Why does the implementation of internationally agreed standards and codes play such an important role when it comes to the prevention of financial crises? There are a number of benefits that bear emphasis. At the national level, these tools do not only help anchor market expectations as they make more predictable future macroeconomic and financial policy  2  BIS Review 119/2007  measures.
In recent years, aggressive cost-cutting in the United States has been linked to greater emphasis on maximization of shareholder value and less on growth and diversification which was more prominent in the 1970s and 1980s. This shift in perspective appears to have been driven, at least in part, by the increasing dominance of large institutional investors in US financial markets.