Most African governments are keen to liberalise their financial sectors. Kenya’s would have sent a clear signal in the opposite direction had MPs passed proposals to cap interest rates earlier in 2012. For now, such a move seems off the table. But looming elections could change that.
The process of risk-weighting assets will become even more crucial to calculating bank capital adequacy under Basel III than it is already. Which is why there is growing dissent about the unexplained discrepancies between how different banks are measuring the same risks.
The US's Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, was widely criticised when it was enacted by Congress in 2010. Newly proposed regulations have brought with them some concessions, as well as an intent among some European countries to share this approach, meaning that the act is here to stay.
In response to a request from the European Commission, a recent consultation paper from the European pensions body looks at ways the proposed Solvency II directive for insurers could be applied to occupational pensions. Many in the industry see far more problems than solutions in its application
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 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.