One key challenge for evaluation is that many of the costs of financial reforms borne by financial participants – such as enhanced reporting costs – tend to be felt immediately and are often observable.
The benefits to broader society, in contrast, can be reaped only over the longer term and are difficult to quantify: What is the probability that financial crises will occur in the future? And how devastating would their effects be? Addressing such questions, let alone providing quantitative answers to them, poses a number of challenges. Also, resources that are needed for policy evaluation.