ABSTRACT
This chapter aims at demonstrating how regulators, market actors, and scrutinizers monitor banks. However, the dichotomy of politics and markets with their regulators and market actors, respectively, is not enough to capture the governance of present-day organizations. Through their role as intermediaries of financial resources, banks constitute significant institutions in modern society. As a number of financial crises have shown—among them the recent problems in the European banking system—they are vulnerable. Furthermore, banks cooperate both nationally and internationally in interest organizations such as the American Bankers Association, British Bankers Association, der Bundesverband deutscher Banken, la Federation bancaire francaise, and International Banking Association. Deregulation on the part of regulators implies increased degrees of freedom for market governance. All in all, the above means that it is important for the governance of banks to consider the interplay between regulators, market actors, and scrutinizers. In this interplay between them the balance will shift over time depending on political, economic, and social conditions.
