At their very first summit in Washington in November 2008, the G20leaders placed the reform of international financial regulation at the core of theiragenda. The issue has retained a central place in discussions and communiqués atevery subsequent meeting. It has been remarkable to see heads of state commitsuch detailed attention in their communiqués to a topic which has historicallybeen the more obscure preserve of technocratic officials. Equally striking hasbeen the fact that policymakers have looked beyond the immediate task ofmanaging the crisis to focus on this more forward-looking agenda to preventfuture crises. It took more than a decade after the crisis of the early 1930s forpolitical leaders to agree at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference on internationalfinancial reforms designed to prevent a repetition of that economic calamity. Thistime around, the crisis has been used as an immediate catalyst for reform.But what have the G20 leaders actually accomplished so far in this field?There is no question that they have successfully negotiated more initiatives in thisarea than in any other, initiatives that are aimed at reforming both the content andthe governance of international financial regulation. While the breadth of thesereforms has been impressive, they also suffer from some important limitations.Despite the scale of the crisis, the reforms have been much more incremental thanradical. Their implementation has also been slow and uneven, and some importantissues have been neglected entirely. As we have entered a new phase of financialinstability unleashed by the eurozone’s difficulties, these limitations have becomeincreasingly evident, with political consequences that are very difficult to predict.
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