The regulation of financial services is undergoing profound and far-reaching change. The Basel Committee, the principal standard setting body for banking regulations, is introducing tough new standards for the capital and liquidity that banks will be required to hold. Important changes are also being introduced in the areas of insurance and securities regulation. These policy developments are being overseen by the Financial Stability Board, which is also examining ways of addressing systemic risk and, in particular, ways of ensuring that failures of major firms neither create systemic disturbance nor require the use of taxpayers’ money to prevent this. Changes are being introduced in the areas of financial supervision, accounting, markets and infrastructure and policy makers are putting place arrangements to enable them to take a broad ‘macroprudential’ perspective on financial stability and to make use of appropriate policy tools at that level.

All of these changes will have an impact on the IIF’s members. We have been consistently supportive of reforms to regulation designed to increase the resilience and stability of the financial system. At the same time, however, it is important that reforms are properly targeted, that their likely impact is well understood and that full account is taken of the likely interactions of changes introduced in different sectors. The IIF, with over 420 members and occupying a unique position in the global financial system, closely monitors regulatory developments, mobilizes industry views on new and prospective regulatory changes. We undertake assessments of the likely impact of reforms and maintain a vigorous dialogue with the official sector by means of written submissions and face-to-face discussions.

The IIF also recognized at an early stage in the onset of the financial crisis that weaknesses in some firms’ internal risk management systems had been a contributing factor. A program was put in place to identify areas of weakness, to develop and promote sound practices and to monitor the implementation of these. Improvements in firms’ own risk management practices are every bit as important – if not more so – than strengthened regulation in achieving greater financial stability.

Regulatory Workflow

Regulatory Capital (the work of the Steering Committee on Regulatory Capital) This focuses mainly on the development of new capital and liquidity standards by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

Effective Regulation (the Special Committee on Effective Regulation) This deals with cross border resolution, systemic risk, assessing the macroeconomic impact of new regulation, supervision and macroprudential oversight.

Industry standards (the Committee on Governance and Industry Practices) This is concerned with identifying and promoting sound practices in firms’ governance and management of risks.

Insurance (the Insurance Regulatory Committee) which is concerned with the development of appropriate regulation in this sector.

Accounting (the Senior Accounting Group and the Three Way Dialogue) which focuses on the development of appropriate and globally aligned accounting standards.

We aim to give an overview of the IIF’s activities in these areas, to set out the details of our committees and working groups and to provide straightforward access to reports and other written material that the IIF produces.

Read the latest comments from the IIF

Download published reports from the IIF