Graham Bishop.com

BIS report on BASEL III: Long-term impact on economic performance and fluctuations
The conclusions of the BIS report include that the Basel III reform should dampen output volatility; the magnitude of the effect is heterogeneous across models; the median effect is modest. View Article

FT: New EU bank stress test rules out soon
European bank supervisors are expected to agree on the new and tougher methodology for conducting stress tests on dozens of European banks. View Article

BCBS outlines revisions to the BASEL II market risk framework
The Basel Committee for Banking Supervision has released changes to the standardised measurement method, internal models approach, and the supervisory review process for the Basel II market risk framework. View Article

ESMA nominates Verena Ross as Executive Director
The Board of Supervisors (BoS), ESMA’s decision-making body made up of 27 voting members, nominated Verena Ross today for the post of ESMA’s first Executive Director, subject to confirmation by the European Parliament. View Article

Langen's draft report on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories
Rapporteur Langen’s amendments include the issue of retrospective reporting and clearing obligations for OTC derivative contracts already concluded (backloading). He argues that because of post-collateralisation, a retrospective clearing obligation is virtually impossible. View Article

MiFID 2.0: 'Casting New Light on Europe’s Capital Markets' - full report
ECMI and CEPS formed a Task Force of senior representatives of European financial markets to debate policy options and examine their implications for market integrity and stability, market efficiency and investor protection. View Article

IOSCO identifies benefits of organised platform derivatives trading
The report analyses the benefits, costs and challenges associated with increasing exchange and electronic trading of OTC derivatives, and contains recommendations to assist the transition of trading in standardised derivatives products from OTC venues onto exchanges and electronic trading platforms. View Article

ALFI's comments on and responses to the European Commission's consultation on the review of MiFID
The paper addresses, amongst others, the questions related to the possible limitation of MiFID exemptions, the modification of the “execution only” regime and the Commission’s suggestion to impose additional obligations in the context of investment advice. View Article

Bloomberg: Bernanke says Dodd-Frank Law is ‘major step forwards’
Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said the central bank is working “expeditiously” to enact the overhaul of U.S. financial regulation signed into law last year. View Article

ISDA comments on report issued by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions
ISDA welcomes the efforts of IOSCO to examine the implementation of the G20 commitments of improving transparency, mitigating systemic risk and protecting against market abuse in the derivatives markets. View Article

SIFMA addresses business conduct standards for swap dealers in comment letter to CFTC
SIFMA expressed concerns about various aspects of the CFTC’s proposal, including unintended adverse consequences for customers of swap dealers, and instances where the CFTC has gone beyond the mandates of the underlying legislation. View Article

Regulatory programmes for credit rating agencies implement IOSCO CRA principles
The four principles address quality and integrity in the rating process, independence and conflicts of interest, transparency and timeliness of ratings disclosure, and confidential information. View Article

CEA summarises key regulatory and market access issues for EC dialogues
The briefing paper contains a high level summary of the key issues faced by the European insurance industry when trading with the US, China, Japan, Russia and Brazil. View Article

Geneva Association: Core insurance activities do not cause systemic risk
In an open letter to Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G20, the Geneva Association expressed its concern at the political decision taken to develop a list of insurance SIFIs. View Article

ALFI published Q&As to KID implementation project
ALFI’s Key Investor Information Document (KID) Working Group is analysing the implementing measures adopted by the European Commission by Regulation 583/2010 of 1 July 2010. View Article

Financial News: Hedge funds show more appetite for risk
The appetite for risk appears to be increasing in the hedge fund industry, with managers increasing leverage in January, and investors showing strong interest in emerging markets and other more esoteric strategies. View Article

NAPF: Restriction of pensions tax relief - pension scheme & employer obligations
HMRC has published in draft on the registered pension schemes regulations 2011 which set out the new requirements for provision of relevant information by pension scheme administrators and some employers from 6 April 2011. View Article

EFRP on EC Green paper on pensions: MEPs set out clear recommendations on pensions
EFRP Chairman, Patrick Burke, said that "EFRP is particularly satisfied that the European Parliament has recognised the specificities of IORPs, bearing in mind that the risks in the insurance sector are different and that those differences should be reflected in the prudential regime." View Article

