The New Regulation of Swaps: A Lost Opportunity

On a world scale, financial deregulation played a major role. In the US in particular, it is probably the banking sector that has undergone the deepest transformations. Between 1980 and 1991, Congress passed five major laws, taking other legal measures as well, all of which aimed at deregulating the banking sector. The process finally culminated few years later in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. This article analyses the impact of deregulation on banking activities in the US from the eighties up to the 2007 crisis.