News
CFTC Chair Highlights Effect of Regulation on Liquidity
In a May 10, 2017 address, acting Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) J. Christopher Giancarlo highlighted some unintended consequences regulation is having on the swaps markets. In his speech before the International Swaps and Derivatives Association 32nd Annual Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal Giancarlo talked about the changes to swaps trading liquidity, market fragmentation and regulatory comity in the post-reform global swaps markets. After providing an overview of how some aspects of the misapplication and miscalibration of regulatory reforms were harming global liquidity, he provided some astute observations on how to alleviate some of the harm being done to swaps markets in particular.
Clock Runs Out on CALPERS’ Lehman Claims
On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision which ended California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (“CaLPERS”) efforts to spin off its own Lehman-related claims from a larger class action because the claims were filed late. The Court held that the three-year time limit in Section 13 of the Securities Act of 1933 is a statute of repose.
Fed General Counsel Addresses the New Compliance Landscape
In a May 9th Address, Michael Held, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, gave his thoughts on the new compliance landscape. Held told his audience at SIFMA’s Compliance and Legal Society Monthly Luncheon that in recent years the role of compliance within supervised financial institutions has grown dramatically in size, scope, and relevance. He also said that since the financial crisis, risk and compliance functions have grown in respect and stature across the financial services industry. Despite this new stature, however, those charged with monitoring compliance at financial institutions face an environment that has become perhaps “too rules-based.” Held offered his thoughts on firms and compliance personnel can meet these new challenges.
CFTC Seeks Input on Simplifying Regulations
In a speech before the US Chamber of Commerce’s 11th Annual Capital Market Summit, the CFTC’s acting Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo announced a new project to simplify the agency’s regulations. Remarking that, “America’s derivatives markets are struggling, in some cases, under the weight of flawed and excessive regulation,” Chairman Giancarlo introduced the CFTC’s new focus on reinterpreting its regulatory mission consistent with the goals of the Trump Administration’s Executive Order on regulation:
No Regulatory Relief for Securities Finance
The latest legislative offering in the U.S., the Financial CHOICE Act, does nothing for securities finance. Nothing in the bill provides an exemption to the funding markets from the crushing weight of regulatory reform. At present, both political parties in the US seem willing to accept an outcome where the global funding markets are road kill from the reform steamroller. Many experts believe this legislative failure is due to analytic omissions on the regulators’ part. In that scenario, regulatory analysts simply don’t understand the global funding mechanism.
Are Bank Regulations Harming Small Businesses?
A Federal Reserve Report published on April 18, 2017 found that U.S. small businesses are facing hurdles in obtaining much-needed financing for growth. The study indicated that small businesses presently face significantly more stringent credit conditions when approaching their traditional sources of loans for equipment and expansion. The Fed report itself does not point the finger at regulation as the cause for this restriction in the ability of small businesses to access credit. However, large banks have had to tighten credit conditions significantly as a result of increased capital requirements, liquidity restrictions, and stress tests. Because these big banks are the primary source of the for all business financing in the U.S., and the number one source of loans to small businesses, any restrictions on the flow of financing arising out of new banking regulation will perforce affect small businesses.
Financial CHOICE Act 2.0
On April 19, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) published a discussion draft of his Financial CHOICE Act (Version 2), updated from his original 2016 draft (Version 1).
FSB Publishes its Sixth Annual Shadow Banking Survey
The Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) sixth annual shadow banking survey found that the shadow banking market remains robust and growing, equivalent to 13 percent of total financial system assets and 70 percent of the GDP of 28 covered jurisdictions.
Fed Paper Seeks Optimal Capital Ratio for U.S. Banks
A working paper published on April 3, 2017 by the US Federal Reserve attempts to quantify the costs and benefits of bank capital to arrive at an estimate of the optimal capital ratio for U.S. banks. In their paper,[1] authors Simon Firestone, Amy Lorenc, and Ben Ranish begin their analysis by estimating to what extent the probability of financial crises falls as bank capital rises and calculate the output costs of a financial crisis. Against this cost, the authors then balance the cost of equity, a more expensive source of funding for banks than debt. The authors conclude that interest rates would rise by around seven basis points if banks pass on all of the increase in the cost of capital to borrowers. Balancing the difference between costs and benefits, they estimate that the optimal level of capital is between 13% and 26%.
Basel Report: “Repo Markets are Not Settled Yet”
An April 12, 2017 report issued by the Bank for International Settlement’s Committee on the Global Financial System (CGFS) takes stock of the state of repo markets. Drawing on a number of sources, the report surveys the landscape of the repo markets, taking into account the effects of the financial crisis, changes in the regulatory landscape, and the unprecedented period central bank stimulus.