empirical findings in the academic...

This paper evaluates the effects of binding regulatory restraints on the rate of performance-based management compensation within a banking framework in which the primary function of bank management teams is to monitor loans in order to eliminate deadweight default losses. Available management...