Daily Financial Services News Reports in Chronological Order and Additional Material
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Daily financial services news reports in chronological order and additional material 1. General reform covering multiple topics 8.3 Remuneration and bonuses 1.2 Conflicting political agendas 9.1 Clearing and settlement, moving OTC derivatives onto exchange/central counterparties - regulatory 2.1 Global "wholesale products" 2.2 EU 9.2 Payment systems and non-consumer banking 2.3 UK domestic 11.1 Insurers/reinsurers/life offices 3.1 Macro-prudential 11.2 Insurance brokers and intermediaries 4.1 Supervision of firms and individuals 12. Funds 4.2 Enforcement (civil and criminal) 13.1 Consumer banking and finance 5.1 Too big to fail 13.2 Retail investments 5.2 Systemically important firms 13.3 Consumer protection and rights (inc FOS) 5.3 FSCS 13.3A OFT enforcement 5.4 Funeral planning 13.4 Competition 5.5 Rescues and administration/Special Resolution 13.4A State aid clearances 6.1 Groups, colleges of supervisors and local entity 14. Building societies and other mutuals (friendly regulation societies, credit unions, industrial and provident societies) 6.2 Extending regulation - holding companies, bank-like activities, systemically important offshore entities 15. Getting the third pillar to work - active investors and listed company regulation 6.3 Offshore havens and tax 16. Business as usual (inc money laundering and 7. Financial regulation (general) bribery) 7.1 Liquidity 7.2 Capital 7.3 Trading book capital 7.4 Accounting 7.5 Stress testing 7.6 Securitisation 7.7 Credit rating agencies 7.8 MiFID and securities regulation (inc market abuse and short selling) 8.1 Governance and risk management 8.2 Non-exec directors 1. General reform covering multiple topics Chronological materials Speech by Adair Turner: Responding to the financial crisis: challenging past assumptions (30 November 2009) Text of the above, given at the British Embassy in Paris, follows. Topics include: the causes of the crisis (he notes that this "was not just a crisis of specific institutions or regulations, but of economic theory"); optimal capital requirements and leverage; trading and market liquidity; financial transaction taxes and remuneration (he notes: "in the long run ... sector-specific incomes policy would be unenforceable. It would take investment banks no time at all to work out ways round such rules, such as shifting people from employee to self-employed status"). (30/11/09) Responding to the financial crisis: challenging past assumptions FSA Board minutes FSA has published the minutes of its meeting held on 24 September 2009. Topics included: Mortgage Market Review; RDC's quarterly report; the Listing Authority Advisory Committee's annual report; Turner Review FS; new UK liquidity regime; future of financial capability; FSA fee regime. (30/11/09) http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/board-minutes/sept_09.pdf The Warwick Commission on International Financial Reform: In praise of unlevel playing fields The report recommends the following policy reforms: regulation needs to be formally more counter- cyclical, risk taking must be matched to risk capacity for the financial system to be resilient; regulators must have the flexibility to apply tighter regulatory requirements on systemic institutions, instruments and markets; greater emphasis must be placed on host country regulation and incentives for the financial sector and for financial firms to grow in size and influence, and to concentrate on short-term activity, must be offset, perhaps through additional capital requirements for large institutions and financial transaction taxes. Adair Turner has contributed a foreword. (27/11/09) http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/research/warwickcommission/report/swc_report.pdf (NB: 80 pages long) Speech by Adair Turner: CBI Conference (23 November 2009) Text of the above follows. He discusses the causes of the financial crisis and the role of the financial sector, noting "we should ask whether society is getting these crucial financial plumbing services as efficiently, at as low a cost, and with as little risk, as possible. That does not mean we can define precisely how large the financial system should be. It doesn’t mean that we know how much trading is optimal, nor that we can easily define some products as beneficial and others as harmful. But it does imply an important and profound shift in regulatory philosophy. In the years running up to the crisis, it was the strong mindset of the FSA – shared with regulators and central banks across the world, it was almost part of our DNA – that we assumed that financial innovation was always beneficial, that more trading and more liquidity creation was always valuable, that ever more complex products were by definition beneficial because they completed