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Regulatory News Follow the links below for the latest regulatory news updates... |
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| 08/05/2008 | Regulation – large US investment banks to report on liquidity, says SEC In a speech last night, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said that large US investment banks would soon be required to disclose more details on their liquidity risks to both the regulators and the public... |
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| 06/05/2008 | Regulation – GAAP to converge? Late last week, the chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Robert Herz, announced a public forum to discuss a new national blueprint for moving the US to international financial reporting standards... |
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| 01/05/2008 | Enterprise Risk Management – all actuaries are risk managers now On Monday, the UK’s Institute of Actuaries released a discussion paper, “Enterprise Risk Management from the General Insurance Actuarial Perspective”... |
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| 28/04/2008 | Basel II – Joint Forum advises on concentration risk Last Friday, the Joint Forum, the Basel sponsored body on regulatory advice, released “Cross-sectoral review of group-wide identification and management of risk concentrations”... |
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| 24/04/2008 | Sub-prime – strengthen the sales process model, says BIS The originate-to-distribute model has come under fire from all sides and is held by many to be the main cause of the sub-prime crisis in financial markets... |
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| 21/04/2008 | Sub-prime – what is round this corner? Are the markets “turning the corner” or are they simply “tacking into the wind”? Mixed messages last week give some the space to be optimistic whilst others still see things getting worse before they get better... |
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| 17/04/2008 | Basel II – BCBS to strengthen resilience of the banking system Yesterday, the Basel Committee announced steps designed to make the banking system more resilient to financial shocks and repeated its confidence in Basel II as the best solution for the risks banks increasingly face... |
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| 14/04/2008 | Regulation – US could get stranded on GAAP, says PCAOB US auditing standards risk being isolated if they continue to ignore the international developments in accounting standards based on international financial reporting standards (IFRS)... |
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| 10/04/2008 | Solvency II – regulators must operate across national borders On Tuesday, Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, told the FSA's Annual Insurance Sector Conference that Solvency II had to have regulators with cross-border information sources... |
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| 07/04/2008 | Regulation – Can Paulson restructure the regulators? Last week, Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, released his blueprint for reform of America’s financial regulatory structure to improve the competitiveness of its capital markets... |
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| 04/04/2008 | Basel II – India joins the club On Monday, the last day of their standard financial year, India, one of the world’s fastest growing economies, joined the ranks of those countries that are operating under the Basel II capital adequacy standards... |
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| 31/03/2008 | Operational Risk – there is nothing like an old-fashioned scam Borrow someone’s board room, find a senior citizen to act as a very important manager, forge some documents, invite in a large global bank and walk away with $355 million! If George Clooney is available this could be next year’s Oscar winner... |
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| 27/03/2008 | Sub-prime – rating agencies to get stricter conduct rules Yesterday, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the global securities regulators association, published proposed changes to the behaviour of rating agencies... |
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| 25/03/2008 | Sub-prime – the risk of public or private intervention Will the risk models ever be able to estimate the impact of major public of private intervention? Can we allocate funds to cover political interests, central bank intervention or public sentiment?... |
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| 20/03/2008 | Solvency II – Home/host supervision the way forward The progress of Solvency II took a significant step forward this week with the publication of the formal parliamentary report by Peter Skinner, the Solvency II rapporteur including the latest proposed amendments to Solvency II... |
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| 17/03/2008 | Sub-prime – the next domino? Yesterday, the first major Wall Street bank fell victim to the effects of the sub-prime crisis. Bear Stearns, one of the top five US investment banks, finally gave up its 85 year independence in a takeover by JP Morgan Chase... |
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| 13/03/2008 | Operational Risk – the old rules are still the best rules! Yesterday, the Markets Division at the FSA published its regular commentary, Market Watch, which, this time, focuses on systems and controls with reference to the Société Générale rogue trader” incident... |
