It doesn’t just affect banks and their business associates; it also has an impact on third parties with no stake in the game. And during the financial crisis, those third parties were the taxpayers. Regulators and supervisors can rectify a market failure of this kind, and it is in the public interest for them to do just that.
It isn’t a question of whether but of how to regulate. And it is this matter of how to regulate that I would like to discuss now – not by focusing on specific legal provisions, but by outlining certain principles which I consider particularly important. 2. Regulating banks  What is the job of regulators?