Sound Banking

Sammanfattning: Banks are subject to a comprehensive body of legal rules and conduct their business under constant supervision of authorities. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the number of rules governing banking has grown and the structures of supervision have likewise been enhanced. This thesis analyses various aspects of the regulation and supervision of banks, and focuses especially on soundness as a normative concept to regulate banks.Soundness is a legal prerequisite in, for example Swedish, law and appears in relation to banking in many other jurisdictions. The aims of this thesis are to examine how the normative concept of soundness functions in the regulation and supervision of banks, to present general insights into how banking regulation and supervision function and how the financial crisis of 2008 has affected banking regulation and supervision.The thesis proposes a taxonomy of soundness – confidence – stability to describe the normative context of soundness. The taxonomy is connected to the theoretical arguments for bank regulation and is used as a tool to analyse three areas of banking regulation: authorisation, capital requirements and banks in trauma. The three areas correspond to the outline of the thesis according to The Story of the Bank, which includes the formation, operation and failure of banks. In each regulatory area, relevant EU legislation as well as Swedish, Danish, British and American legislation are examined. Each regulatory area also includes case studies, where selected decisions and sanctions on individual banks in the various jurisdictions are analysed. The investigations in the thesis are made partly from a law and economics perspective.The investigation shows that soundness is a connective concept with various and fragmented functions in the regulation of banks. Related to authorisation, soundness is emphasised in the requirements of suitability of a bank’s qualified owners, directors and managers. In the area of capital requirements, soundness is fostered by standards for structures and systems related to banks’ risk management. Banks in trauma are addressed by regulation aiming at restoring soundness in a financial sense. The thesis also discusses the macro-prudential turn in banking regulation since the financial crisis and how legal rules and supervision can promote sound banking.