FN: Moody's blasts Hungary's pension reforms
Yesterday the ratings agency, Moody's, weighed in against the country's renationalisation of its pension funds - and it seemed that over in Strasburg Europe's MEPs might even have been listening. View Article

EFRAG commented on the operational efficiency of the IFRS Interpretations Committee
EFRAG published its final comment letter on the request from the IFRS Foundation for comments on the operational efficiency of the IFRS Interpretations Committee. View Article

IASB: SME Implementation Group expects public comments on its draft guidance
The SME Implementation Group, responsible for assisting the IASB on matters related to the implementation of the IFRS for SMEs, published its first draft guidance on the IFRS for SMEs in form of a question and answer document (Q&A) for public comment. View Article

EFRAG supplements comments to the IASB Exposure Draft Hedge Accounting
EFRAG published a supplement to its draft comment letter on the IASB Exposure Draft Hedge Accounting. Comments on the letter are invited by 2 March 2011. View Article

EFRAG updated its endorsement status report
EFRAG updated the EFRAG Endorsement Status Report according to the endorsement by the European Commission of Improvements to IFRSs. View Article

EFRAG commented on the IASB Exposure Draft Offsetting Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities
EFRAG published its draft comment letter on the IASB Exposure Draft Offsetting Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities. Comments are invited on the letter by 18 April 2011. View Article

APB´s revision of Guidance on Bank Reports for Audit Purposes in the UK
The APB of the FRC published a revision of Practice Note ‘Bank reports for Audit Purposes in the United Kingdom (Revised).’ An exposure draft of the revised PN was issued in July 2010 for public comment. View Article

Graham Mather: Taxation of the Financial Sector
Mather reveals that the taxation of the financial sector, through a Financial Activities Tax and/or a Financial Transaction Tax, is making significant progress up the European policy agenda. View Article

ALFI response to the European Commission consultation paper on legislative steps for the PRIPs initiative
ALFI strongly supports the creation of a level playing field through a cross-sectoral approach to the regulation of retail investment products, focusing in particular on pre-contractual product disclosure. View Article

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi: Eurozone, European crisis and policy responses
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Global Macro Conference, Bini Smaghi discussed the origins of the crisis, and then he drew some comparisons with the emerging market experience, particularly in Asia. View Article

Jürgen Stark: Central banking after the financial crisis
Stark highlighted that central banks and governments played a key role in containing the impact of the crisis by preventing a global economic and financial meltdown. View Article

Axel Weber: Europe's reforms may come at a high price
The FT published an article written by Weber whose key message is that the cornerstones of the monetary union are subsidiarity, responsibility of individual member countries, and the no-bailout rule. In other words, this is a monetary union only. View Article

A comprehensive approach to euro-area crisis: Background calculations
This background paper describes in detail the assumptions and calculations behind the results presented in Zsolt Darvas, JeanPisani-Ferry and André Sapir ‘A comprehensive approach to the euro-area debt crisis’, Bruegel Policy Brief No 2011/02. View Article

G20 Communiqué: Agreement on indicators that will allow detecting imbalances
G20 leaders stressed that one of their main priorities includes implementing medium-term fiscal consolidation plans differentiated according to national circumstances, in line with the Toronto commitment. View Article

FSB reports to G20 on progress in implementing global financial reforms
The FSB will consider, among other issues, recommendations regarding commodity derivatives market regulation and supervision in the context of the agreed reforms to OTC derivatives markets. View Article

Nicolas Véron: Will the City of London accept EU financial supervision?
Véron stressed that the City’s worst fear is to see its gatekeeper position bypassed in what remains the world’s most important transcontinental financial relationship: that between the US and Europe. View Article

Bruegel published a paper on post-crisis divergence between European and US macroeconomic policies
The major economies of the EU and the US rapidly agreed on a series of measures to limit the crisis, but the common approach has unravelled since. The Bruegel paper explores why the ‘London consensus’ has not survived for much more than a year. View Article

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Asset Management	Corporate Governance/Accounting	Financial Services Policy
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This week in "Brussels"

24 February 2011

© Graham Bishop