Comment Pieces
Business specialists from the FRSGlobal Centre of Risk and Regulatory Excellence (CoR²E) regularly produce "Comment Pieces" on topical business issues relating to Risk and Regulatory Compliance.
You can subscribe to receive these by joining CoR²E ».
User group forum on MAS 639
This comment piece looks at the interests and concerns of banks in relation to MAS 639 - following the recent FRSGlobal user group forum.
FSA Fines
This comment piece looks at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and how it is closing in on £100m in fines since its inception in 2001.
The Bank Rescue Plan
This comment piece looks at the bank rescue plan and how full transparency is the only way to help restore confidence.
Lehman Brothers
This comment piece gives an overview of the current financial crisis.
Standardized NPR
This comment piece gives an overview of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) for Standardized Approach to Basel II in the U.S.
Adoption of IFRS in US
This comment piece examines the ramifications of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) decision to formally review the adoption of IFRS in the United States.
Risk and Regulations
Risk management and regulatory reporting used to exist in separate domains, run by separate teams. The risk management team saw little benefit, or even little sense, in the content of regulatory reporting. On the other hand, for risk-related reporting, the regulatory reporting team mediated between the regulators and the risk management team. Very often, different data sets were used for internal management reporting and regulatory reporting. Senior management quite often paid scant attention to regulatory reports as the reports' structure did not fit their needs…
Getting ready for Security by Security Reporting
The Banque Centrale du Luxembourg announced the new security by security reporting taking effect January 2009. This reporting will be mandatory for all credit institutions.
New FSA reports - August 2008
Following the FSA requirements announced in January 2008, three new reports are being made available to FRSGlobal's clients from August 2008. These reports are scheduled for live reporting from the end of September, unless alternative arrangements have been agreed. All three reports provide for a partial balance-sheet analysis, by either maturity date, impairment or interest rate sensitivity. The details are as follows…
US Basel update
This comment piece gives an overview of the US Government’s response to the Basel II mandate.
Corrigan report
The report recommends that changes to regulation should be principles-based. Sounds good on paper but let's remember that Basel II Pillar 2 (the section focusing on risk governance, stress testing, scenario analysis and liquidity risk) is already principles-based. You might argue that the principles weren't implemented in the right way but that sounds a little indistinct. Subprime shows that the principles-based approach has its limitations and there might be a need to strike the right balance between its flexibility with the need for some rules-based requirements.
The FSA and short selling on rights issues
As a result of the recent subprime crisis, financial institutions have found themselves with insufficient capital to weather the resulting losses, and coping with an overall more hostile business environment. The effects have been felt by all, with banks cutting back on lending, cutting staff and needing to raise new capital…
MiFID demands on regulatory reporting
MiFID stands for Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and is a far-reaching European regulation which imposes a comprehensive regulatory regime on investment services firms and markets throughout the EEA (EU + Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). MiFID came into effect across the EEA on November 1st 2007 it was driven by the European Commission via Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) and was transposed into law across most of the EEA countries.
New credit-exposure regulation in Singapore
As of 31 March 2009, all banks regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore will need to submit two new reports: MAS 639 and MAS 639A. The object of these regulatory changes is to limit the risk concentration of a bank. The imposition of new limits will help banks to limit contagion risk and minimise the scope for conflict of interests. The regulator has not yet published the formats for these reports. Once the report templates are published, banks can comply any time from that date onwards, up to 31 March 2009 when the reporting becomes compulsory.
CEBS
The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) recently published the comments received on its Consultation Paper on Commodities Business Regulation, and FRSGlobal is planning to participate in their open forum early next month. Following this, CEBS are expected to finalise their recommendations, which will be passed to local regulators - notably the FSA in the case of the UK - for implementation.
Getting ready for GABRIEL MER
MER stands for "mandatory electronic reporting". Its introduction by the FSA means that firms will no longer be able to submit their regulatory reports by existing means. GABRIEL system (GAthering Better Regulatory Information ELectronically) is the web-based reporting platform that the FSA is introducing for MER.
Harmonisation and Regulation
The differences and vagaries in regulatory supervision pose a real challenge to the operation of international financial institutions. Each regulator seems to have its own requirements to monitor the stability of its respective market; keeping up with the assorted regulatory changes is a real burden for banks. Given the global nature of the economy and the web of connection that this entails, one must ask the question - is it not time that there was a truly harmonised approach towards regulatory requirements?
Hedge funds and proposed changes in EU regulation
On 1st April 2008 Charlie McCreevey, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, gave a briefing to the European Parliament's Committee on Economics and Monetary Affairs, addressing the recent financial turmoil and some proposed regulatory policy responses. He discussed the roadmap on the issue of supervisory convergence.
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