Comment on the Developing Transnational Network(s) in the Area of International Financial Regulation : The Underpinnings of a New Bretton Woods II Global Financial System Framework

This comment reflects the author's submitted panelist paper and related remarks at the SMU Dedman School of Law and SMU International Law Review Association Symposium on Transnational Networks. The author focuses on the developing transnational network in the area of international bank regulation, with an emphasis on the central roles and interconnection of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Group of 7/8 (G-7/8), and the G-7/8's offspring (the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers, the Financial Stability Forum, and the Financial Action Task Force). After beginning with preliminary personal observations, the author provides historical perspectives on the evolvement of the “New International Financial Architecture” of the mid-to-late 1990s (NIFA-1), consideration of significant post-1999 NIFA-1 developments, and a concluding discussion of the impending Group of Twenty summits on the global financial system. The author makes two primary observations: 1) the G-7/8 has emerged as the coordinating policy director of global financial regulatory networks; and 2) for the foreseeable future, domestic policy-makers, lawmakers, and regulators must bear the responsibility for implementation of the reforms needed for a more transparent, accountable, legitimate, and effective framework of global financial regulation