Financial services law Edited by George Walker and Robert Purves, 4th edition, OUP, Oxford, 2018. 1216 pp. £295, ISBN 978‐0‐19‐879380‐9

• Author: Paula Moffatt
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/iir.1333
• Date: 01 March 2019

BOOK REVIEW

FINANCIAL SERVICES LAW

Edited by George Walker | Robert Purves

4th edition, OUP, Oxford, 2018. 1216 pp. £295, ISBN 978‐0‐19‐879380‐9

As the editors to the fourth edition of Financial Services Law note in their preface, “a pause

might be considered welcome”when it comes to the proliferation of financial services regula-

tion. One could have been forgiven for thinking that the reshaping of the regulatory architecture

post‐financial crisis was close to completion at the time of the publication of the third edition in

2014 but, as this extremely useful volume illustrates, that was not the case. The new edition is

set out in three parts: Part I addresses Regulatory Structure, Part II Financial Services Regulation,

and Part III Financial Sectors and Activities, and each Part is made up of chapters written by

practitioner experts.

Part I begins with a consideration of the U.K. regulatory structure in Chapters 1 and 2

before moving on to explore EU financial services law in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 concludes this

part with a discussion of the role and influence of international and supranational bodies and

agreements in developing the law in this area. The scope of this part is comprehensive, and it

provides a detailed overview and some interesting commentary and analysis. Chapter 1 con-

siders the regulatory background to the establishment of the integrated system of financial con-

trols set up under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), with Chapter 2

reflecting upon the flexibility of the framework it provides. The authors note that although

there does not appear to be an appetite to separate the regulation of the various sectors of

the financial system (banking, insurance, capital markets), the system is nevertheless extremely

complex.

This complexity is attributed by the authors partly to the “twin peaks”regulation introduced

in 2012 (that is, prudential regulation through the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) and

conduct of business regulation through the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”)) and partly to

the greater powers that have been given to regulators in recent years. One of the great strengths

of FSMA is that it can be adapted to accommodate regulatory change relatively easily through

the introduction of secondary legislation. Kennedy observes that this ability for FSMA to evolve

could facilitate the introduction of post‐Brexit changes (whatever they may prove to be), but he

also wonders whether this may be the moment for FSMA to be recalibrated or consolidated, par-

ticularly as there are so many new provisions (he cites sections 137FBA and 137FBB by way of

example).

Chapters 3 and 4 take the discussion beyond the United Kingdom, with Chapter 3 tracing the

development of the EU single market in financial services through to banking union and

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© 2019 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

DOI: 10.1002/iir.1333

Int Insolv Rev. 2019;28:129–131. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/iir 129