Most importantly, the crisis has shown that market participants were not capable of mastering the inherent complexity of the system that they themselves had developed. And it has highlighted the shortcomings of the idea that self-regulation and market discipline are sufficient to ensure stable financial systems. In this regard, accepting the concept of benign neglect was a critical mistake on the part of regulators.
Rather, financial regulation and supervision have to keep pace with developments in the financial industry. Moreover, national authorities need to be aware of the risk that their powers may become narrow compared to the sphere of influence of the global financial players.