This week in "Brussels"

02 July 2009




©GrahamBishop.com 2009Jump directly to articles on:-
Financial Services PolicyBankingSecuritiesInsurance
Asset ManagementCorporate GovernanceFinancial Services Month in Brussels - ReportCompetition issues in financial Services
About this email
Articles from 25 June 2009 - 02 July 2009
Financial Services Policy Back to top 

FSA Lord Turner calls for radical rules change
The ability to identifying emerging systemic risks will always remain highly imperfect, Turner noted. “The more fundamental change is to create a financial system with more shock absorbers."    View Article

BIS's Caruana: "The narrow path ahead"
"A key modification to financial frameworks involves strengthening the macro-prudential orientation of financial regulation and supervision”, Caruana said and called for close attention to sustainability and exit strategies.   View Article

BIS Annual Report: Better regulation is not enough
Financial instruments, markets and institutions all require reform if a truly robust system is to emerge, the report states. Financial instruments need mechanisms that rate their safety, limits their availability and provides warnings.  View Article

McCreevy sends a warning to OTC derivatives market industry
The Commission closely monitors industries commitment to clear CDS' on one or more European CCP's. “If industry is unable to deliver, we have to consider other ways to incentivise the use of CCP clearing for credit default swaps”, he warned.  View Article

Kroes: "Nationalism must be avoided."
"Europe needs a cross-border regulatory and supervisory system appropriate for the Single Market," Commissioner Kroes said. Underlining that the EU member states should refrain from a nationalistic perspective.   View Article

FSB sees signs of improvement
The FSB noted signs of improvement in the global macro-economic outlook and also in some financial markets, especially in the funding markets. They also agreed to work on exit strategies from current financial system policies.   View Article

BBA: City-Swiss Financial Round Table discusses future banking rules
Discussions were centred on how banking may look post-crisis, including proposed regulatory initiatives,  the liquidity and the risk management. Possible  changes which may be counter-productive were also discussed.   View Article

Bank of England Bi-annual Financial Stability Report
The Report assessess the current state of the financial system. It discusses ways to strengthen the system, given that market sentiment has improved recently, along with the perceptions of the bank's resilience.    View Article

ACCA: The future of Financial Regulation
"Increasing future regulatory burdens on Companies may not improve corporate responsibility or stakeholder protection", ACCA argues. The active engagement of regulated entities in their regulation is needed.   View Article

IOSCO's recommendation about the Financial Crisis for Emerging Markets
IOSCO identifies the key regulatory and supervisory challenges currently facing 'emerging Markets’ securities regulators, and sets out the recommendations needed to address these challenges.   View Article

SEC Aguilar: Hedge Fund Regulation on the Horizon
"It may be appropriate to think through whether some of the risk limitation concepts built into the Investment Company Act make sense to apply to hedge funds such as imposing limits on leverage", Aguilar said.  View Article

McCreevy: Consumer protection in financial services
“Improving consumer confidence is a key objective to response to the current financial crisis”, McCreevy stated underlining that the Commission is renewing its focus on the citizen.   View Article



Banking Back to top 

BBA: Tackling Challenges - Facing the future - Embracing change
"There is a danger that multiple measures to control banks could result in less money being available to lend to businesses and individuals” BBA chairman Angela Knight said.   View Article

Paul Tucker: Redrawing the Banking Social Contract
"There needs to be a radical simplification of some group structures", Tucker said. "It is important to bring about the kind of regime shift necessary to restore confidence and trust in the industry without a government prop".  View Article

BBA: Banks committed to building on financial inclusion
The number of people without a bank account has significantly decreased in Britian. This has helped British Banks move closer to their goal of halving the number of adults without a bank account.  View Article



Securities Back to top 

FESE reaches compromise on Harmonised Tick Size Regimes
"The agreed solution has the potential to stop the recently initiated 'race to the bottom' and support the liquidity and efficiency of European equity markets", FESE Vice-President Golfschläger said.   View Article

IOSCO consults on disclosure requirements for public offerings of ABS
The disclosure principles provide guidance to securities regulators who are developing, or reviewing their regulatory disclosure regimes, for public offerings and listings of asset-backed securities.   View Article

