The pendulum effect of regulation: How the policy swing between the over and under regulation of financial institutions will be ineffective and detrimental to business.

LLM dissertation considering variant approaches to financial regulation, reviewing the policies, benefits and problems resulting from regulation of financial markets and services with particular reference to financial crises such as the collapse of the American bank Lehman Brothers in 2008. Regulation, the one constant of the financial system, since the beginnings of the industry in coffee houses with gentleman's agreements, to the harshly regulated times we have seen since the financial crash of 2008. Whichever pole the pendulum swings to, it is clear that it has little impact on the behaviour of those who work within our most valued financial institutions. Before we can discuss the merits to regulation and the success of either a harsh or lax approach, we must understand how the greatest financial collapse in living memory happened.