This week in "Brussels"

17 July 2008




Articles from 10 July 2008 - 17 July 2008

IIF Final Report on Market Best Practices
Mr Ackermann will today announce the publication of the Final Report on the key principles of conduct for best practices in Washington. The report contains recommendations on for the risk management, compensation policies, and liquidity risk issues.   View Article

ICMA Regulatory Policy Newsletter No.10
The newsletter touches upon the latest market turbulences and includes a summary of the IIF's Final Report to be published in July, as well as an article on the industry initiatives on transparency.  View Article

BoE paper points out expectations for future financial market developments
There will be additional focus on simpler, more standardised products, the paper states. These will be more transparent in design and content, although increased transparency should not be confused with reams of data.  View Article

EP and ECON 2009 Draft Calendar
The Draft Calendars for the EP Plenary and ECON meetings for the year 2009 are now available.  View Article

Bernanke: Financial markets and institutions remain under considerable stress
A top priority of the central bank would be to keep financial markets functioning, Bernanke said. “We could see an unwelcome rise in actual inflation over the longer term”, he warned.   View Article

Paulson calls for stronger GSE regulatory structure
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have the potential to pose systemic risks to the financial system and need a stronger regulator, Paulson said and asked Congress to enact a three-part plan that will 'establish a new world class regulator for the GSEs'  View Article

FDIC: Final Guidance on Supervisory Review Process - Basel II
The federal banking and thrift agencies issued final guidance outlining the supervisory review process for banking organizations implementing Basel II.   View Article

US regulators willing to provide more guidance on fair value
The SEC plans to meet with other regulatory and standards setting bodies to shore up the guidance on fair value accounting. Implementation will be one of the chief issues addressed.  View Article

Paulson and Bernanke press for regulatory reforms
Both regulators pressed Congress for greater supervision of the nation's financial institutions, and the creation of a system that could handle the failure of large securities companies.   View Article

FSA Japan: Financial Inspection Rating System – English version
The Financial Services Agency Japan published an English translation of the Financial Inspection Rating System for Deposit-taking Financial Institutions.   View Article

FSA Japan Newsletter May 2008
Features include a short report on the Principles in the Financial Services Industry, an Outline of Cabinet Office Ordinance Regarding Foreign Audit Firms, and the FSF report published in April.  View Article

CESR consults on UCITS company passport
The Commission requested CESR to provide advice on the structure and principles which should guide potential future amendments to the Level 1 UCITS Directive and to indicate the fields that could be addressed through Level 2 implementing legislation.  View Article

CESR consults on fair value measurement and related disclosures
The CESR statement focuses on accounting issues regarding financial instruments in illiquid markets. The statement allows CESR to stress the importance of appropriate application of measurement and disclosure requirements.   View Article

CEBS standards of common reporting dates
CEBS amends the Guidelines on COREP which were developed to harmonize reporting of the capital ratio in accordance with the Capital Requirements Directive. The amendments are valid from 2012 onwards.   View Article

BIS consults on transparency in payment messages
The Committee consults on its preliminary views on supervisory expectations relating to transparency in payment messages, particularly in anticipation of changes to technical standards for cross-border wire transfers.  View Article

ECB payment systems and market infrastructure oversight report 2007
The report provides a description of the general framework for the ECB’s oversight activities and describes the ECB’s oversight activities carried out in 2007.   View Article

IAIS to develop standards for market conduct
The IAIS announced the formation of a new Market Conduct Subcommittee, charged with developing international supervisory standards on insurers’ behaviour in the marketplace.   View Article

McCreevy: Regulation on retail investment products needs clear and simple principles
McCreevy outlined the principles that should be applied to the wide variety of retail investment products. 'We need to ensure that these principles are respected for the full suite of retail investment products and to all distribution channels', he said.  View Article

Commission proposal on UCITS review
The proposed changes to the UCITS Directive will remove administrative barriers to the cross-border distribution of UCITS funds. CESR has been mandated to provide advice on the ‘management company passport’ by 1 November 2008.  View Article

IFSL Hedge Funds report
Assets under management of the global hedge fund industry increased 30% in 2007 despite a slowdown in the latter part of the year resulting in a slowdown in inflow of new funds and a decline in average returns.  View Article

Bruegel paper: proposed Monitoring Group contains significant flaws
The Foundation’s Trustees should take a step back and consider a revised concept of oversight body, the author states. Keeping the current proposal unchanged would introduce unnecessary risks to the sustainability of the IFRS project.  View Article

BBA provides overview about recent discussion on financial reporting
The report brings together the guidance from the world's financial reporting organisations into a single document for banks currently preparing their half-year reports, and provides comments on the recent papers issued by international institutions.  View Article

European Statement on reporting issues arising from market turmoil
A comprehensive review of existing financial reporting requirements needs to be carried out to determine whether any of those requirements have intensified some or all of the problems that have arisen, EFRAG notes.  View Article

3L3 Committees consult on joint guidelines on assessment of mergers and acquisitions
The Committees agreed to reach a common understanding on the five assessment criteria laid down by the Directive for the prudential assessment of acquisitions and foster convergence of supervisory practices.  View Article

ECON meeting 15-16 July
ECON discussed the amendments made to the Solvency II draft report prepared by MEP Skinner, and the draft report on the Future Structure of Supervision in Europe prepared by MEPs van den Burg and Daianu.  View Article

Commission consultation on classifying and reporting consumer complaints
The Commission is developing indicators to provide evidence on how markets perform and proposes complaints collection bodies that could adopt a common methodology.    View Article



© Graham Bishop