This week in "Brussels"

17 December 2008




Articles from 10 December 2008 - 17 December 2008

FSF fifth Asia-Pacific regional meeting - essential that credit flows maintain
Participants emphasized the need to supplement liquidity and capital support with measures that address the overhang of distressed assets as well as through fiscal stimulus packages to boost domestic demand.   View Article

IMF Strauss-Kahn: Actions taken so far are not enough
Government action needs to have a clear objective so that effective oversight of how public money is used is possible, Strauss-Kahn said and called for ‘stimulus measures that will last longer than one or two quarters’.  View Article

ECB Financial Stability Review warns against risks resulting from hedge funds performance
If hedge funds increasingly fail to retain their investors, the possibility of further sizeable position unwinds by the sector may pose a challenge to financial markets, the December Financial Stability Review states.  View Article

EP President Pöttering - The legislation we need cannot wait until 2010
It is time to establish “a European legal framework for this supervision in which all the Member States are represented on an equal footing, as they are in the European System of Central Banks", the EP President said.  View Article

Trichet – Implementation is key challenge to supervisory colleges
A cumbersome decision-making process in case of disagreements cannot be afforded, Trichet said with regard to the CRD review. The effectiveness of the colleges depends on their ability to facilitate decision-making for the banking group as a whole.  View Article

FDIC Bair: CRA as a scapegoat for troubled homeowner
A complex interplay of risky behaviours led to the current financial storm, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said. To be sure, there's plenty of blame to go around. However, I want to give you my verdict on CRA: NOT guilty.  View Article

US agencies approve final rule on deduction of Goodwill from Tier 1 Capital
The federal banking and thrift regulatory agencies approved a final rule that would permit a banking organization to reduce the amount of goodwill it must deduct from tier 1 capital by any associated deferred tax liability.  View Article

Fed cuts rate close to zero
The Federal Open Market Committee decided to establish a target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent. It expects that these exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate will remain for some time.    View Article

Council draft overall compromise package on Deposit Guarantee Schemes
The Council published the compromise package it would adopt given the European Parliament should adopt the amendments as expected.   View Article

SNB Hildebrand – Addressing the short-comings of the risk-weighted approach
"I strongly support enhancing current risk-weighted capital requirements with a simple leverage ratio although this should not replace the current Basel II regime", he said. "However, introducing a leverage ratio doesn’t solve everyth  View Article

Council progress report on Credit Rating Agencies
The French Council Presidency has drawn up the compromise proposal which specifies, among others, modalities of co-operation between supervisors by introducing colleges of supervisors.   View Article

Asset management industry guidelines address over-reliance on credit ratings
The Guidelines have been produced as a response to the call of the FSF on investors to address their over-reliance on ratings and to review their standards of due diligence and credit analysis when investing in structured credit products.   View Article

ETF provider launched on Xetra
ETF Securities launches six new index funds on Europe’s leading ETF trading platform.   View Article

Nyse Euronext begins migration to Universal Trading Platform
The Universal Trading Platform will be rolled out to all of NYSE Euronext’s markets in the US and Europe during 2009.   View Article

Presidency paper on the Management Company Passport
The document retraces the guarantees set out in the Presidency's compromise, which takes full account of CESR’s advice.   View Article

McCreevy not to regulate private equity
Private equity does not give rise to macro-prudential or systemic concerns and should not be lumped together with other categories of leveraged financial institutions, McCreevy said.  View Article

IASB: Change in effective date of restructured IFRS 1
The Board decided to change the effective date of revised IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards from 1 January 2009 to 1 July 2009.   View Article

EFRAG final comment letter on improving disclosures about financial instruments
EFRAG agrees with most of the proposals related to fair value measurements, but notes that the proposed definitions raise certain issues.   View Article

Commission grants equivalence in relation to third country GAAPs
The Commission granted equivalence to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles of US, Japan, China, Canada, South Korea and India.   View Article

IASB revised proposal to eliminate unnecessary disclosures for state-controlled entities
The revised exemption would not require state-controlled entities to assess the extent of state influence and would exempt such entities from providing full details about transactions with other state-controlled entities and the state.   View Article

EFRAG issues AASB discussion paper on intangible assets
Many intangible assets are recognised under existing accounting standards only when they are acquired from others. The paper intends to encourage an international debate to improve the IASB’s standards on intangible assets.  View Article

IAASB issues new ISA standards for approval
The complete set of clarified ISAs will be effective for audits of financial statements for periods beginning on or after December 2009. The IAASB plans to publish the set of clarified ISAs in April 2009.  View Article

IFAC paper on roles of regulators and profession in standard-setting process
The paper describes and explains the international standard-setting process and explains how responsibility is shared between public and private sector organizations.   View Article

EFRAG comment on Improvements to IFRSs
EFRAG sees a need for some rewording and disagrees with several areas of the IASB exposure draft.   View Article

EFRAG calls for enhanced role in standard-setting process
EFRAG concludes in its report to strengthen its role to provide “timely and effective proactive input in the early phase of the IASB process”.  View Article

December 2008
Graham Bishop’s Personal OVERVIEW - As historians look back at 2008, it will be seen as an extraordinary year that defined the end of an “age”. The list of failures seems to be lengthening by the moment. It began with the unfolding of the true magnitude of the sub-prime crisis  View Article

European Council 11-12 December
The European Council urges banks and financial institutions to make full use of the facilities granted to them, and set as a priority to implement measures to create greater stability, supervision and transparency of the financial sector.  View Article

ECON consideration on draft report on CRD
Mr Karas made clear that he will not reduce his report on the Council compromise. The directive must be coherent with other important directives, and the results of the G20 meeting need to be incorporated  View Article

Plenary Meeting 15-18 December
Parliament debated the six-month French Presidency of the EU and adopted a motion for a resolution on the CRD. It will also adopt the reports on Clearing and Settlement and Deposit Guarantee Schemes.  View Article

Commission approves Swedish rescue aid for Carnegie Bank
The Commission approved the Swedish emergency liquidity assistance to Carnegie Investment Bank AB worth €225 million granted by the Swedish authorities.   View Article

Commission approves modifications to German financial rescue scheme
"We have now finally found an acceptable solution in order to allow confidence building and credit stimulating measures in Germany including the recapitalisation of Commerzbank", Commissioner Kroes said.   View Article

Commission approves Slovenian rescue package for credit institutions
The Commission approved the Slovenian support scheme to stabilise financial markets by providing guarantees to eligible credit institutions. The scheme's overall budget is capped at €12 billion.  View Article

Commission approves Dutch recapitalisation of SNS REAAL
The Commission approved the emergency recapitalisation worth €750 million the Dutch authorities intend to grant to SNS REAAL.   View Article



© Graham Bishop