RegTech IntelligenceOn 1 April 2016, the European Commission’s Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/467 relating to Solvency II – the European risk-based capital regime – was published into the Official Journal of the EU. This covers the new risk charges imposed on insurers’ equity and debt investment in infrastructure projects. Based on advice from the European Insurance and
In the post-Easter week, regulators were busy shining a spotlight on remuneration practices in the industry. We saw the EBA releasing a report looking at the high earners in EU banks and ESMA focusing on sound remuneration policies under the UCITS Directive and AIFMD. The FSB also met in Tokyo to discuss their priorities for
Following the announcement of a landmark deal on international cooperation over tax avoidance last week, Tuesday saw the signing of a transatlantic pact on data transfer. Even when the EU are in the process of stocktaking the cumulative effects of regulation so far, there is clearly no break in the ongoing pace of financial markets
After a long week at Davos, there are a number of interesting conclusions from this year’s World Economic Forum. China appears to have come out less of a worry than it was when it went in, with the IMF’s Christine Lagarde stating that the country is going through a transitional stage towards sustainable growth, and
The new year has not brought any better luck for China’s economy. As stocks continue to slump, the People’s Bank has again devalued the Yuan to somewhat limited results. Meanwhile the debate over how best to control Wall Street is getting no less fiery. Bernie Sanders has made clear his intentions to ringfence investment banks
Add another category to the ever expanding list of risks posed to the financial sector with the new kid on the block: Climate Change. Climate risk has now expanded beyond sheer physical damage to companies and their assets to encompass the risks posed by investments in fossil fuels and their rapidly declining value. In response
With Stefan Ingves, Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, attending last week’s Institute of International Finance (IIF) Annual Membership Meeting in Lima, the Basel III topic made its way into the discussion. Looking ahead to the next twelve to eighteen months, Mr Ingves highlighted that the Committee’s policy agenda would be focused on
By Helen Pykhova, Director, The OpRisk Company, and Meredith Gibson, Head of Legal Risk, Santander UK. Introduction The reader will agree that we live in the age of regulation. There is an enormous amount of change coming out of the new legislative and regulatory publications and the sheer number, scale and complexity of the initiatives
JWG analysis. Following the introduction of the new ringfencing law, due to come into force 1 January 2019, the biggest UK banks strongly voiced their concerns. Although this new law will be difficult (and expensive!) for all banks involved to implement, firms with more global and diversified business models are facing additional complexities. In particular,
Helen Pykhova, Director, The OpRisk Company, and Elizabeth Roberts, Managing Director, Sheffield Haworth, share their thoughts on the identity of an operational risk professional. Over recent years, the importance of the operational risk profession within financial services has undoubtedly increased. This has been due to a number of reasons, such as major corporate failures and
JWG analysis. On 21 July 2010, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank for short) into law. Since its inception, the number of pages of Dodd-Frank related rules has risen to 22,296, representing over a 550% increase on the 4,049 pages released in the first year. It may have
JWG analysis. With a number of regulatory deadlines looming, we thought we’d remind you of another one – mark January 2017 in your calendars (if you haven’t already) for MiFID II. The aftermath of the recent financial crisis exposed weaknesses within Europe’s current Economic and Monetary Union and highlighted the need to strengthen it. Although
JWG analysis. As we pointed out in our third piece on regulatory reporting, and at an Infoline conference for the buy-side this week in London, the overarching question is how will firms’ derivative activity be judged to be ‘good enough’ in 2017? There is no single answer, and we won’t really know until the results
JWG analysis. While most of us basked in the holiday spirit, the regulatory Grinches were hard at work. In the two-week period between 19 December and 2 January, regulatory bodies in the UK, EU and US alone published over 40 critical documents. JWG’s tracking revealed a broad range of subjects. CRD IV/CRR, BRRD, UCITS V,
JWG analysis. 60 attendees across the buy and sell-sides came together at Markit’s seminar in Stockholm last month to discuss today’s industry challenges. They concluded that a new focus on establishing a flexible banking operating model to meet both business and regulatory demands for data, processes and standards, is top on their wish list for 2015.
