Regulatory issues related to financial innovation

This note explores various regulatory issues related to financial innovation. It starts from a premise that financial innovations are neither always helpful (or benign) nor always threatening. Innovations have the potential to provide for a more efficient allocation of resources and thereby a higher level of capital productivity and economic growth. Many financial innovations have had this effect. But others have not. Examples of the latter include products that may have been misrepresented to end-users and resulted in delinquencies, bankruptcies or other problems among them, or products that have been inadequately managed with respect to the various credit or market risks they entail. Considerations of problems aside, innovation should be seen as a natural aspect of the workings of a competitive system. Thus, the ideal policy approach is to find an appropriate balance between preserving safety and soundness of the system and allowing financial institutions and markets to perform their intended functions. That approach entails first ensuring that the necessary market-framing and market-perfecting rules are in place and then establishing a proper structure for reviewing financial innovations. Seven steps needed to accomplish this task are outlined in the report.