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26 June 2008

This week in "Brussels"




Articles from 19 June 2008 - 26 June 2008

Commission takes action to ensure that six Member States implement EU laws
The Commission will refer Latvia to the European Court of Justice over its failure to implement into its national law a Directive on company law, and Hungary over its failure to implement one of the Capital Requirements Directives.  View Article

Single Market News No 50
The newsletter contains a special feature on the EU actions to counter the international financial turmoil. The EU wants a refocusing of financial supervision to permit better anticipation and management of market problems, says Jörgen Holmquist.   View Article

New research centre to focus on financial regulation
The HM Treasury announced the launch of a new International Centre for Financial Regulation at the end of the year that will focus entirely on financial regulation which will be led by Barbara Ridpath as CEO.  View Article

FDIC and FSA sign Memorandum of Understanding
The MoU will provide formal information-sharing and contingency planning arrangements in connection with cross-border banking activities in the US and the UK.  View Article

McCreevy - No need to revise E-Commerce Directive
“I don't see the need for us to burden ourselves with more rules and regulations”, Commissioner McCreevy said, underlining that the E-commerce Directive doesn't need to be revised at this time.  View Article

EFR / FSR joint statement supports colleges of supervisors
The European and the US Financial Services Roundtable support the setting up of colleges of supervisors for each of the largest financial institutions as proposed by the Financial Stability Forum.  View Article

Commission to propose new framework of consumer contract law
Commissioner Kuneva announced coming forward with new legislation this autumn for creating an EU-wide set of rules governing online transactions across Europe.  View Article

FDIC approves Basel II-based standardized approach
The proposal would provide banks with the option to adopt an alternative risk-based capital framework based largely upon the Standardized Approach set forth in the Basel II Framework.  View Article

SEC to reduce its over-reliance on ratings
The third part of rulemaking on Credit Rating Agencies focused on the way the Commission's own rules refer to and rely upon credit ratings.   View Article

FASB - Improving US GAAP still FASB focus
Members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board are already thinking about how the transition from US GAAP in favour of the IFRS will affect their standards setting activity although no date has been set for U.S. companies.   View Article

Treasury Ryan – stakeholders have to move past the rhetoric
"Dire predictions by market participants that regulatory changes or significant changes to market practices will result in the evaporation of liquidity tend to obfuscate reality”, U.S. treasury assistant Anthony Ryan said.   View Article

Fed Kohn - consolidated supervision needs to be updated
The Fed is nearing completion of enhancements to its supervisory guidance to clarify its role as consolidated supervisor of bank and financial holding companies, vice chairman Kohn said.  View Article

Treasury Paulson called for new powers for the Fed
The most difficult question is how to create an entity that performs the function of the market stability regulator, Paulson said, noting that ‘we must limit the perception that some institutions are either too big or too interconnected to fail'.  View Article

ECON draft report on Lamfalussy follow up - Future Structure of Supervision - Rule 39
Rapporteurs Ieke van den Burg and Daniel Dăianu propose a comprehensive reform of current EU regulatory and supervisory arrangements and request the Commission to come forward with proposals on several issues.  View Article

CEBS Annual Report 2007
The Annual Report summarises the work in 2007 and early 2008. The recent financial turmoil and the review of the Lamfalussy process have greatly increased the workload of the Committee.   View Article

EBF Economic Outlook June 2008
Banks have started rearranging their strategies and focussing more on traditional banking businesses to prevent further losses, the report says.  View Article

Banks face five year wait to recover lost revenue from Sepa
Almost half of European banks expect it to take over five years to replace payments-related revenue lost following the introduction of SEPA, while 13% say they will never be able to recover the lost revenue, according to a poll by Fundtech.  View Article

Responding to liquidity pools
To exchanges, the emergence of “dark pools” of liquidity has been a threat. But now some of the largest exchanges are thinking the once-unthinkable: linking up with these anonymous trading venues, FT says.   View Article

LSE to create ‘Baikal’ MTF with Lehman Brothers
The LSE and Lehman Brothers will create a pan-European MTF for the execution of non-display orders. Baikal comes only days after the LSE lost out to its rival NYSE Euronext for a 25 per cent stake in Qatar’s stock exchange.   View Article

Nordic firms to launch alternative trading facility
A group of the largest banks and brokers in Sweden are teaming up to launch an alternative trading facility, called Burgundy, that will compete directly with Nasdaq OMX and other exchanges.  View Article

Chi-X Europe extends trading services to Norwegian and Danish stocks
The pan-European equity multilateral trading facility Chi-X announced that it is trading, clearing and settling five of the top component stocks of the Oslo and Copenhagen indices.  View Article

Nyse Euronext acquires 25 pc stake in Doha Securities Market
NYSE Euronext and Qatar will build a new cash and derivatives exchange in Doha, adopting the transatlantic bourse's technology, and will also work together to explore further business opportunities in the Middle East.   View Article

IOSCO final report on real estate funds
The report summarizes the answers to the questionnaire on real estate and finds that most jurisdictions make no principal difference between real estate funds and “normal” Collective Investment Schemes.    View Article

EFAMA launches new fund categorization system
The new classification aims to improve choice for pan-European fund distributors and their clients through a set of new standards designed to facilitate easy comparison of funds across the most popular investment sectors.  View Article

IOSCO final report on Hedge Funds
The report examines the existing regulations on funds of hedge funds or proposed regulations in various member jurisdictions, and identifies present issues of concern to regulators.  View Article

Pension funds devour alternatives despite fees
Alternative assets managed on behalf of pension funds by the 99 largest investment managers shot up 40% in 2007, but managers need to adjust their "towering fees", a report claimed.  View Article

Polish pension reforms deemed ‘incomplete’
The recent Polish pension reforms have been a welcome measure, though branding it as “incomplete”, the OECD calls for further stringent reviews.  View Article

IASC Foundation publishes IFRS Taxonomy 2008
The IFRS Taxonomy 2008 is a complete translation of IFRSs into XBRL that is used to communicate information between businesses.   View Article

IASB Work Plan updated
The IASB published an updated version of its Work Plan which shows the projected timetable for the publication of due process documents and final standards.   View Article

European Council 19-20 June
The Council discussed issues ranging from Ireland's referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, to the current high food and oil prices, to the future EU candidacy of countries in the Western Balkans.  View Article

ECON meeting 24-25 June
ECON held an exchange of views with the Slovenian Finance Minister, Andrej Bajuk, and had a first discussion on the draft report on the Lamfalussy follow-up. The regular Monetary Dialogue with ECB President Trichet was also on the agenda.  View Article

JURI meeting 25-26 June
JURI adopted the report on “Transparency of Institutional Investors” prepared by Klaus-Heiner Lehne and also adopted the opinion on Solvency II prepared by Sharon Bowles.  View Article

IMCO meeting 23-25 June
IMCO held an exchange of views with Commissioner Kuneva on the Annual Policy Strategy 2009 and voted on the report on the Internal Market Scoreboard.   View Article

Commission Report on Competition Policy 2007
The report provides an overview of how the instruments of competition policy were further developed and applied. It discusses and summarizes most recent initiatives in the financial services and other selected sectors.  View Article




© Graham Bishop


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