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01 July 2010

This week in "Brussels"



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  Articles from 24 June 2010 - 01 July 2010

  Financial Services Policy

 
 
 
Joint Barroso and Van Rompuy statement on G20: The EU is on the right track for the G20 Summit in Seoul on financial sector reforms
The G20 has responded with determination to keep the pace for making the financial sector more resilient to crises and risk. The EU and its partners agreed to make the financial sector participate in the costs of repair, resolution and prevention and recognized the bank levy as a useful instrument.   View Article
 
ECON committee on the debt crisis: long-term stability strategies and more European Parliament involvement needed
MEPs say that to solve the root problem and to prevent future crises, individual EU Member States need to improve their fiscal and structural policies and the EU as a whole needs an "economic governance framework".  View Article
 
ECON committee: Eurostat should have more powers
The legislative resolution looks at ways to strengthen the Eurostat and to improve EU budget statistics. It calls for a harmonised system for statistical data and implies possible sanctions on Member States that falsify their statistics.  View Article
 
Belgian Presidency working programme: Focus on the creation of a new supervisory structure at EU level
The Belgian Presidency will pay attention to the coherence and cumulative effect of these various reforms. Crisis prevention and resolution tools will also be on the agenda and must be improved, in particular those intended to deal with systematically-failing institutions and cross-border problems  View Article
 
EU economic governance: the Commission proposes a reinforced macro-economic, budgetary and structural surveillance
The EC presented a set of tools to strengthen the economic governance of the EU. They will include enhanced surveillance based on a "European semester" and will also address macroeconomic imbalances among member states.  View Article
 
ECB’s Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell: Towards a safer financial system
Speaking at the at the US Financial Services Roundtable, she stressed that it is important to adopt and implement the regulatory requirements for the mandatory central clearing of all eligible products and the reporting of trades to trade repositories in a timely manner.  View Article
 
G20 Summit Declaration paves way to further delay reforms
G20 members agreed on a reform agenda including financial infrastructures, capital standards and resolution systems. However, member states also noted that the standards would be “phased in over a time frame that is consistent with sustained recovery and limits market disruption.”  View Article
 
European Liberal Leader regrets the G20´s incapacity to define global economic governance compromises
Guy Verhofstadt declared that the European Union can be pleased that its ambitious objectives to reduce the public deficits have been an example, but the G20´s incapacity to define global economic governance compromises the simultaneous plea to support growth and employment.   View Article
 
IMF: G-20 leaders aim for balanced growth, revival of jobs
The IMF released in Toronto its assessment of scenarios for improving growth. IMF Strauss-Kahn noted that more robust growth is needed both to reduce unemployment and to lessen the burden of large public debts.  View Article
 
BIS: Fiscal consolidation and financial sector reform are what's needed now
BIS notes in its 80th Annual Report, that the steps taken by governments and central banks prevented a financial system meltdown and helped bring to an end the great contraction in global economic activity. The policy tasks that lie ahead are also analysed in the Report.   View Article
 
IMF sets out ideas to build on crisis response after G20 meeting: Governance reforms under way key to legitimacy
The G20 had agreed on the need for further reform of the financial sector. With the goal of addressing the still existing gaps in the “global financial safety net,” Strauss-Kahn stressed t that further reform of the IMF’s lending instruments could provide another step in this direction.   View Article
 
FSB interim Report to G20 leaders: Good progress has been made
The report is satisfied with the progress reached on new global standards to strengthen bank capital and liquidity, and limit leverage. FSB chair Draghi also called for an effective resolution regime for the too-big-to-fail problem.  View Article
 
CEA urged G-20 to recognise differences between insurers and banks
CEA argues that the business model and risk profile of insurers make them so distinct from banking sector that it is inappropriate to apply regulatory responses, mainly focused on the banking sector, to the financial services sector as a whole.  View Article
 
Italian Consob: For euro, we need to construct the missing pillar, the political union
Cardia, president of Italian Consob (National Commission for the Corporations and Stock Exchange), noted that the trust of markets will be consolidated when Europe has a common fiscal policy and budget, based on sustainability and balance.  View Article
 
NYT: Bank Fee is eliminated in financial bill
Conference negotiators voted to eliminate the proposed tax and adopted a new plan to pay the projected five-year, $20 billion cost of the legislation.   View Article
 
FDIC: Supervisory Insights Journal - Summer 2010
The issue features articles including a discussion of key supervisory considerations related to loss-sharing agreements and suggestions for how examiners can assess bank compliance with amendments to Regulation Z affecting open-end credit plans.  View Article
 
NYT: On Finance Bill, Lobbying Shifts to Regulations
Well before Congress reached agreement on the details of its financial overhaul legislation, industry lobbyists and consumer advocates started preparing for the next battle: influencing the creation of several hundred new rules and regulations.  View Article
 
US Congress reached agreement on financial reform bill
A House-Senate conference committee approved proposals to restrict trading by banks for their own benefit and requiring banks and their parent companies to segregate much of their derivatives activities into a separately capitalized subsidiary.  View Article
 
Washington Post: House passes financial overhaul - Senate leaders postpone vote
The House approved new financial regulations, but Senate leaders postponed a vote on the bill, preventing the landmark legislation until at least mid-July.  View Article
 