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| 10/03/2008 | Operational Risk – EU strengthens disaster response capacity Last week the EC issued a statement about reinforcing the EU's Disaster Response capacity. A screening exercise of all its existing resources has been launched and an action plan promised before the end of 2008... |
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| 06/03/2008 | Operational Risk – people risk is key issue, says Chinese regulator Andrew Sheng, Chief Adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has committed to the continued emphasis on risk management as one of the Chinese regulator’s three key objectives... |
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| 03/03/2008 | Sub-Prime – no silver linings yet February 2008 closed with a flurry of write-downs from major financial institutions – and there is little sign that the US government will step in to help investors but will focus its resources to alleviate borrowers’ problems... |
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| 28/02/2008 | Basel II – sound risk management is more than mathematics, says FDIC’s Bair In a speech to the Global Association of Risk Professionals in New York on Tuesday, Sheila Bair, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), called for a back to basics approach in risk management... |
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| 25/02/2008 | Basel II – BIS seeks to strengthen liquidity risk management On Friday, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's Working Group on Liquidity released a paper entitled "Liquidity Risk: Management and Supervisory Challenges" highlighting financial market developments... |
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| 21/02/2008 | Solvency II misses main risk, says top European research centre A leading European research institute has said that although proposals in CEIOPS QIS4 for Solvency II are an improvement on QIS3, they still do not take into account the main risk for life insurance companies... |
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| 18/02/2008 | Sub–Prime – UK government nationalises Northern Rock In a formal statement yesterday, the UK Chancellor, Alastair Darling, announced that the government would be nationalising Northern Rock, the UK’s 5th largest mortgage lender and a victim of the liquidity difficulties... |
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| 14/02/2008 | Sub–prime – IMF wants more involvement In New Delhi, India yesterday, Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spoke on the lessons from the current financial markets crisis and the priorities in the actions that needed to be taken... |
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| 11/02/2008 | Solvency II – no changes, no delays, says McCreevy Charlie McCreevy has outlined the European Commission's Solvency II priorities for the insurance sector and assured the audience that it would proceed without late changes... |
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| 07/02/2008 | Sub–prime – US Treasury says securitization OK, but… In a speech this week to the American Securitization Forum, US Treasury Under Secretary Robert Steel came out in favour of securitization as a vehicle for risk mitigation... |
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| 04/02/2008 | Regulation – Cox and McCreevy to launch cross-regulation of US and EU securities US and EU regulators have met to discuss topics including current market volatility, accounting standards, sovereign wealth funds, credit rating agencies, XBRL developments and mutual recognition of securities regulation... |
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| 31/01/2008 | Operational Risk – sub-prime from market and credit risk to malpractice Sub-prime has raised concerns regarding credit risk and liquidity risk. Do the models work? Are the ratings correct? Has enough capital been allocated? But what of the question of operational risk?... |
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| 28/01/2008 | Pandemic Risk – US releases in-depth results of 2007 Pandemic Flu exercise The three US sponsoring bodies have released in-depth results of the Pandemic Flu Exercise held in 2007, the largest exercise of its kind held for financial services across the world... |
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| 25/01/2008 | SocGen – where were the controls? Societe Generale yesterday announced an exceptional loss of €4.9 bn due to unauthorised directional trading in 2007 and 2008 by one staff member, Jerome Kerviel... |
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| 24/01/2008 | Regulation – a first UK charge for insider trading The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has brought its first charges of insider trading against UK individuals, this after having had the legal right to do so since 2000... |
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| 21/01/2008 | Regulation – FSA to change listing criteria? Last week the UK financial service regulator and supervisor, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), issued a discussion document which investigated the future of the listing regime for companies traded on UK markets... |
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| 17/01/2008 | Basel II – CEBS reports on Pillar 3 implementation Yesterday, the Committee for European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) published the results of its survey on the EU’s implementation of the New Basel Accord’s Pillar 3 regulation... |
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| 14/01/2008 | Treating Customers Fairly – FSA releases guidance for UK firms Last week the Financial Services Authority (FSA) released good practice guidance for managers of UK authorised collective investment schemes (funds of pooled assets) concerning the Treating Customers Fairly legislation... |
