This book reflects on the innovations that central banks have introduced since the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers to improve their modes of intervention, regulation and resolution of financial markets and financial institutions.

This book reflects on the innovations that central banks have introduced since the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers to improve their modes of intervention, regulation and resolution of financial markets and financial institutions. Authors from both academia and policy circles explore these innovations through four approaches: ‘Bank Capital Regulation’ examines the Basel III agreement; ‘Bank Resolution’ focuses on effective regimes for regulating and resolving ailing banks; ‘Central Banking with Collateral-Based Finance’ develops thought on the challenges that market-based finance pose for the conduct of central banking; and ‘Where Next for Central Banking’ examines the trajectory of central banking and its new, central role in sustaining capitalism. 

Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Constraining Discretion in Bank Regulation; 3. Fallacies and Irrelevant Facts in the Discussion of Capital Regulation; 4. Complexity, Interconnectedness: Business Models and the Basel System; 5. At the Brink of Insolvency: Shallow Recapitalization Exercise Fails to Bolster Europe’s Ailing Banks; 6. Bank Resolution in Comparative Perspective: What Lessons for Europe?; 7. Resolving Problem Banks: A Review of the Global Evidence; 8. Bank Resolution in New Zealand and Its Implications for Europe; 9. Collateral and Monetary Policy; 10. The ECB and the Political Economy of Collateral; 11. The Backstory of the Risk-Free Asset: How Government Debt Become “Safe”; 12. Central Banking Post-Crisis: What Compass for Uncharted Waters?; 13. Reconceptualising Central Bank Unconventional Policies: Long Positions on No-Growth Capitalism; 14. The Future Relationship between Central Banks and Governments: What Are Central Banks For?; 15. Is New Governance the Ideal Architecture for Global Financial Regulation?; Contributors; Index

Since the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, central banking has changed dramatically. Over the past five years central banks have intervened in both public and private debt markets, taking on functions of dealers of last resort, while simultaneously designing regulatory and resolution frameworks with the explicit aim of changing bank business models, all in order to contain and better address systemic risk. This book explores these developments through collected essays from authors from both academia and policy circles, and sets them in the context of the European crisis.

‘Central Banking at a Crossroads’ reflects on the innovations central banks have made to improve their modes of intervention, regulation and resolution of financial markets and financial institutions in four related sections: ‘Bank Capital Regulation’ examines the Basel III agreement, identifying its key novelties and shortcomings vis-à-vis its predecessor, Basel II; ‘Bank Resolution’ focuses on effective regimes for regulating and resolving ailing banks; ‘Central Banking with Collateral-Based Finance’ develops thought on the challenges that market-based finance pose for the conduct of central banking in periods of economic stability and, through a critical theoretical angle, the important role that governments play for financial markets as manufacturers of high-quality collateral or safe assets; and, finally, ‘Where Next for Central Banking’ examines the trajectory of central banking, its issues, and its new, central role in sustaining capitalism.