Multilayered Governance in International Financial Regulation and Supervision

In recent decades, financial markets have become increasingly international in scope, while the focus of financial regulation and supervision has largely remained limited to the domain of national jurisdictions. This article applies the doctrine of multilayered governance to financial markets, thereby addressing the discrepancy between international financial activities and nationally oriented financial regulation and supervision. It identifies core values that are widely shared within the international community, including the regulatory goals of financial stability and market integrity and the importance of confidence in the functioning of financial markets. The article argues that the scope of financial activities, the importance of regulatory objectives and the level of detail could serve as criteria for assessing how financial regulation should be allocated to the different levels of governance. In the proposed setting, standards could be a key to establishing multilayered governance as they allow for flexible adaptation of internationally agreed rules to national or regional particularities. Regarding financial supervision, the article highlights the importance of supervisory colleges or peer review procedures as a layer in between nationally based supervision and international supervisory standards.