Økonomisk Kriminalitet Nordiske Perspektiver - Scandinavian ...

anking system so that the tycoons of the financial system were able to circumvent
the underlying purpose of the regulations. The bad luck involved the global
economic crisis (Jännäri, 2009). It remains to be seen if the lessons from the crisis
will move the corporate culture in a more positive direction: i.e. the awareness of
risks and the benefits of effective regulation and supervision will be better
appreciated (Jännäri, 2009).
If the main causes of the banking failures in Iceland will be attributed to
deregulation and an unethical corporate culture, then it will not be for the first
time. It is well known that a key cause of the Savings and Loans debacle which
occurred in the USA in the latter half of the 1980’s, was the form taken by the
deregulation of the banking industry in the first half of that decade. Enron is
another example of how economic crime risks can arise from privatization and
deregulation (Alvesalo and Tombs, 2004; Black, 2005; Levi and Dorn, 2006;
McBarnet, 2006; Pearce and Tombs, 1997; Snider, 2000). Norway and Finland
both experienced banking crisis in the early 1990’s. In Finland the causes of the
bank failures were popularly attributed to crime and illegality on the part of
owners, directors, and managers of banks and other private companies. The result
was the use of penal sanctions. In Norway the banking crisis was understood in
purely economic and structural terms, few if any bankers went to court. In short,
the jurists won the fight of definition and explanation of the crisis in Finland while
the economists won in Norway (Alvesalo and Tombs, 2004; Larsson, 2006). With
a committee assessing the causes of the bank failures and a special prosecutor
assessing lawbreaking connected to the crisis, it will be interesting to see the
outcome in Iceland.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR REGULATORY REFORM
In Norway and Finland there have been no less than four governmental action
plans against economic crime in recent years. They have strengthened the
regulation by reforms in legislation, regulatory organization, enforcement practice
and research activities (Alvesalo, Tombs, Virta and Whyte, 2006; Larsson, 2006).
In studying the reasons for the emergence of the economic crime control initiative
in Finland Alvesalo and Tombs (2004) found that, in the early-to-mid 1990’s, the
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