Category: Federal Reserve
The Volcker strip – making banking less regulated again
US regulators have disclosed the much awaited revision of the Volcker Rule that had been taken on by the Trump administration. Wall Street has undoubtedly received a huge win, but who is likely to bear the losses? The Volcker Rule was implemented after the financial crash to stop banks from engaging in proprietary trading (buying […]
The LIBOR of a thousand faces
On 20 October 2014, ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) published a position paper on the evolution of ICE LIBOR. The paper moves past the issues of manipulation and envisions a root and branch reform of the methodology. As the new administrator of LIBOR since 3 February 2014, IBA found that each benchmark submitter has developed its […]
5 Fall Foul of Fed Stress Tests
The FT is reporting that 5 of the 30 banks which were subject to the Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests have failed to have their capital plans approved, restricting dividend payouts to investors. The five due for resits are Citigroup, Zions Bancorp, and the US units of HSBC, RBS and Santander. Despite meeting the 5% […]
SEC to FRB- are you sure about that?
Speaking to the Institute of International Bankers early this week, SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher gave an interesting speech criticising the imposition of one-size-fits-all capital requirements on differing market participants. His views are particularly relevant following the Fed’s final rule forcing large non-US banks to effectively submit all their US subsidiaries to costly FRB regulation. He […]
Federal Reserve to foreign banks- you’ll have to pay to play
The Federal Reserve yesterday announced a final rule requiring the largest foreign banks to adhere to enhanced US domestic capital and liquidity standards. The rule applies to approximately 100 non-US banks with consolidated global assets of $50bn and over. Non-US banks with at least $50bn of assets located in the States will have to manage […]
Push-out squeezed in before year end
Bloomberg reports that the Federal Reserve completed enactment of the swaps “push-out” rule (also known as the “Lincoln Amendment”) on Christmas Eve. As expected, a bill in Congress to repeal the controversial Section 716 did not survive its Senate passage. The final version is unchanged from its most recent drafting in June 2013. The rule […]
FRB and FDIC Raise the Bar in RRP
On 15 April 2013, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a press release providing revised guidance for large US banks and foreign banks with USD 250 billion or more in total nonbank assets in completing their 2013 resolution plan submissions and granting an extension to the filing date for […]
Cross-border Resolution Compromised by US capital and liquidity plans?
This is a link to an article in Risk Magazine regarding proposed US capital and liquidity rules for foreign banks that may undermine attempts to address the issue of “too-big-to-fail” with respect to international banking institutions. In December 2012, the Federal Reserve Board published proposals designed to provide greater comfort that US operations of foreign […]
Large Banks Submit First Resolution Plans Under Dodd-Frank
2 July 2012 was the deadline for nine of the largest US and foreign banks to submit their first resolution plans to the FDIC and the Federal Reserve Board pursuant to requirements enacted under the Dodd-Frank Act. An executive summary of each resolution plan will be published by close of business on 3 July 2012. […]