 
  Banking

 
 
 
CRD III: European Parliament caps bankers' bonuses
The new law will end incentives for excessive risk taking. It introduces a different bonus culture based on stability and restrains bonuses for bailed out banks. Moreover new capital rules for re-securitisations and the trading book will ensure banks are properly covering trading activity risks.  View Article
 
Bankitalia: Italian banks resist the crisis, but are less profitable.
Bankitalia´s controls of Italian banks show that higher degree of surveillance resulted in good liquidity of the banks at the moment, despite accentuated risk in the financial sector.   View Article
 

 
  Securities

 
 
 
Commission consults on the review of the market abuse directive
The revision of MAD is aimed at increasing coordination of action among national regulators and reduces the risk of regulatory arbitrage. ESMA should play a key role in enhancing a common approach by regulators and ensuring greater cooperation with other important jurisdictions outside the EU.   View Article
 
IOSCO Task Force on Commodity Futures Markets published a progress report for the G20
IOSCO report presents the progress in improving the transparency and oversight of oil markets. The report focused on topics including volatility and the role of new participants in futures markets; transparency and market surveillance.   View Article
 

 
  Insurance

 
 
 
CEIOPS published its Spring 2010 report covering the insurance, reinsurance and occupational pension fund markets
The report reveals that the insurance industry faces several risks and challenges going forward, the most prevalent being financial risks. The pension funds were primarily hit by the crisis in their role as institutional investors.   View Article
 

 
  Asset Management

 
 
 
EU Parliament vote on AIFMD postponed to September
Jean-Paul Gauzes, a French conservative deputy who is in charge of steering the EU assembly's report on hedge funds, said in a statement that 'the Spanish Presidency of the EU was not able to present a suitable compromise text agreeable to all sides.'   View Article
 
Commission acts to improve investor protection and efficiency in the EU investment fund market - UCITS
The new rules improve the efficiency of the UCITS market in the EU by introducing new possibilities for the pooling of assets from different funds, by simplifying the cross-border distribution of UCITS and by better coordinating the work of national supervisors.   View Article
 

 
  Corporate Governance/Accounting

 
 
 
IASB proposes improvements to disclose requirements for Level 3 fair value measurements
IASB proposes to enhance its original proposal by requiring the measurement uncertainty analysis disclosure to reflect the interdependencies between unobservable inputs used to measure fair value in Level 3.  View Article
 
EFRAG launches public consultation on its proactive work
EFRAG’s work seeks to demonstrate thought leadership in Europe, promote discussion and debate on key financial reporting issues and influence the IASB’s thinking at early stage in the development of IFRS.  View Article
 
CESR comments on IASB’s ED Financial Instruments: Amortised Cost and Impairment
Relevance, transparency and enforceability are key elements in the development of accounting standards. CESR believes that the IASB and prudential supervisors should try to align different reporting requirements for financial institutions as far as possible in order to reduce burden for issuers.   View Article
 
FASB issues update on amendments for fair value measurement and disclosure requirements
This proposed update is the result of the Boards’ joint efforts to ensure that fair value will have the same meaning in U.S. GAAP and IFRSs and that their respective fair value measurement and disclosure requirements will be the same.   View Article
 
IASB and FASB proposed a new joint standard for revenue recognition
If adopted, the proposal would create a single revenue recognition standard for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) that would be applied across various industries and capital markets.  View Article
 

 
  Competition: Financial Services

 
 
 
Commission authorises extension of bank support schemes in Ireland, Spain, Denmark and Hungary
The extended schemes feature higher premiums to be paid by the banks for the guarantees and liquidity granted by the State. This aims to encourage banks to finance themselves without state support and to limit distortions of competition.  View Article
 
Commission approves Spanish restructuring aid for Caja Castilla-La Mancha
The Commission's assessment concluded that the orderly break-up of Caja Castilla-La Mancha ensured that the sold business became viable without continued state support. Caja Castilla-La Mancha will give up its banking licence and be transformed into a foundation.  View Article
 

 
  Financial stability - policy analysis

 
 
 
Bruegel: Towards a system to secure the euro
Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of Bruegel, analyzes the following three aspects of Eurozone governance: strengthening of budgetary discipline, surveillance of the eurozone countries’ competitiveness and provisions for crisis management.   View Article
 

 

 
  Future Events
 
  GrahamBishop.com  is pleased to support some not-for-profit conferences, and to highlight forthcoming public hearings on key financial services issues.
   
  Conferences
 

 

6-7 July 2010: Paris Europlace Financial Forum (further information)

 
28 until 30 September 2010: Eurofi financial forum co-hosted by the Belgian Presidency on legislative priorities of the Commission and the European priorities for the incoming G20 meeting (further information)
 
30 September -1 October 2010: Eurofinasand Leaseurope Conventions 2010 will take place in Hamburg (further information)
 
14-15 October 2010: The EVCA Venture Capital Forum 2010 in Copenhagen (further information)
  Hearings
 
 

2 July 2010: EC Public hearing "Market abuse: promoting deterrence, market integrity and investor protection", Brussels (further information)



© Graham Bishop


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