Financial Regulators and Macroprudential Policy

by Walter James

Overview

The 2008 global financial crisis was a rude awakening for financial regulators. In its wake, a novel approach called “macroprudential policy” became an important pillar of financial regulation to ensure the stability of the financial system. But in the decade after the crisis, financial regulators in different countries implemented macroprudential policies that varied widely in their stringency. This is a worrying gap since uneven regulation across borders and different financial sectors was a key driver of the 2008 crisis. What explains these cross-country, cross-sectoral, and temporal variations in macroprudential policy? This book answers this question through an in-depth comparative historical analysis of the banking and asset management sectors in the United States and Japan. By comparing two sectors of the financial industry in two diverse economies, we can observe consistent dynamics in the politics of regulatory reform that illuminate the causes of different policy stringency.

The subject matter of this book will appeal to researchers and students of finance, financial regulation, political economy, and the politics of regulation. Its theoretical and methodological underpinnings will be of interest to scholars of comparative politics, comparative sociology, historical institutionalism, and those interested in interviews-based qualitative methods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032972503
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/19/2025
Series:	Routledge Critical Studies in Finance and Stability
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Walter James is independent scholar and Principal Consultant at Power Japan Consulting. His research focuses on the politics of finance and regulation in Japan and the United States, and more recently on the political economy of climate change action, clean energy transition, and sustainable finance in Japan. He obtained his M.A. in social science from the University of Chicago and his PhD in political science from Temple University. He was also a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellow at Waseda University in Tokyo from 2021-2023.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction  2. Macroprudential Regulation: Concept, History, and Practice  3. Theoretical Framework: Salience, Orientation, and Turf  4. US Banking: Political Salience, Policy Learning, and Growth vs. Stability  5. Japanese Banking: Non-Performing Loans and the Shift from Extreme to Moderate Stability Orientation  6. US Asset Management: Growth Orientation, Bureaucratic Turf, and Moderate Reforms  7. Japanese Asset Management: Lynchpin of Economic Growth and the Absence of Macroprudential Policy  8. Conclusion