1 Financial Regulatory Harmonization and the Globalization of Finance

Abstract: In the globalizing economy, national policymakers are often forced to accept the challenge of financial integration. Faced with the potentially destabilizing effects of international financial markets, they have to strengthen financial regulation, importing international best practices and aligning domestic with foreign regulation to avoid destabilizing phenomena of regulatory arbitrage. This paper explores the main features of the ongoing process of worldwide financial regulatory convergence and the role played by the global dissemination of financial standards and codes. It analyzes the reasons behind the generalized acceptance of international best practices and the limits of the standards and codes approach to financial regulatory harmonization