The role of control in the international financial crisis

The impact of the great financial crisis that started in the United States with the implosion of subprime loans has drawn the public's attention on one of the most innovative branches of financial market, the famous derivatives.The financial crisis and the involvement of major banking institutions thus call for some thinking about the concept of control in Italy and the globalized world. In Italy, even though the scale of the risks connected with transactions in derivatives is limited, some banks may have damaged their reputations by pushing complex derivatives products onto unwitting clients.Apart from reassurance and all kinds of justifications, and without arguing whether this was deliberate or not, the monetary authorities, Consob and ABI, have clearly reported the risk of a world financial crisis too late.