Sunday, July 16, 2017

Securities Finance Faces 'Fickle' Future

EU Central Banker Raises Liquidity and Collateral Concerns

Author: David Schwartz J.D. CPA

In a June 21, 2017 address before the 26th Annual Securities Finance and Collateral Management Conference in Berlin, Deutsche Bundesbank Board Member Professor Joachim Wuermeling warned that the securities finance sector faces some unique liquidity and collateral challenges. In particular, he noted that the extraordinary measures taken by central banks to shore up liquidity in the years since the financial crisis may be distorting liquidity and affecting collateral quality in securities lending and repo markets.  Measures like the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) and central bank securities lending and bi-lateral repo facilities intended to backstop liquidity in securities financing markets may, in the long run, have unexpected effects on liquidity and could have a negative effects on transaction costs and order book depth, creating “fickle” conditions for market participants. 

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Monday, July 10, 2017

Fed Reports Post-Crisis Regulation Affecting Bond Market Liquidity

Affects are real, but do not not point to any substantial impairment in liquidity.

Author: David Schwartz J.D. CPA

In its semi-annual Monetary Policy Report submitted to Congress on July 7, 2017, the Federal Reserve Board indicated that regulatory reforms since the global financial crisis "have likely altered financial institutions' incentives to provide liquidity.”  The Fed found that In recent years, market participants have been particularly concerned with liquidity conditions in the corporate bond market. This concern stems from the tendency for bonds to be traded less frequently and more reliance on dealer intermediation for liquidity provision than in many other markets. Despite these concerns, however, the metrics available to the Fed do "not point to any substantial impairment in liquidity in major financial markets.”

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Thursday, June 29, 2017

Fed urges Recalibration, Not Repeal, of Dodd-Frank Reforms

Outlines Fed's Guiding Principles for Recalibration

Author: David Schwartz J.D. CPA

In Congressional testimony on June 22, 2017, Federal Reserve Governor Jerome H. Powell highlighted the progress that has been made since the financial crisis in improving the resiliency and resolvability of the U.S. banking industry. Having achieved the primary goals of re-regulation, however, Powell believes that the time is ripe "for us to look for ways to reduce unnecessary burden." In his statement, Governor Powell urged the lawmakers on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs not to roll back Dodd-Frank reforms, but to recalibrate them.

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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Does LIBOR Have a Future?

Committee Meets this Week to Discuss Alternative Benchmark Rates

Author: David Schwartz J.D. CPA
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Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Beefing Up Public Company Audit Reports

New Standards for Public Company Audit Disclosure

Author: David Schwartz J.D. CPA

On June 1, 2017, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) voted to adopt new standards for public company audit reports. The new auditing standard, AS 3101, is the result of nearly eight years of work by the PCAOB with members of the public accounting profession, regulators, academics, and investor groups. If approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, this new standard will change the scope of the current auditor’s report. AS 3101 retains the unqualified versus qualified (pass versus fail) opinion of the existing auditor's report, but makes significant changes to the auditor's report by adding a new section highlighting what the PCAOB calls “critical audit matters” (CAM). Adding CAM to audit opinions is intended to better highlight key areas of risk information to reduce the information asymmetry between users of a company’s financial statement and the company's management.

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