Financial Gatekeepers: Can They Protect Investors? »

Yasuyuki Fuchita is senior managing director at the Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Resarch in Tokyo, Japan.

Robert E. Litan is vice president for research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. He is a senior fellow in Economic Studies and Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution and is currently the director of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center on Regulatory Studies. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books, including Financial Crises: Lessons from the Past, Preparation for the Future (Brookings, 2005), Financial Statecraft (Yale University Press, 2005), and Globaphobia: Confronting Fears about Open Trade (Brookings, 1998).

Capital markets in developed nations have devised a set of institutions and actors to help provide investors with the timely, accurate, information they need to make informed investment decisions. These actors have become known as "financial gatekeepers" and include auditors, credit rating agencies, and financial analysts.

The successive bankruptcies of Enron and WorldCom shook the economic and political establishments in the United States and elsewhere around the world. Corporate financial reporting scandals called into question the legal framework governing these gatekeepers. Policymakers have since responded by imposing a series of new obligations, restrictions, and punishments—all with the purpose of strengthening investor confidence in these important actors.

Financial Gatekeepers provides an in-depth look at these new frameworks, especially in the United States and Japan. Are they working? What further refinements are needed? This timely volume provides new and authoritative insight into these important issues.

Contributors: Leslie Boni (University of New Mexico), John Coffee (Columbia Law School, Zoe-Vonna Palmrose (University of Southern California), Frank Partnoy (University of San Diego School of Law), George Perry (Brookings Institution), Justin Pettit (UBS), Paul Stevens (Investment Company Institute), and Peter Wallison (American Enterprise Institute).

Preface
1. Introduction - Yasuyuki Fuchita and Robert E. Litan
2. Financial Gatekeepers in Japan - Yasukuki Fuchita
3. How and Why Credit Rating Agencies Are Not Like Other Gatekeepers - Frank Partnoy
4. Maintaining the Value and Viability of Auditors as Gatekeepers under SOX: An Auditing Master Proposal - Zoe-Vonna Palmrose
5. Analyzing the Analysts after the Global Settlement - Lesli Boni
6. Conclusion - John Coffee
Contributors
Index