The political economy of shadow banking

Who controls global policy debates on shadow banking regulation, with what ideas and how? By looking at the policy recommendations of the Bank of International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board, we show how experts tied to these institutions secured control over how shadow banking is treated. The evidence suggests that their experts institutionalized a bland reformism opposed to both strong and ‘light touch’ regulation at the core of the emerging regulatory regime. In so doing, these international organizations reinforced each other's expertise, excluded some potential competitors (legal scholars), coopted others (select Fed and elite academic economists) and deployed measurement, mandate and status strategies to assert issue control. The findings have important implications for studying the relationship between IOs technocrats and experts from other professional fields. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.