Evolving hierarchies in transnational financial networked governance:the relationship between the International Accounting Standards Board, the Financial Stability Board and the G-20
Karsten Nowrot focusses in his contribution, Evolving Hierarchies in Transnational Financial Networked Governance: The Relationship between the International Accounting Standards Board, the Financial Stability Board and the G-20, on the structural features of and in particular the interrelationships between a number of influential transnational steering networks in one notable segment of the international financial architecture, namely the international standard-setting activities in the realm of financial reporting; an area of economic and business law that is frequently and rightly considered to be of central importance for transnational business. Following an introductory discussion of the functions as well as limits of the network concept as an analytical tool for the description and conceptualization of transnational steering regimes in the international economic system, the main part of the contribution is devoted to an analysis of the recently emerging hierarchical relationships between three transboundary steering networks, the private International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the intermediate Financial Stability Board (FSB) as well as the intergovernmental Group of 20 (G-20). On the basis of the findings made in this section, the final part is devoted to an evaluation of the underlying reasons for and motives behind the evolution of these hierarchical structures, prominently among them the efforts by state actors to establish—or rather re-establish—governmental steering capacity vis-à-vis the activities of private international standard-setting bodies, thereby providing, on the basis of mechanisms of public accountability, for a certain remedy to the legitimacy challenges these non-governmental networks are frequently confronted with.