Seeing Like the BIS on Financial Supervision.

"Seeing" like the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) on global financial supervision offers a unique vantage point from which to comprehend deeper changes in relations between states and markets in the global political economy in recent decades. Analysis of the BIS's establishment of bank capital rules and supervisory practices is illustrative not only of the ongoing shift from a state- to market-led system for supervising global finance, but also of the major role private actors perform in public policymaking at the BIS and in the global political economy more broadly. But rather than being the intended result of "policy capture," or the unintended consequence of the BIS's search for "best practices," over-representation of the interests of the largest developed country banks in the BIS's approach to bank supervision is explained by the BIS's institutional make-up and history as a bank founded by and for big banksâ??central as well as private. Thus, through historical analysis this article demonstrates how the BIS's current approach to global financial supervision, which relies heavily on private banks to regulate themselves, and which accords a minimal role for the state, is rooted in the BIS's institutional design and identity. Since its founding in 1930 the BIS has constituted the institutionalization of state-market/public-private interaction, thus legitimizing private-sector participation in the process of public policymaking. The quintessentially private and discrete club-like atmosphere of the BIS insulates such private-public interaction from governmental control and oversight, blurs the line between the public and private spheres of policymaking, and allows private norms to shape public norms in the area of financial supervision. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]