THEstate intervention in economics it finds its theoretical basis in the need to correct the market imperfections and to address distributional issues.
They follow from this premise three primary objectives:
- pursue economic stability
- ensure equity in the distribution of resources
- maximize efficiency in their allocation
The role of the financial system
Il financial system, in particular, covers a key role in linking household savings to business financing, positioning itself as an essential element in the economic development process. His regulatory requires a more rigorous regulatory framework than other economic activities, mainly to prevent inefficiencies in the financial sector (credit, insurance, financial instrument markets) from spreading to other sectors, undermining the overall functioning of the economy.
They follow from the indicated objectives intervention methods and areas of attention not always overlapping and sometimes even conflicting, which determine the opportunity for multiple subjects in charge of regulatory and supervisory functions, aimed at ensuring the stability of the financial system and the intermediaries that operate in it, at guaranteeing the transparency of the information available, at controlling the correctness of the behavior of intermediaries and to promote conditions of competition in the provision of financial services.
The three approaches for regulatory and supervisory models
From a theoretical point of view, i regulatory and supervisory models can be distinguished in three approaches: supervision by subjects, that by activity and that by purpose. Technological progress has profoundly changed the functioning of intermediaries and markets (just think of the functioning of telematic markets for trading financial instruments or the possibilities of using banking and financial services online) making the distinctions between subjects more nuanced, favoring the affirmation of purpose-based supervision models, where the same entities can be supervised by different authorities responsible for stability, transparency and competition.
The Italian hybrid model
Looking at the Italian reality, this situation has led to the evolution towards a hybrid model, where ad responsible authorities of the behavior of specific subjects (Covip, Supervisory Commission for Pension Funds; Ivass, Institute for Insurance Supervision) they work alongside other people responsible for the purposes (Bank of Italy, stability of banks, securities brokerage companies, asset management companies; Consob, transparency of listed companies and listed financial instruments and correctness of the behavior of financial intermediaries; Guarantor Authority for Competition and the Market, insurance of presence of competitive conditions).
Le supervisory authorities they are usually characterized by organizational and operational independence, equipped with financing methods which are increasingly based on contribution mechanisms that impact the supervised entities and with their own legal status for the staff. The connection with the political system is manifested in the powers to appoint top management and in the drafting of periodic reports in which the individual authorities give an account of the activity carried out in relation to the areas of competence and the supervised subjects.
The harmonization of the European Union
Starting from the end of the twentieth century, the establishment of the international dimension in the activity of operators and financial markets, facilitated by technological innovations which have progressively freed investment methods from geographical location, has brought theXNUMX-XNUMX business days to dedicate aspecific attention to integration of the financial markets of the member countries, which has seen taking place in the financial sector a harmonization objective which surpassed in relevance the interventions in the industrial and agricultural fields that had characterized the years of the second half of the last century. Alongside the traditional principles of freedom of establishment and freedom of performance, those ofharmonization of rules and mutual recognition, which they have progressively barriers broken downand which contained financial operations within national borders, favoring the strengthening of the size of operators, their operation in multiple national contexts and the birth of stock market managers operating in different national contexts (think of Euronext and Nasdaq Europe).
The post 2007
Even following the financial crisis of 2007, the parallel affirmation of a additional level of regulation and supervision, where subjects with direct intervention powers (the European Central Bank, responsible for the supervision of over one hundred significant banks located in the euro area countries) are supported by authorities responsible for guaranteeing a single framework of harmonized rules within the Union European (EBA, European Banking Authority; ESMA, European Authority for Markets in Financial Instruments; EIOPA, European Authority for Insurance and Pension Funds).
