金融消费者保护:市场失灵、政府介入与道德风险的防范

金融消费者保护成为次贷危机后金融改革的一个重要方面。文章认为,在金融交易中,金融消费者处于弱势地位,金融消费者需要保护。市场可以对消费者提供一定的保护,但是由于市场失灵,无法给金融消费者提供充分的保护,也无法从根本上解决金融消费者保护问题。金融消费者需要政府(管理部门)来提供保护,但是政府并不必然比市场聪明,也会出现监管失灵。监管者的专业知识要高于普通消费者,关键是要不断提高政府提供保护(监管者保护)的有效性,防止政府失灵。加强金融消费者保护的同时,必须防范道德风险和逆向选择。

Financial Consumer Protection: Market Failure, Government Intervention and the Prevention of Moral Hazards

Financial consumer protection has become an important aspect of financial reform since the subprime mortgage crisis. Generally speaking, (1) Financial consumers need to be protected due to their weak position in financial transactions; (2) The market can provide some protection for consumers, but it is impossible for the market to provide adequate protection for financial consumers and the market can not fundamentally solve financial consumer protection issues due to market failures. (3) Financial consumers require the government (administrative departments) to provide protection, but the government is not necessarily smarter than the market, which means regulatory failure can occur. (4) The expertise of regulators is greater than the average consumer, and the key is to continuously improve the effectiveness of government protection (regulatory protection) to prevent government failure. (5) While strengthening financial consumer protection, it is necessary to guard against moral hazards and counterproductive choices.