Abstract (eng)
The major financial and economic crisis of 2007-2009 is widely considered the most important one since the Great Depression of 1929. On the opposite of 1929, it emerged in a very interconnected and globalized world thanks to free trade and new technologies. Finance plays also a more important role in the society of today than in 1929, as it does not know borders any more. However, it affected primarily the United States and the European Union. This major financial crisis led to an important movement of regulation targeting the financial and banking sector. After many years of deregulation, the self-regulation was considered a failure and a global movement of financial regulation emerged, reaching primarily the European Union and the United States. On the opposite of the United States, such movement of financial regulation is a première in the European Union. For the first time, on both sides of the Atlantic, numerous and bold reforms were adopted to regulate the financial industry and counter the systemic risks for the economy its crises may cause. These recent reforms transform extensively the legal framework of the financial sector.
In 2010, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (also known as the Dodd-Frank Act) was signed into law. This bold and comprehensive reform has a huge impact on the other side of the Atlantic and influenced significantly the European Commission and the lawmakers of the European Union. In numerous proposals and documents, leading to the adoption of Regulations, Directives or implementation rules, the European authorities referred to the Dodd-Frank Act, and widely to the financial reforms adopted in the United States. This influence of the U.S. law, however, varies in degrees. On issues such as the credit ratings agencies, derivative financial products, executive compensation and whistleblowing, which were unregulated or simply not treated in Europe until then, the European lawmakers were very inspired by the provisions of the U.S. law. Some provisions were even copied and transposed into the law of the European Union to close these legal loopholes. Nonetheless, on other issues, the investment funds, or more anciently treated, such as the financial and banking supervisions and regulations (banking structures, prudential requirements, etc.), the European lawmakers were influenced but adopted different, and sometimes opposite rules, with regard to the law of the United States. Finally, extraterritoriality plays a role in this matter, because the extraterritorial provisions of the U.S. law have an influence on both European finance that had to adapt themselves to the requirements of the United States and European law, which takes over the principle of extraterritoriality of the financial regulation.