This case study considered evolutions in the field of financial regulation and supervision in the period following the 2008 financial crisis. Specific lines of inquiry included: the formation of the European System of Financial Supervision (see Lopes 2018); the measures of reform that followed the LIBOR / EURIBOR manipulation scandal (see Lopes 2017); the establishment of a fintech-blockchain ecosystem in the Netherlands and the EU; and the relational dynamics between market actors, the financial supervisor and regulator, and the government in the Netherlands, including the development of regulatory sandboxes (see Faria 2019 and 2022).
The role of political committees responsible for inquiries on financial issues has also been explored, with interviews conducted among both members of the Portuguese Parliament who took part in a series of inquiries on banking issues (https://www.parlamento.pt/sites/COM/Paginas/default.aspx) and members of the European Parliament (or their assistants) who belong to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/ECON/home.html). In both cases, aspects such as the construction of a supervisory architecture (national or international), the collaborative relationship with supervisors and the disclosure of financial information have been approached.
Image: Swearing-in ceremony for the second parliamentary inquiry committee on the recapitalization of Caixa Geral de Depósitos and the management of the bank (21 February 2019)
Source: Portuguese Parliament (Assembleia da República) https://www.parlamento.pt/sites/PARXIIIL/Paginas/2019/fevereiro/cerimonia-tomada-posse-comissao-caixa-geral-depositos.aspx (accessed 18 March 2022).
Image: The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Source: European Parliament https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/package/econ-committee-on-economic-and-monetary-affairs_13010 (accessed 18 March 2022).
Image: Fintech technological space, tech in regulatory sandboxes
Source: 30 Recommendations on regulations, innovation and finance: final report to the European Commission. Expert Group on Regulatory Obstacles to Financial Innovation (2019) https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/business_economy_euro/banking_and_finance/documents/191113-report-expert-group-regulatory-obstacles-financial-innovation_en.pdf (accessed 25 March 2022).
Image: Amsterdam financial district
Source: Pouhou © 2022
Faria, I., 2019. Trust, reputation and ambiguous freedoms: financial institutions and subversive libertarians navigating blockchain, markets, and regulation. Journal of Cultural Economy, 12 (2), 119–132.
Faria, I., 2021. The market, the regulator and the government: making a blockchain ecosystem in the Netherlands. Finance and Society 7(1). 40–56.
Faria, I., 2022. When tales of money fail: the importance of price, trust, and sociality for cryptocurrency users. Journal of Cultural Economy, 15 (1), 81–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2021.1974070
Lopes, D. S., 2017. Libor and Euribor: from normal banking practice to manipulation to the potential for reform. In Ertürk, I. and Gabor, D. (eds.),The Routledge Companion to Banking Regulation and Reform, pp. 225–239. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-85593-8.
Lopes, D. S., 2018. Under pressure: financial supervision in the post-2008 European Union. In Carrier, J. (ed.), Economy, Crime and Wrong in a Neoliberal Era, pp. 93–115. Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN: 978-1-78920-044-7.