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| 10/01/2008 | Regulation – EU closes the GAAP further The European Union (EU) closed the gap further regarding international accounting standards by announcing that overseas companies operating and reporting in the EU would not have to restate their accounts to EU standards... |
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| 07/01/2008 | Basel II – APRA release supervisory review process The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released an information paper on its approach to the supervisory review process under the new Basel II capital adequacy regimes... |
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| 03/01/2008 | Basel II – January 1st key date for many For risk managers and financial directors in many countries, New Years' Day 2008 marks the start of increased requirements in the calculation of risk-based capital and risk management requirements... |
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| 20/12/2007 | MiFID – UK to extend coverage of controls? The FSA has handed out a pre-Christmas present in the form of a new Consultation Paper which proposes extending the scope of MiFID beyond its current reach to previously exempt firms... |
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| 17/12/2007 | Basel II - MAS releases rules for Singapore On Friday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released its interpretation of the Basel II rules for Singapore. The formalisation of the rules follows a three year consultation process... |
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| 14/12/2007 | US markets – more Sarbox delays, more Basel II changes? Changes have been called for to the forthcoming US regulatory landscape affecting the implementation of Sarbox Section 404 for small businesses and the liquidity risk aspects of Basel II... |
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| 12/12/2007 | Islamic Finance – Europe’s key challenge, says Deutsche Bundesbank The global banking industry must start providing Sharia-compliant finance products and legislators must ensure a level playing field for Islamic finance... |
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| 10/12/2007 | Liquidity Risk – Lenders must improve stress testing, says FSA The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has urged lenders to protect themselves against a possible worsening of liquidity and credit risks and to improve their stress testing to reflect these changes... |
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| 03/12/2007 | Basel II – US loophole for Standardised Approach The Basel Committee for Banking Supervision has released “Principles for home-host supervisory cooperation and allocation mechanisms in the context of Advanced Measurement Approaches (AMA)”... |
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| 29/11/2007 | Regulation – IFRS and GAAP narrow the gap European Commission Senator, Charlie McCreevy, has praised the progress made by US regulators in helping foreign firms exist under two different accounting practices... |
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| 26/11/2007 | Sub-prime – Further pressure on rating agencies as ECB pumps in more cash At the end of last week the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it would be injecting more cash into the money markets to avoid a further drying up of liquidity... |
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| 22/11/2007 | TARGET2 goes live with first migration On Monday, TARGET2, the real-time gross settlement system for euro payments, successfully went live with over 171,000 payments, amounting to €833 billion... |
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| 19/11/2007 | Solvency II – CEIOPS issues further supervisor guidelines Last Wednesday, CEIOPS charged with managing the launch of Solvency II, published its guidelines on how information will be shared between the lead supervisor and the local supervisors... |
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| 15/11/2007 | Regulation – Corporate Governance framework updated This week the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published an updated version of its Regulatory Strategy detailing the principles by which it expects companies to abide in the name of good corporate governance and financial reporting... |
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| 12/11/2007 | Sarbanes-Oxley – Chinese banks look to return to the US Last Friday, the US Federal Reserve approved the banking licence for China Merchants Bank (CMB), to open a branch in New York, the first Chinese bank to gain such approval in 15 years... |
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| 08/11/2007 | Basel II – US loophole for Standardised Approach As expected the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), on Monday, became the fourth and final US regulator to ratify the implementation of the “Final Rule” implementing the Advanced Approaches of the Basel II Capital Accord... |
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| 05/11/2007 | Basel II – US regulatory approval at last! Last Friday, the US Federal Reserve Board finally approved the final rules for implementing Basel II in the US for core banks - those with at least $250 billion in total assets or at least $10 billion in foreign exposure... |
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| 01/11/2007 | MiFID – the markets change today! Today, November 1st is the day the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) becomes operational for the majority of the European Union’s regulated financial organisations... |
