This week in "Brussels"

21 April 2011



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Articles from 14 April 2011 - 21 April 2011

Banking

EBF President Christian Clausen: The challenges imposed on many banks by Basel III obligations are significant
Mr Clausen stressed that in the implementation of Basel III, it is vital to ensure a level playing field between countries. Before raising the requirements in Europe or in individual countries, focus should be put on raising all European banks to the proposed common minimum.   View Article
ECRI releases policy brief on reforming deposit protection schemes in the EU
The European Credit Research Institute (ECRI) policy brief discussed the options for reforming deposit guarantee schemes in the European Union and the advantages of harmonisation.   View Article
IPE: Deposit guarantee directive will hurt pension funds
Revisions to the EU's Deposit Guarantee Directive, which protects depositors against bank failures, could damage the interests of occupational pension schemes, the European Association of Paritarian Institutions of Social Protection (AEIP) has warned.  View Article
Nicolas Véron: Some progress in the banking reform debate
Véron argues that the policy proposals included in the ICB’s report, to be confirmed in a final report in September, are a significant milestone not only for the UK, but also for European and global banking reform.   View Article
Global finance agencies discuss risk and regulation in high level conference
Representatives from central banks, ministries of finance, and supervisory agencies from 34 advanced and emerging market countries have gathered to discuss ways to reduce system-wide risks in the financial system, and how to improve macro-prudential policy.   View Article

Securities

ECON committee debate on EMIR’s amendments
Rapporteur Werner Langen (EPP, DE) said that CFTC Chairman, Gary Gensler, had informed the ECON committee that the US Congress has postponed the adoption of the part of the Dodd-Frank Act related to OTC derivatives.   View Article
FSB progress report on OTC derivatives
Although implementation is still in its early stages, the FSB is concerned that many jurisdictions may not meet the G20’s end-2012 deadline, and believes that in order for this target to be achieved, jurisdictions need to take substantial, concrete steps towards implementation immediately.  View Article
AFME research finds true size of European ‘OTC’ equity market is nearer 16% than 40%
The discrepancy is due to the failure of MiFID reporting rules to differentiate between genuine and technical trade reporting. AFME believes that more granular and standardised reporting requirements would address this issue and provide much-needed clarity on European market liquidity.  View Article
ESMA published MiFID Questions and Answers - Investor Protection & Intermediaries
The EU's new financial market agency approved a previously agreed set of common positions among national authorities on the interpretation of MiFID.   View Article
FESE sent letter to Commissioner Barnier regarding MiFID
FESE stated that regulators can only close the current loopholes if they apply the same rules to the same activities. FESE is concerned about the potential proposal of creating a new, lighter-regulated venue category ('OTF') for activities that are currently covered by MiFID.   View Article
SEFs will improve global swaps market
A wide range of market participants believe swap execution facilities will improve the derivatives trading market, according to research conducted by Tabb Group.   View Article
IOSCO’s annual conference: Ready to face the challenges ahead
Jane Diplock, Chairman of IOSCO’s Executive Committee, said that IOSCO has rightly taken its place in the global financial architecture, and is recognised as the standard-setter for securities markets regulation by the G20 and the international financial institutions.  View Article
Masamichi Kono of Japan FSA to lead IOSCO’s Technical Committee
Mr Kono will take up his appointment at the close of the Annual Conference in Cape Town on Thursday 21 April and his term will run until 2012, when IOSCO will merge its constituent committees to form the IOSCO Board.  View Article
IOSCO published report on commodity futures markets
The report sets out IOSCO’s current work on the supervision of commodity derivative markets, market transparency and the ongoing monitoring of developments in OTC financial oil markets.  View Article

Insurance

EDHEC-Risk Institute to design a series of Solvency II benchmarks in cooperation with Russell Investments
The aim of the initiative is to enable all small- or medium-sized European insurance companies with no full internal risk mitigation model to be able to avail of an objective academic reference in order to manage the risk of their equity investments.  View Article

Asset Management

ESMA seeks preliminary views on future rules for alternative investment fund managers
The discussion paper asks for stakeholders’ views on many issues, including how to treat AIFMs whose total assets under management occasionally exceed and/or fall below the relevant threshold.  View Article

Corporate Governance/Accounting

IFAC: IAESB revised standard on professional values, ethics and attitudes
The IAESB published for public comment a proposed revision of International Education Standard (IES) 4, Professional Values, Ethics and Attitudes. IES 4 will be helpful to stakeholders who support the learning and development of professional accountants. Comments are requested by July 15, 2011.  View Article
IASB: Updated Global Filing Manual for XBRL
The Interoperable Taxonomy Architecture (ITA) Project published an updated version of The Global Filing Manual that was first published in October 2010. It has been updated to include new rules that relate specifically to Inline XBRL (iXBRL).  View Article
IASB: Effective Dates user survey
IASB and FASB published a document requesting views from stakeholders on the time and effort involved in adopting several new standards and their effective dates. In view of the limited number of responses received, the boards directed the staff to undertake further outreach activities.   View Article
Results from the responses to the September 2009 FEE Discussion Paper on “Integrity in Professional Ethics“
According to the results collected by FEE from the responses to the September 2009 DP on "Integrity in Professional Ethics", personal and professional integrity is the foremost ethical principle for business behaviour. Codes of Conduct tend to focus on the use of objectivity and independence.  View Article

Financial Services Policy

ECON committee: Smarter and tougher economic governance dominates key committee votes
A stronger policing role for the Commission, more transparent decision-making, new sanctions, and restricting EU Member States politically without choking off economically-beneficial spending are the key issues which MEPs will put on the Hungarian Presidency table.   View Article

Financial Stability - Policy Analysis

Øystein Olsen: Ensuring financial stability in turbulent times
Speaking at the Finance Norway conference Mr Olsen, governor of Norges Bank, highlighted that prevention is a key component in order to achieve a robust financial system.  View Article

Economic Crisis

Statement by the European Commission, ECB and IMF on the first quarterly review mission to Ireland
In the banking sector, the comprehensive recapitalisation and reforms are a major step towards restoring the Irish banking system to health. The credibility of the exercise has been reflected in positive market reactions, with Irish bond yields declining after the announcement.  View Article
Wolfgang Münchau: Europe’s long road of tears to fiscal union
Münchau expects the EU to pursue the ill-fated route of a “voluntary restructuring”, repeating the mistakes of Argentina in 2001. While this won’t solve the problem for Greece, it will be sufficient politically to pave the way for a top-up loan for Greece.   View Article
S&P assigns a "negative" outlook on US credit rating
The outlook adds pressure on the White House and Congress to reduce the budget deficit. Investors and others in the financial industry found S&P's statement ironic because the credit rating agency is seen as contributing to budget problems.  View Article
Statement of US Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets on US credit ratings
The US Treasury believes Standard and Poor (S&P)'s negative outlook underestimates the ability of America’s leaders to come together to address the difficult fiscal challenges facing the nation.  View Article

International/G20

G20 Communiqué: Commodity prices face increasing pressures
G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors stressed the need for participants on commodity derivatives markets to be subject to appropriate regulation and supervision. They also called for enhanced transparency in both cash and derivatives markets, as previously recommended by IOSCO.  View Article



© Graham Bishop