The drive towards radical reforms of financial regulation is weakening as financial firms seem to be returning to calmer waters. The proposals that now appear to be having a higher probability of adoption leave the financial structure and its regulation substantially unchanged. An analysis of the systemic crises, or potential ones, that, starting from the 1970s, have interested countries at every stage of development, suggests that the current crisis is the last manifestation of an evolution that has produced an endogenous push to increasing financial fragility. A more radical approach to regulatory reforms is then required if we want to lessen the probability of a new major crisis within the next ten years, a period that will find the official authorities with depleted ammunition to fight it.

JEL: E44, G1, G18, G28