News
Securities Finance Faces ‘Fickle’ Future
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.
Deglobalizing or Reglobalizing?
On June 30, 2017, the Bank For International Settlements (BIS) published the results of a study examining trends in bank deglobalization since the financial crisis. Prompted by data indicating a decline in cross-border activity by banks, the BIS launched a study to determine whether the data support the hypothesis that the largest global banks have truly scaled back their cross-border activity since 2007, or whether it might be an indicator of some other trend.
Fed urges Recalibration, Not Repeal, of Dodd-Frank Reforms
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.”
Does LIBOR Have a Future?
The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) has been the primary short-term reference interest rate for nearly fifty years. Following a scandal wherein employees of rate-setting banks were implicated in manipulating LIBOR, U.S., European, and other regulators embarked on efforts to reform or replace the benchmark rate. At its height, LIBOR was the global benchmark interest rate for an estimated $300 trillion in derivatives, loans, and mortgages.
Four Disruptive Elements Drive Regulatory Activity
In her keynote address at the 2017 Brodsky Family Northwestern JD-MBA Lecture Series, CFTC Commissioner Sharon Y. Bowen described her thinking on the key trends driving regulatory activity. Commissioner Bowen identified “four disruptive elements” she believes are substantially responsible for changes that have been seen recently in financial markets. In turn, these disruptive elements are prompting questions about what they mean for markets and society, and what actions we should ask from regulators.
Beefing Up Public Company Audit Reports
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.
BIS Postpones Final Act of Basel III
In a sparsely worded press release on January 3, 2017, the Bank for International Settlements announced that the January 8 meeting of the group of central bank governors and heads of supervision (GHOS) has been postponed. At this meeting, the GHOS were to finalize long awaited rules that will determine how much capital lenders have to set aside against loans and other assets. Citing unfinished work necessary to calibrate banks’ risk-weighted capital ratios, BIS chose to move finalization off for the present.
Treasury Dept. Issues Regulatory Core Principles
In response to Executive Order 13772, on June 14, 2017 Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin published a report identifying recommendations for changes to the regulation of the U.S. financial system in a manner consistent with the Executive Order’s “core principles.” Some of the “core principles” laid out in the executive order are addressed in bills currently being debated in Congress. The report takes up some of these same issues, but with slightly different approaches than those proposed by legislators.
Is Final Basel III Just Around the Corner?
In speeches on April 5 and May 25, 2017, William Coen, Secretary General of the Basel Committee, hinted that final Basel III standards are “just around the corner.” Despite a setback in January 2017 in which the Committee members could not reach accord on the calibration of the aggregate output floor, Coen signaled optimism for the upcoming meeting the Committee in June.
FDIC’s Hoenig Offers Market-Based Cure for Regulatory Ills
In a keynote address before the Systemic Risk and Organization of the Financial System Conference in California on May 12, 2017 FDIC Vice Chairman Tom Hoenig announced his novel market-based proposal to strengthen the financial system and provide regulatory relief and foster long-term economic growth. According to Hoenig, even after the financial crisis, “the U.S. financial system remains heavily subsidized, increasingly concentrated, and, despite a host of new efforts to safeguard the system, it continues to be vulnerable to inevitable financial shocks.”