JWG analysis. The challenges of gaining oversight over the financial system are not going unnoticed. We come back from the summer holidays with 5 leading indicators that suggest we are on the brink of bad news. Bad news that is likely to spread far and wide. Firstly, in a new report, the US Government Accountability
In our previous articles we’ve explored the expanding requirements for robust systems and risk controls under MiFID II, the nature of proportionality as it relates to algorithmic trading and the new accountability implications for senior managers. This article, written by Meredith Gibson, Head of Legal Risk, Santander UK plc and Helen Pykhova, Director, The Op
JWG analysis. As the sun slips back into hibernation, schools reopen and autumn looms, regulators, lawyers, risk specialists, change managers and compliance professionals are returning to their desks. Here at JWG we have been busy tabulating the enormous level of movement in the regulatory space during the summer. For those of you lucky enough to
JWG analysis. This summer, regulatory pressure on financial services firms has ratcheted up to unprecedented levels. Many may have breathed a sigh of relief as Dodd-Frank rule-making slowed … but the respite was only fleeting. Since July, the industry has been bombarded with 39 new consultation papers (in the EU and UK alone) just as
JWG analysis. The BCBS appears to be putting the screws on national regulators to expand the scope of their Risk Data Aggregation Principles to affect more banks. Now Singapore is the first to react. June has been a busy month for all regulatory agencies, and the BCBS is no exception. With 3 consultations, 2 sets
JWG analysis. June has been a busy month for all regulatory agencies, and the BCBS is no exception. With 3 consultations, 2 sets of principles and 1 regulatory consistency assessment as well as a 2013/14 annual report published in this month alone, we can see 5 years from the crisis that international standard setting is
JWG analysis. This month the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation published a proposal amending the Annual Stress Test rule. The Annual Stress Test rule, originally published in October 2012, requires that non-member banks and FDIC insured state-chartered savings associations with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion conduct annual stress tests. The proposed amendment to
JWG analysis Last week, long after the news of Super Tuesday which reshaped the EU regulatory landscape, Europe made MiFID II, MAR, CSMAD, DGSD and the BRRD law of the land. The final Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) , weighing in at a slim 69% fewer pages thanks to repagination, appears to be
JWG analysis. On 15 April the European Parliament formally adopted the Regulation on Central Securities Depositaries (CSDR), a crucial piece of the new EU landscape for securities trading. The impact will be far reaching – and not just for Europe. As firms chart their way through MiFID II and global OTC reform, they will be
JWG analysis. Without a consolidated viewpoint on what new risk data requirements mean, firms will be at a loss when it comes to determining best practice. We are in the middle of a massive, global industry transformation with many rulebooks. With divergent regulatory timelines, standards and existing data architectures a common and holistic ‘best practice’
JWG analysis. On Tuesday, 15 April the European Parliament approved several new reforms to manage banking sector risk and ensure that shareholders, not taxpayers, pick up the tab for the next crisis. Now the political work is done, the MEPs are busy campaigning, and it’s up to the industry and ESAs to work out how
JWG analysis. Last week, Nasdaq OMX became the first infrastructure provider to be authorised as a Central Counterparty (CCP) under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). The decision sent waves of mild panic rippling through the OTC markets, putting the focus back on an issue that was already predicted to pose problems for European banks
JWG analysis. The Prudential Regulation Authority last week published a consultation paper that threatens to impose stricter requirements on international banks operating UK-based branches. The new proposals have been designed to ‘ensure the stability of the UK financial system’ by promoting ‘safety and soundness’, including requirements for increased transparency, resolution measures to protect investors and
JWG analysis. The Fed made some concessions in timing and scope, but pressed ahead with measures to insulate the US financial sector from future bailouts earlier this week. The news stoked fears that European regulators may look to reciprocate, triggering a race to the highest common denominator when it comes to determining capital buffers, and potentially
