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US regulators adopt weakened rule on derivatives trading; critics say large banks to benefit

The Canadian PressMay 16, 2013 16:47
WASHINGTON - A rule intended to loosen the largest U.S. banks' control over the trading of complex investments and help safeguard the financial system was weakened Thursday by regulators. Critics say the changes will allow major Wall Street banks to continue to dominate the $700 trillion derivatives market. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved the rule on a 4-1 vote. Commissioner Jill Sommers cast the lone dissenting vote.

China shadow banking growing fast: Moody's

Agence France-PresseMay 13, 2013 11:09
China's shadow banking activities have risen nearly 70 percent over the past two years and now total more than half the size of the world's second-largest economy, ratings agency Moody's said Monday. Shadow banking includes private lending, off-balance-sheet vehicles and trusts, and allows borrowers to circumvent banks' formal underwriting standards, as well as official regulation.

UK banks told to plug £25 billion capital hole

March 27, 2013 06:00
By Huw Jones and Matt Scuffham LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's banks must raise 25 billion pounds of extra capital by the end of the year to absorb any future losses on loans, the central bank said, less than investors had expected. Replenishing banks' capital buffers, decimated by the financial crisis and heavy fines for misconduct, is a crucial step for returning part state-owned lenders RBS and Lloyds to full private ownership by the 2015 general election.

Too soon to draw Cyprus stability lessons - U.S. official

March 26, 2013 18:45
By Jonathan Spicer NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. government official said on Tuesday that it was too soon to draw conclusions on financial stability from the bailout of Cyprus, which has rattled markets globally over the past week and a half. It is still "early days," Richard Berner, the newly appointed director of the U.S. Treasury's Office of Financial Research, said, when asked what lessons the United States might learn on the durability of financial markets.

No need to ban banks from proprietary trading - Banking Standards committee

March 14, 2013 20:45
LONDON (Reuters) - A U.S.-style ban on Britain's banks trading with their own money is not needed and would be too difficult to enforce, members of an influential committee said on Friday. Instead, Britain should use the threat of capital add-ons or other tools to bear down on any bank that shows signs of proprietary trading, said the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS).

17 of 18 US banks pass stress tests

March 7, 2013 18:31
All but one of 18 top US banks passed tough stress tests aimed at seeing if the financial industry could weather a new deep crisis, the Federal Reserve announced Thursday. Government-controlled Ally, the rescued former finance arm of General Motors, was the only bank to fail the test of capital strength. Seventeen of the banks tested showed their capital levels would hold up above a five percent minimum threshold if the economy were again rocked with the kind of crisis that sent the US financial system reeling in 2007-2008.

EU reaches deal to cap banker bonuses

February 28, 2013 03:45
The European Union has reached a deal to cap bankers' bonuses, which critics say played a major role in driving the financial crisis, officials said on Thursday. The deal was struck early on Thursday, with the European Parliament and the EU's current Irish presidency agreeing on how to implement new rules for the banking sector. "For the first time in the history of EU financial market regulation, we will cap bankers' bonuses," said MEP Othmar Karas, the negotiator for the parliament.
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