
Can the law reform Big Finance?
By Dr Luke McDonagh
The global financial system came to the edge of ruin during the 2008 financial crash.
Despite the enormity of
the political and economic problems caused by the crash, fundamental reforms
have not occurred, and many of the same dangers - cheap credit, unfettered
capital, reckless behaviour - lurk again in 2016. So what needs to be done to
reform 'Big Finance', and what role can the law play?A recent public event, hosted by
The City Law School, discussed this issue in detail. The anthropologist and Guardian journalist
Joris Luyendijk - recent author of 'Swimming with Sharks - My Journey into the
World of Bankers' - recounted his experiences of interviewing more than 200
people working in the City of London, and outlined what he learned the causes
of the 2008 crash.
For Joris, blaming the 'bankers'
for their 'greed' is a waste of time - after all, the current financial system
provides bankers with perverse incentives, and any person would struggle to act
ethically in this context. Moreover, financial products are highly complex, capitalism
is inherently unstable and crashes will always happen. These are the inevitable
problems that come once we accept that 'risk' is a necessary part of finance.
Perverse incentives and moral hazards
But the crucial problem of 'too big to fail' is not inevitable - it can be solved. To do this, it is necessary to do two relatively straightforward things: (i) break up the largest banks into entities than can be allowed to fail when a crash happens (i.e. bring back a measure of regulation similar to the US Glass-Steagall Act repealed during the Clinton Administration); and (ii) remove the perverse incentives and moral hazards that currently exist within Big Finance, so that if traders or financiers decide to take large risks, they know that if the risks pay off, they will be rewarded through a bonus - but that if they do not pay off, there is a measure of personal responsibility in the form of a financial penalty (loss of bonus, or a fine in some circumstances).
Dr Giuliano Castellano, of the
University of Warwick Law School, discussed the legal reforms that have been
considered and debated post-2008, as well as what the law's impact on finance
is likely to be in the future. Dr Castellano noted that using the law to bring
in criminal penalties can be counter-productive because in cases of financial
fraud or misrepresentation proving 'intent' is always difficult. Moreover, law
and lawyers are complicit in the current financial system, and smart lawyers
will always try to find a way to get around the latest piece of regulation.
Yet, regarding Joris' recommendations, Dr Castellano acknowledged that the law
can play an important role in enacting both of these reforms - but what is
required is political will. In the global economy, capital moves abroad very
easily, whereas governments act on a national or regional basis.
The combined
effect of the power of financial lobbyists and fear of capital flight restricts
politicians' ability to act. Only a strong political movement across large
regions of the world - the EU, North America, East Asia - would be able to
counteract these forces, and at present such a force does not exist.
Image (right): photofriday / Shutterstock
Anti-competitive nature of Big Finance
If political constraints mean the
law cannot, at present, provide solutions, what are the alternatives to Big
Finance for the consumer? The anthropologist and former broker, Brett Scott, outlined the role that innovative finance and peer-to-peer lending might have
on the City of London, including the possible emergence of grass-roots
alternatives to the big banks. Peer-to-peer lenders such as Zopa have gained a
great deal of success and digital currencies such as bitcoin may point the way
to the future. Campaigns such as 'Move
your Money' have encouraged more capital activism amongst ordinary people.
However, these alternatives are not yet in a position to compete with Big
Finance - for one thing, they are not 'too big to fail' which means that they
may struggle to compete with the largest banks and lenders in the long term.
The anti-competitive nature of Big Finance makes it difficult for ethical and sustainable
alternatives to thrive.
What is perhaps most remarkable
about the 2008 crash is that despite its substantial negative impact on all of
our lives the essentials of Big Finance (too big to fail, moral hazards) remain
intact.
Future systemic crash
The only real reform that has occurred has been the requirement for
large institutions to maintain larger amounts of capital than they commonly did
prior to 2008 – but there is no guarantee that the amounts held would be
sufficient to prevent a systemic crash occurring in the future.
Fundamental
reform is necessary and possible through law, but in order to get there several
political hurdles must be passed, and with so much else on the political
horizon (EU referendum, US presidential election) much of our energy is
directed elsewhere. It may take another serious crash for politicians and
electorates to face up to the serious task of reform.
Peer-to-peer lending (P2P), also known as social lending, is a method of debt financing that enables individuals to borrow and lend money - without the use of an official financial institution as an intermediary. Peer-to-peer lending removes the middleman from the process, but it also involves more time, effort and risk than the general brick-and-mortar lending scenarios.