Reference no: EM132753225

In order to prevent another systemic meltdown, British economist Sir John Vickers -who in 2010 became chair of the Independent Commission on Banking -and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker have proposed new regulations on the UK and US banking industries respectively. Although both of them have highlighted the importance of separating commercial banking and investment banking, they adopted different approaches to promote the distinction.

One of the most significant differences in their approaches is the ban on proprietary trading in banks. The Volcker approach centres around the notion of prohibiting the high-risk activities of proprietary trading, while the Vickers approach tolerates banks' proprietary trading as it is"too complicated to police".

"Volcker draws the line in a very difficult, almost excruciatingly difficult, place," Vickers said. "People at the top of banks themselves have not known what was going on in terms of the kind of trading, and the regulator is at a disadvantage relative to them."

Question:

In your opinion, should regulations be designed to lower the probability of financial institutions' failures or lower the social costs of financial institutions' failure? Critically discuss your answer with appropriate support from the literature. (opening question)