Key policy-makers and demonstrators alike are questioning elements of global finance and regulators are responding with attempts to reduce risks in global banking. Yet too few people are asking how global finance can better serve global growth and development; what would an ideal global banking and financial system look like? The project seeks to contribute to the public debate by bringing together central bankers, finance professionals, investment negotiators and world-class academics, and applying economic, political, historical, and legal perspectives.

Our research in global financial governance area focuses on three broad areas:

1. What issues require global collective action? Where is international cooperation in finance necessary, and where is it not? What role, if any, should the IMF and other international institutions play in regulating finance? What role will new and emerging inter-governmental networks, such as the G20, play? What institutional reforms are necessary to ensure that global financial governance supports effective national regulation?
2. How much ‘room for manoeuvre’ is there for developing countries? What international regulations, standards and rules are clashing with or foreclosing developing country policy choices? Which global rules and standards are countries under particularly high pressure to implement and what are the sources of these pressures? How can developing countries navigate overlapping regimes in finance, trade and investment to their advantage?
3. How do we address ‘regulatory capture’? Who benefits under different scenarios for international financial regulation? Which actors must be mobilised and engaged to prevent regulatory capture – governments, regulators, private sector actors, and other non-state actors?