Content area
Full Text
Banking Regulation in Israel: Prudential Regulation versus Consumer Protection Ruth Plato-Shinar (Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands: Kluwer Law International, 2016) 328 pp. US$156
The 2008 financial crisis tested the modern financial regulatory systems across the globe, and prompted regulators, academics, and practitioners to question some of the policies that those systems had traditionally adopted and promoted. As a result, scholars and contributors have produced a great deal of post-crisis financial literature on banking regulation, analyzing and reviewing the different macroeconomic and microeconomic aspects of financial regulation in the hope of presenting new insights. Many of those studies focused on prudential regulation and the risk management of financial institutions - an academic focus that included research regarding the extent to which financial institutions need to be subject to certain requirements and restrictions in order to maintain the stability of the financial system. Other studies focused on what constitute good practices in consumer protection, and how consumer protection laws can improve efficiency, transparency, competition, and access in the financial markets.
Given the massive amount of writing on financial regulation since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, any additional intellectual contribution must overcome at least one primary challenge. Namely, any new study must do more than merely criticize the pre-crisis or even current regulatory systems and their deficits. A new study must instead focus on the financial doctrines and policies that can increase financial stability and development, and thoroughly explain those doctrines and policies. It must also articulate which tools or methods can and should be employed, locally as well as internationally, in order to better regulate the financial markets and their key relevant institutions. Indeed, institutional structure is critical in shaping financial regulation and maintaining financial stability.
Banking Regulation in Israel - Prudential Regulation versus Consumer Protection, which focuses on the Israeli financial system that coped well with the 2008 global financial crisis, successfully overcomes this challenge in an extremely well-balanced fashion. This book does so while examining prudential regulation in Israel as well as the country's consumer protection laws, which the book refers to as part of a bigger umbrella of regulation that it titles "Conduct of Business Regulation". In particular, the book focuses on the interrelations between prudential regulation and consumer protection, and the...