more markets, allowing a more precise matching of instruments to investor demand for liquidity, risk and return combinations. And that mindset did affect our approach – and the approach of the whole world regulatory community – to the setting of capital requirements on trading activity; it affected our willingness to demand risk reduction in the CDS market; and it influenced the degree to which we could even consider short-selling bans in conditions of exceptional market volatility". (23/11/09) Speech to the CBI Annual Conference HoL Economic and Financial Affairs, and International Trade (Sub-Committee A): Debate on the future of EU financial regulation and supervision The Sub-Committee's report on "The Future of EU Financial Regulation and Supervision" was debated in the HoL Chamber on 10 November 2009 in conjunction with the HoL Economic Affairs Committee's report on "Banking supervision and regulation". A link to the relevant section of Hansard follows. (12/11/09) UK Parliament - Lords EU Economic and Financial Affairs, and International Trade Sub- Committee A HoL EU Select Committee – Sub-Committee A: Debate on the future of EU financial regulation and supervision The Sub-Committee has published a letter of response from the Vice Chairman of the EC with regard to its report and notes that the report will be debated in the HoL Chamber on 10 November 2009 in conjunction with the HoL Economic Affairs Committee's report on banking supervision and regulation. Separately, the Sub-Committee is to hear oral evidence from Lord Myners on Tuesday 10 November and will give evidence on EU financial supervision and on the AIFM Directive. (4/11/09) http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/CommissionResponseeufrs1.pdf Speech by Adair Turner: Examining the causes of the financial crisis (29 October 2009) Text of the speech, given at the Economic Club of America and National Journal Group, follows. Topics include: causes of the crisis, including how it was "a crisis of economic theory"; optimal capital requirements and leverage; trading and market liquidity; regulation of pay; financial transaction taxes. (2/11/09) Examining the causes of financial crime DP09/4: Turner Review Conference Discussion Paper This DP focuses on two key issues: systemically important banks and, how to assess the cumulative impact of capital and liquidity reforms. Section 3 covers the issue of how to deal with systemically important banks which are seen as ‘too-big’ or ‘too-inter-connected-to-fail’ and considers how systemic importance can be defined and assesses policy options. Annex 1 sets out a more in-depth consideration of how recovery and resolution plans will be applied in the UK, potentially serving as a blueprint for international initiatives. Section 4 examines a potential approach to assessing the cumulative impact of reforms to the global capital and liquidity regime and considers the case for banks and investment banks conserving capital now, in anticipation of higher international regulatory requirements (22/10/09) http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/discussion/dp09_04.pdf (NB: over 60 pages long) HMT: Speech by Paul Myners (15 October 2009) Text of this speech, made at the Chatham House Global Financial Regulation Conference, follows. He proposes specific areas where the EU should concentrate to develop a better regulatory system. (16/10/09) Chatham House Global Financial Regulation Conference - HM Treasury HMT: Speech by Paul Myners (6 October 2009) Text of this speech, made at the UBS Corporate Governance Forum, follows. He comments that "the debate surrounding the response to the global financial crisis has to date focused on the failures of regulation and supervision ... a similar debate needs to be opened in the institutional investment community about whether a fundamentally short-termist strategy is appropriate to service the liabilities of the nations savers and pension participants; why so much emphasis is based on quarterly performance, appraised relative to an index when the fundamental beneficiaries of those investments have liabilities that span lifetimes; why governance and good stewardship is marginalised. ... For a long period inadequate governance practices went unchallenged and unchecked in the global banking sector. Employees, directors and even whole companies were not held to account until their performance collapsed and value was destroyed. ... Investors and their agents need to recognise the issue and acknowledge the value they put at risk by failing to rise to the challenge of being good and effective owners. They need to work together to bring about a new enlightenment in governance and stewardship, placing it at the heart of capital allocations and efficient, effective and accountable investment decisions. (9/10/09) UBS Corporate Governance Forum - HM Treasury Speech by Adair Turner: The