All Banks articles – Page 7
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Blog
Nouy: bank regulation must be consistent, harmonised
Image: European banks are much improved since 2012, with greater stability and resiliency. A challenge, however, is to ensure consistent and equal rulemaking throughout EU member states. That was the prognosis offered by Danièle Nouy, chair of the supervisory board of the European Central Bank, during an address to European ...
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Article
OCC will add "recovery plans" alongside big bank stress tests
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is seeking comment on “enforceable guidance” that will require banks with assets of $50 billion or more to create “recovery plans.” While resolution plans, orchestrated by the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, largely focus on liquidity and asset quality, the ...
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Article
The Silver Lining of Sharing Data on Cyber-Risks
After many months of debate, President Obama finally signed the Cyber-Security Information Sharing Act into law. The question businesses are asking: In practical terms, is it good news or yet another cyber-security-triggered migraine? While concerns abound, notably around privacy issues, companies may still find plenty to appreciate in the legislation ...
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Article
Bad News for Banks: More Regulatory Risk Is Coming, With a Political Twist
Banks can look forward to a 2016 with additional regulatory risk, with rules layered upon rules, heightened capital requirements, and cyber-security casting an ever-darkening shadow. Even political risk is a reason for concern; With a presidential race underway, calls for breaking up big banks, and reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act, are ...
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Blog
Top Banking Risks Tallied by OCC
Strategic, underwriting, cyber-security, compliance, and interest rate risks sit atop the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s list of supervisory concerns in its Semi-annual Risk Perspective. Banks continue to face strategic challenges to growing revenues to meet target rates of return in a slow-growth, low interest rate environment, the ...
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Article
U.S. and U.K. Treasury Revisit AML Risks
Image: For the first time in 10 years in the United States—and for the first time ever in the United Kingdom—financial institutions have some much-needed insight into how these two countries intend to prioritize money laundering and terrorist financing risks, enabling compliance officers to better allocate their limited resources. “These ...
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Blog
Fed Puts New Limitations on Bank Bailouts
The Federal Reserve Board has clarified its procedures for emergency lending to banking institutions and placed new restrictions on future bailouts. A final rule, approved Monday and effective on Jan. 1, broadens the existing definition of insolvency and requires that emergency lending be approved by the Treasury Department. These and ...
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Blog
Fed Proposes Liquidity Disclosures, Will Improve Examinations
Image: There was a warning last week from Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo to expect an increase to stress test minimum capital requirements and a proposed rule requiring banks to publicly disclose aspects of their liquidity profile. Also announced was an effort to improve the consistency of supervisory examinations and a ...
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Blog
FSB: Banks Must Devote Billions More to Capital Cushions
The world’s largest banks would need to collectively add as much as $1.2 trillion to existing capital buffers due to a new rule issued on Monday by the Financial Stability Board. Its final Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) standard, applicable to designated global systemically important banks, is intended to assure that ...
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Blog
House Republicans Target FSOC With Legislative Agenda
The House Financial Services Committee has approved a slate of bills at one of its favorite bureaucratic targets, the Financial Stability Oversight Council. The FSOC Improvement Act, if adopted, would allow financial firms to eliminate risk through changes to their business model before being designated as Systemically Important Financial Institutions. ...
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Blog
Regulators Boost Swap Collateral Demands, Cut End-Users a Break
Banking regulators have approved a final rule that establishes new collateral demands for swaps that are not cleared through a clearinghouse. The FDIC projects that the new requirement will add roughly a 30 percent premium to traditional swap margin requirements. A related interim final rule exempts swaps with a financial ...
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Blog
Britain’s Top Banks Escape Breaking Up; CMA Calls for More Clarity
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has squashed the idea of breaking up some of the country’s largest banks in an effort to improve competition across the industry. After a thorough review, the CMA found that there’s no direct connection between free accounts and competition. Instead, the competition watchdog ...
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Article
Insurance Companies Face New Scrutiny and Bank-Like Regulation
Image: Insurance firms are in an identity crisis these days: Regulators are treating them like banks. While insurers are trying to resist that, regulators themselves still struggle with how to make sense of the global jumble of rules, requirements, and risk generated by large firms. “There are a lot of ...
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Blog
Big Banks Agree to Preserve Records on Symphony Chat Program
New York State has reached agreements with Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Bank of New York Mellon regarding recordkeeping requirements for the Symphony chat and messaging platform, a service aimed at banks. The agreements require Symphony to retain all communications sent to or from the banks through its ...
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Blog
FinCEN Proposes AML Regulations for Investment Advisers
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is proposing a rule that would require investment advisers to establish anti-money laundering programs, file Currency Transaction Reports, and report suspicious activity. While the Bank Secrecy Act does not expressly include “investment adviser” among its list of entities defined as a financial institution, ...
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Article
How Can Compliance Manage Chat Risks? That’s Tough
Image: As the financial sector embraces the speed and efficiency of instant messaging services, compliance officers have a new challenge: how to detect misconduct in real time, not in e-discovery after the fact. Vendors are rushing in with new products; the bad news is that regulators are looking into “chat ...
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Blog
U.K. Financial Regulator Explains the New Accountability Rules
Image: The Financial Conduct Authority released “near final rules” which shows how it will apply the new accountability regimes that hold employees accountable for misconduct in U.K. branches of overseas banks. These rules further explain the FCA’s accountability reform announcement last month that zeroes in on top executives at U.K. ...
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Blog
FDIC’s Hoenig Pitches Framework for Regulatory Relief
Thomas Hoenig, vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, wants to see the regulatory burden for “traditional” banks eased, regardless of their asset size. Speaking on this week about a Congressional demand to identify outdated and unduly burdensome regulations he recommended that a bank be eligible for regulatory relief ...
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Blog
Podcast: The Volcker Rule Deadline and What's Next
Image: July 21 was a big day for banks and the beginning of the Volcker Rule’s compliance regime. The rule, a cornerstone of the Dodd-Frank Act, prohibits proprietary trading activities at federally insured banks. In our latest podcast we talk to Chris Scarpati, a partner in PwC’s financial regulation practice, ...
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Blog
Fed Hands Big Banks New Risk-Based Capital Surcharges
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve has issued a final rule that establishes risk-based capital surcharges for financial institutions designated as “global systemically important bank holding companies.” JPMorgan was handed the largest surcharge among the nation’s eight largest banks, 4.5 percent of its risk-weighted assets. More inside.