I would stress, however, that the Pact’s rules and procedures are much more flexible than commonly perceived. Moreover, we also need to keep in mind that a lot of  BIS Review 22/2004  5  thought went into the design of the existing rules. The arguments presented in the ongoing debate are not new. They were all known when the Treaty was drafted.
This observation raises the issue, which I have discussed previously, as to whether even within a particular form-based area of financial regulation we should be moving toward quite different regimes.4 The next set of questions raised by a systemwide perspective on financial regulation can be described much more briefly. It pertains to the appropriate target once a need for regulation has been established.