Posts tagged 'financial regulation'

The Volcker Rule riddle

Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company. She's now the Head of New Projects for FT.com.

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| Jan 31 2012 16:24 | Comment |

There’s no shortage of concerns about the impact that new regulations will have. Basel 2.5 hitting the bond market, the prohibition of ratings under Dodd-Frank hurting the beleaguered mortgage market, and the restrictions on prop trading by the Volcker Rule — which may lead to a giant sucking sound where the liquidity of several markets used to be.

The concern surrounding this last one is so great that the EU is planning to complain to US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about it next month. Read more

Suspicious pre-deal trades fall sharply

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Jun 14 2011 04:00 | Comment |

The level of suspicious trading ahead of UK mergers and acquisitions fell sharply last year to 21 per cent, the lowest level since 2003, the FT reports. Last year, timely trades – defined as abnormally large share price movements in a company in the two days before a regulatory announcement – preceded 25 of 118 UK-announced deals. That was down almost one-third from the past four years, when the level hovered around 30 per cent. The fall comes as the FSA has increased its efforts to detect, prosecute and punish such trades. Read more

Geithner warns on light-touch oversight

| Jun 06 2011 21:20 | Comment |

Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, warned overseas markets against undercutting American financial regulations, urging them to avoid following the “tragic” example that the UK set in light-touch oversight, writes the FT. In outspoken remarks that outlined the US position on a range of international regulatory issues, Mr Geithner called for a global deal on derivatives and endorsed forcing the largest banks to hold more equity capital. But such a surcharge need not be “excessive”. Read more

The where and what of regulatory arbitrage

| Mar 09 2011 18:26 | Comment |

Get the little flags at the ready: on Tuesday JP Morgan Cazenove published the final installment of its trio of reports on regulatory arbitrage.

It is stirring patriotic sentiment up on Capitol Hill, with some lawmakers worried that the US’s comparative advantage will be blunted, according to Politico. Read more

Dodd-Frank vs Damien Hirst

| Jan 26 2011 14:37 | Comment |

Remember magic-eye pictures?

You know, the ones where you would stare, squint, relax your eye muscles and hey presto, a 3D picture emerges from a 2D psychedelic fuzz. Read more

S&P says new rules will hit big bank profits

| Nov 03 2010 08:22 | Comment |

The new regime of financial regulation will hit annual profits at the US’s eight biggest banks by between $19.5bn and $22bn, according to one of the first assessments of the new law. Standard & Poor’s analysts say there will be a noticeable loss of income as a result of restrictions on proprietary trading, credit card fees and derivatives activity at Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo, the FT reports. “We think that these banks will eventually be able to offset these deficits by making smaller additions to loan-loss reserves and raising prices for some products and services,” the report said. “A return to more typical banking conditions would, in our view, mitigate most, or even all, of the financial costs of Dodd-Frank for these banks.” Read more

‘Capital requirements increase systemic risk.’ Discuss.

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Aug 06 2010 10:50 | Comment |

Is this what went wrong with Basel II?

Is this what will go wrong with Basel III? Read more

The banking ‘miracle’ – debunked [updated]

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Jul 14 2010 10:45 | Comment |

The Bank of England’s executive director of financial stability has a refreshingly straight-forward answer to his self-imposed question “The Contribution of the Financial Sector: Miracle or Mirage?”

His response: Read more

JPM wishes the adults were in charge of financial reform [UPDATED]

| May 04 2010 19:15 | Comment |

FT Alphaville has only one thing to say about the following note from JP Morgan economist James Glassman: ouch. In the note, Glassman deplored US lawmakers’ “unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics”, among other criticisms.  Read more