Professor Hilary Allen Testifies Before House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions
July 7, 2021
On Wednesday, June 30, Associate Professor Hilary Allen testified before a House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions Hearing on “Addressing Climate as a Systemic Risk: The Need to Build Resilience within Our Banking and Financial System.” The hearing, held in a hybrid format, featured experts from different parts of the financial sector who addressed climate-related financial challenges.
Allen teaches courses in corporate law and financial regulation at AUWCL and her research focuses on financial stability regulation. She has authored numerous law review articles and a book about financial stability, which have defined the concept, explored its precautionary and interdisciplinary nature, and considered the financial regulatory architecture needed to promote financial stability. Allen spent seven years working in the financial services groups of prominent law firms in London, Sydney, and New York, and in 2010, she worked with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was appointed by Congress to study the causes of the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
“Tackling climate-related threats to financial stability will require a coordinated and interdisciplinary approach from our financial regulatory agencies,” Allen told the Committee in her written testimony. “The economic and social impacts of financial crises can be irreversible and catastrophic, particularly for the most vulnerable members of society (who are also more likely to be suffering from the more direct environmental consequences of climate change). Because emergency measures taken once a financial crisis comes to a head will struggle to fully contain that crisis, financial regulators should take steps in advance to make the financial system more robust to the climate-related uncertainty that we face.”
Read Allen’s full written testimony here, or you can watch the video of the hearing.