Change Overview and Rationale
On November 12 2014, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority issued Final Notices collectively imposing record fines totaling $1.7 billion on five global banking firms for alleged rigging of the FX market. The FCA found that the banks engaged in widespread conduct that put the banks’ interests ahead of those of their clients and other market participants.
The September 2013 Office of Financial Research (OFR) report entitled “Asset Management and Financial Stability” attempts to present a critical analysis of how asset management firms and the activities in which they engage can introduce vulnerabilities that could pose, amplify, or transmit threats to financial stability.
Creating a system of enhanced monitoring of systematic risk and supervision of systematically important financial institutions (SIFIs) is a key objective of global regulatory reform in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Having established criteria for determining the SIFI players in the banking and insurance sectors, the FSB and IOSCO have moved on to determining which non-banks and non-insurance companies may be considered SIFIs. In a January 8, 2014 consultative document, the FSB and IOSCO proposed a methodology for the identification of nonbank, noninsurance financial institutions (NBNI) that pose systemic risks to the global economy. The consultation document extends the framework already established to identify bank and insurance company SIFIs to all other financial entities.
On January 29, 2014, the European Commission issued its long awaited proposal for the establishment of a central database for Secured Financing Transactions. This release is a part of a larger regulatory effort aimed at increasing the transparency of certain transactions in the shadow banking sector and to prevent regulatory arbitrage. The proposal aims to increase transparency in secured financing transactions, a term which is defined broadly to include repo, reverse repo, tri-party repo, securities lending transactions as well as total return swaps, collateral swaps and buy-sell transactions.
In an apparent reaction to strong criticism from legislators, asset management industry groups, and even the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Stability Oversight Counsel (FSOC) has indicated that it may encourage stronger regulation of the asset management industry, rather than designating certain industry participants as SIFIs. In the FSOC’s press release for its July 31, 2014 meeting, the Council indicated that it was encouraged by the new money market rules finalized by the SEC one week prior, and would take a step back to observe their effectiveness before moving forward with implementation of SIFI designations for asset managers and mutual fund groups.
Last month in an address before the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) East of England Midwinter Lunch, Spencer Dale, Executive Director for Monetary Policy and Chief Economist at the Bank of England, touched on three questions about the economic recovery that we would all like to have answered: “why now, will it last, and what next for policy?”
The Bank for International Settlements has issued a second consultative paper on revisions to the Basel securitization framework. Following on their December 2012 proposal paper, this December 19, 2013 paper comprises a detailed set of proposals, including draft standards text, for a comprehensive revision of the treatment of securitisation within the risk-based capital framework.
On December 30, 2013, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published the final report on Regulation of Retail Structured Products, which provides a toolkit outlining regulatory options that securities regulators may find useful to regulate retail structured products. The toolkit was developed in response to to concerns from IOSCO members about the regulatory challenges these products pose, especially investor protection. In the aftermath of the Lehman bankruptcy, a number of regulatory approaches have been proposedto end irresponsible selling practices, rebuild investor confidence, improve overall transparency, and simplify unnecessary complexity.
Does a complex and ever changing financial system require a complex and ever changing system of regulation? History has taught us over and over again that it is not credible to argue that the financial system should be unregulated.
The systematic effect of money market funds on the wider financial system is a topic of hot debate, with finance ministers, regulators, and standard setting bodies all over the globe weighing in. The New York Federal Reserve Bank is the latest to do so, asking “does money market fund intermediation make the banking system inherently unstable?”