JWG analysis. EU and US taxpayers scratched their heads in disbelief this week as the regulators made it painfully clear that they have squandered both years and billions with little to show for it. The politicians that gathered in Pittsburgh were quite explicit – they want OTC transparency. Did they expect that, nearly five years
By Conor Foley, Hume Brophy. This alert summarises the key provisions of the proposed Regulation on structural measures improving resilience of EU credit institutions (SBR proposal) and the proposed Regulation on reporting and transparency of securities financing transactions (TSFT proposal). Both proposals were published on 29 January by the European Commission and follow the 2012
Counterparty classification regimes, such as CRD IV and EMIR, give banks a good reason to centralise their reference data, and the BCBS’ Risk Data Aggregation Principles provide a clear framework for doing so. From 1 January 2014, under CRD IV, firms will need to calculate CVA and hold additional capital on all derivatives contracts. However,
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has finally published its final draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) (here) on supervisory reporting for CRD IV. Long awaited, the technical standards set out the near-final reporting requirements, as part of COREP, for own funds, financial information, losses stemming from lending collateralised by immovable property, large exposures, leverage ratio and
The FSB has produced a revised set of guidance on the implementation of recovery and resolution planning, based on a consultation issued last November. This may have an impact on how national authorities draft and interpret their RRP regimes, with consequences for legal, treasury and back office functions. The direction taken gives welcome breathing room
On Thursday, consultation opened on secondary legislation from the Banking Reform Bill, which centres on implementing the Vickers recommendations to ring-fence retail banking activities. The legislation will have potentially large consequences for KYC on-boarding, risk and corporate governance. Banks are required to identify and report their ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ deposits. Core deposits must be held
The IMF has released a working paper on Systemic Risk Monitoring detailing the policy options and methodologies available to regulators to accurately measure systemic risk. The problem is that, although touted as being a practical guide, none of the options given are a solution to the problem of “how can we measure systemic risk?” “The
Given the exponential growth of reporting requirements since the crisis, firms often ask: ‘Where does all this data go and who has the time to look through it all?’ In fact, recent statements by regulators have made this question all the more valid given that regulators’ data systems, it is increasingly apparent, often suffer from
Shadow banking could soon force infrastructure upgrades and additional business costs– will the industry find ways to ease the pain? As repos, securities and, potentially, CCPs become part of the transparency agenda via new shadow banking regulation, this could result in infrastructure upgrades and increased business costs looking set to be on their way in
With the world’s most systemic banks having made it through the first round of invasive living wills in 2012, regulators now have their sights on the Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI). Central Counterparties (CCPs), payments systems and exchanges will have a lot to do in 2013 and could do well to heed some lessons from their
Finally, after months of anticipation, European Commission President José-Manuel Barroso outlined his “decisive deal”: a big picture vision of an ideal, sound roadmap for Europe’s financial future. The EC proposes to create a single supervisory mechanism for banks in the euro area – starting on 1 January 2013. Under the proposals the European Central Bank
Europe’s first Capital Requirements Regulation report is imminent – even through the European Parliament has yet to pass the act. Now regulators need policy alignment to save the industry €24.2 billion. In July, JWG’s new research highlighted that regulatory standards were critical to saving €24.2 billion. After conducting an extensive survey of 80+ people in
The G20 says OTC regulation was to be finalised by end 2012. But, with at least 34,000 more pages of regulation expected by 2016 from the US alone, firms need to upgrade their BAU. Following the G20’s meeting in April 2009, the pathforward for regulation on OTC derivatives seemed clear. In the shadow of the
SIFI assessment criteria are becoming increasingly stratified and are coming to financial institutions near you. Higher capital surcharges, ring fencing, ‘unplugging’ and new living will reports are all parts of a solution to combat ‘too big to fail.’ Some economists contend that the banks that are too-big-to-fail enjoy a lower cost of capital because they