FSA: UK Short-Selling Disclosure Regime is Extended
The FSA extended the regime on short-selling. It annouced, "that it does not intend to keep the regime permanently."  View Article

CESR report on Transparency Directive
The report provides an overview of the differences in supervisory powers, as well as administrative and criminal sanctioning regimes across Europe and its implementing measures.   View Article

CESR: Updated list regarding Short-Selling taken by Member States
The paper includes statements or links to the statements published by CESR Members, explaining the measures that have been taken.   View Article

Dark pool pricing set to tumble as Bats Europe enters fray
Bats Europe is to enter the increasingly crowded dark pool market in August with an aggressively priced system that will reward participants that add order volume whilst charging to remove liquidity in the dark.  View Article



Insurance Back to top 

OECD: "Urgent need to reform pension systems"
"Pension reforms should include better regulation, more efficient administration, clearer information about risks, rewards of different options and an automatic switch to less risky investments," the OECD states.  View Article

CEIOPS’ Report on IMD - practical solutions and examples
The report promotes a common approach in supervising insurance intermediaries. This is particularly important given the concerns raised over “highly divergent transpositions” of the IMD in the De Larosière Report.   View Article

CEIOPS approves recommendations on Insurance Guarantee Schemes
CEIOPS reached a consensus on 13 recommendations on IGS. However, it also calls for further consideration and analysis and a deeper involvement of the industry and consumers.   View Article



Asset Management Back to top 

EVCA’s response to EC proposal on AIFM
"The Commission proposal fails to translate the distinction between different types of alternative investment funds into its proposed measures, imposing undifferentiated provisions for all alternative investment funds, " EVCA argues.   View Article

HFSB proposes changes toughening standards for hedge funds
The changes would include introducing new standards requiring fund governing bodies to appoint an independent third party to administer the fund, prepare accounting records and have an independent custodian.  View Article

IOSCO publishes principles for hedge funds regulation
IOSCO underlines that the regulatory and systemic risks arising from hedge funds need to be appropriately addressed through global action. IOSCO, therefore, recommends the application of six high level principles for all securities regulators.  View Article



Corporate Governance Back to top 

IASB consults on feasibility of expected loss model
The IASB request information on the feasibility of an expected loss model for the impairment of financial assets, and asks about the practical issues that would arise if an expected loss model was required.    View Article

EC acts to ensure that MS implement auditing and accounting rules
The EC refers Austria, Ireland, Italy and Spain to the ECJ over non-implementation into national law on the Statutory Audit Directive.   View Article



Financial Services Month in Brussels - Report Back to top 

June 2009
Importantly, the European Council decided that decisions taken by the ESA should not impinge on the fiscal responsibilities of their Member States.   View Article



Competition issues in financial Services Back to top 

Commission temporarily approves recapitalisation and asset relief for KBC
The Commission temporarily approved the package of measures that the Belgian authorities intend to grant to KBC Group N.V.   View Article

Kroes: Commission turns attention to UK banks
"UK banks need to apply business models that reduce systemic risk", Kroes said commenting on the high state support for UK banks. The City should engage in a dialogue about a change in the business culture.  View Article

Commission updates on national state aid measures to the crisis
This information is compiled from a different range of sources and is provided for people's information only.  View Article

Kroes: "National solutions to the crisis will not be enough"
"We must restructure our banking and financial services industries" Commissioner Kroes stated.  View Article

EC requests Belgium and the UK to implement Transparency Directive
Member States were required to implement the Directive in national law by 19 December 2006. Neither UK nor Belgium have enforced the Entry,  forcing the EC to request them to implement the measures.  View Article

Commission temporarily authorises recapitalisation and an asset relief for German LBBW
“An impaired asset relief measure can be a useful instrument for maintaining trust in financial markets”, Kroes said.   View Article

EC approves recapitalisation of Anglo-Irish Bank
The emergency recapitalisation of Anglo-Irish Bank amounts to €4 billion. The measure constitutes an adequate means to remedy a serious disturbance in the Irish economy, while avoiding undue distortions of competition.  View Article





© Graham Bishop