The main retirement benefit scheme for private sector employees in Malaysia is a 50‐year‐old mandatory savings scheme administered by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). It had accumulated assets equal to 55 per cent of GDP in 1999; making it one of the largest such schemes in the world. Over...

The framework for financial services provision in a global context cannot ignore the issue of competition nor even consider it in isolation. Moreover, in the financial sector the level and degree of competition often necessitates balancing an assorted array of issues from arguments for static...

A new financial regulator has been proposed for Ireland. There is little debate about the principle of a single financial regulator but considerable debate as to whether the Central Bank should retain this role or whether a new body should be established. This paper considers this issue in the...

The European Commission has published a revised proposal for a European Parliament and Council directive to harmonise member states' rules on consumer protection in relation to the distance marketing of financial services. Financial services had been specifically excluded from the scope of the...

This paper examines the various theoretical issues in regulation with a view to enhancing understanding of the regulation arena. Special emphasis has been placed on the banking industry. The paper shows how regulation serves different purposes for different interest groups on different...

International wholesale financial markets have long been used to exploiting the cutting edge of technology to find more efficient ways of doing business. But now new electronic technologies are changing the structure and dynamics of markets themselves as seldom before, and the rate of change is...

The paper summarises the role of alternative dispute resolution, by ombudsmen and others, in the development of the European single financial market. It describes three particular initiatives sponsored by the European Commission — a financial services alternative dispute resolution (ADR)...

This paper reviews the current regulatory framework for community development financial institutions (CDFIs), which aim to enable ‘socially excluded’ people and enterprises to access finance. Its focus is primarily on the UK, though account is taken of developments in other EU member...

The new offence of market abuse was introduced by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the Act). The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is required under s. 119 of the Act to issue a code containing ‘guidance’ on market abuse (the Code). In 1998, the FSA published its first...