Streamlining financial regulation while safeguarding stability and tackling new risks
Speech by Mr Pablo Hernández de Cos, General Manager of the BIS, at the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies, Geneva, 4 March 2026
Approaching the 20th anniversary of the Great Financial Crisis, the lessons remain vivid and relevant today. They have shaped an entire generation of financial sector reforms, which have markedly increased the resilience of the global banking system. The increased resilience is a significant success of global regulatory cooperation. Regularly reviewing the impact and effectiveness of reforms is an integral part of any policymaking process that strengthens accountability. In the case of financial regulation, these reviews should be based on rigorous analysis, be holistic and cover the whole financial system, including cross-sectoral interactions, and recognize that financial stability is a global public good that requires cross-border cooperation and global prudential standards. Such a discussion could be framed around three questions: (i) Have the post-GFC reforms achieved their objective of improving the resilience of the financial sector and is there any evidence of side effects? (ii) Can we preserve current resilience levels while improving efficiency and reducing unnecessary complexity? (iii) Can the current regulatory framework ensure the resilience of a rapidly evolving financial system? The available evidence shows that (i) the reforms have indeed made the global financial system safer, stronger and more resilient (ii) there is scope for streamlining and simplifying regulatory frameworks while maintaining that resilience (iii) the framework needs to adapt to tackle emerging sources of risk.
