The European Commission has published MiFID II in an attempt to shake up the financial markets. But with the EC's radical overhaul of the framework, how will it affect the over-the-counter derivatives market?

Turkish financial regulators are widely credited with steering the sector successfully through the global financial crisis. So why is the government abolishing their independence?

The European Market Infrastructure Regulation is designed to bring some much-needed stability to the over-the-counter derivatives market, but disagreements about exactly what it is should cover are slowing its progress. It is looking increasingly unlikely that the EU will not meet the G-20 deadline.

The European Commission has finalised its proposal on the fourth iteration of the Capital Requirements Directive. It makes the EU the first jurisdiction to pass into law the Basel III rules agreed last year. Many are worried about the impact it may have while European economies remain fragile.

On the one-year anniversary of Dodd-Frank, much may have been achieved, but almost as many rule-making deadlines have been missed. More importantly, there are growing industry concerns that lack of agreement about how to apply the extraterritorial reach of US regulation is a problem that just will not go away.

The liquidity coverage and net stable funding ratios are intended to ensure that Basel III fills the gaps left by the previous Basel accord. But defining suitable liquid assets is proving difficult.

New European regulation on credit rating agencies will soon come into force. And while everyone is in agreement on the need for improvement, opinion is divided on the best way to achieve this. So will ESMA make a difference?

The US's Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act puts onerous burdens on foreign institutions to capture data about US clients and any clients with ownership of US assets, and to report related tax information to the country's tax authorities. For banks, it is a huge task but they had better do it well, as this is likely to be the first of many such schemes. 

Since the Greek sovereign debt crisis unfolded, many European politicians have accused speculators of using credit default swaps to bet on sovereign default and thereby intensify a debt event. Research – some by the European Commission itself – has shown that this causal relationship does not exist. Yet there is significant support for action.

Regulators hope new requirements for retaining economic risk in securitisation transactions will better align the interests of originators and investors. Bankers fear that it will hike costs and capture other transactions.