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| 30/10/2007 | Pandemic Risk – US releases results of September pandemic flu exercise The US Treasury Department along with other US financial and security organisations have released the preliminary results of the finance industry-wide pandemic flu exercise... |
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| 25/10/2007 | Solvency II – UK parliament committee seeking evidence The UK parliament has launched an investigation into the benefits and costs of Solvency II, the capital adequacy directive for the European Union’s insurance companies... |
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| 22/10/2007 | MiFID – CESR updates Market Transparency Database MiFID requires that regulators publish information on all shares which are admitted to trading on regulated markets. This information, collected by Members of the CESR, was published on Friday... |
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| 18/10/2007 | Regulation – US asks for market opinion The US Treasury has announced that it will ask for public opinion on improvements to the US regulatory structure. The Treasury Secretary will seek market input as a blueprint for an improved US financial regulatory structure is prepared... |
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| 16/10/2007 | MiFID – 15 days to go There are 15 days to go until the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) becomes operational. A lot will be expected to be effective from November 1st. Should we be worried? There are conflicting messages... |
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| 11/10/2007 | Basel II – Accord would have alleviated sub-prime crisis, says Commitee The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, in its October meeting, believes that the implementation of the Basel II capital framework would have gone some distance to alleviate the current global credit crunch... |
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| 08/10/2007 | Regulation – FSA hold back on increased transparency In a speech last Thursday by David Kenmir, the FSA’s Managing Director of Regulatory Services, to the Compliance Institute Summit 2007, he committed the FSA to being open and transparent as a regulator... |
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| 04/10/2007 | Treating Customers Fairly – FSA seeks to improve poor client documentation The FSA has released its report on the implementation of Key Features Documents (KFDs) by the industry as part of the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) requirements... |
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| 01/10/2007 | Basel II – regulating the risk weightings Following the sub-prime credit crisis, ratings agencies have been criticised by regulators and central banks for over-optimistic ratings of the key mortgage-backed securities... |
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| 27/09/2007 | Sub-prime – IMF point finger at UK The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a warning that it believes that the UK’s sub-prime mortgage market is comparable to that of the US before it went into melt down... |
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| 25/09/2007 | Operational Risk – US congress defy Bush to extend terrorism risk insurance Only two days after the White House announced that the private insurance markets should be the only provider of anti-terrorism insurance, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill extending the existing government compensation scheme for another 25 years... |
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| 20/09/2007 | Regulation – Korea bring in Basel II specialist The Korean regulator, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has announced that Basel II specialist Bill Ryback, a previous regulator with the US Federal Reserve and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, has been appointed as a special advisor... |
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| 17/09/2007 | Sub-Prime – ECB call for improved risk management ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet has said that greater transparency regarding sophisticated financial instruments and better risk management by banks and financial institutions were among the ways to restore confidence in the money markets... |
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| 13/09/2007 | Sub-Prime – where are the risk managers? Quantitative risk markets are reeling from the onslaught of the sub-prime credit crunch. The cost of borrowing has rocketed and, following failures in the US, Germany and the Australia, the first UK victim has been claimed... |
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| 10/09/2007 | MiFID – Exchanges continue to reduce trade reporting fees With less than two months to go before its November 1st implementation, MiFID has opened up the trade reporting market, breaking the current monopolies held by national stock exchanges... |
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| 06/09/2007 | Regulation – FSA guides associations towards principles-based regulation The FSA's new framework for recognising guidance from trade associations and professional bodies came into effect on Tuesday, a step which is essential in the FSA’s move towards Principles-Based Regulation... |
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| 03/09/2007 | MiFID – Transaction reporting shifted back to the Monday, 5th November Last week, the FSA announced that the MiFID transaction reporting implementation date for the UK would now be the 5th November, a Monday, and not the expected 1st November, a Thursday.... |
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© Chase Cooper 2008 |
