Insurance expertise should be properly represented on the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and any other “macro-supervisory boards” and relevant working groups, according to the Geneva Association. The Association represents 80 chief executive officers from the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance firms. In a letter to the finance ministers of the Group of Twenty leading economies as they met in St Andrews, Scotland in early November, the Association acknowledged that the financial crisis means there is a need to monitor overall macro-economic risks that could threaten the stability of the financial services sector.

WASHINGTON, October 29 (Global Risk Regulator) - A top U.S. bank regulator said today a US government mechanism to dismantle troubled giant financial companies should be pre-funded, a departure from the administration’s draft legislation on the subject, Reuters news agency reported.

CHATHAM, Massachusetts, October 23 (Global Risk Regulator) – That America must collaborate internationally if the country is to build a more resilient financial system is perhaps the chief lesson of the financial crisis of the past two years, US Federal Reserve Board vice chairman Donald Kohn said today.

WASHINGTON, October 21 (Global Risk Regulator) – An effective response to the so-called “too-big-to-fail-problem” in bank regulation is likely to require multiple, mutually reinforcing laws, a US Federal Reserve governor said today.

LONDON – Despite intense lobbying by the banking industry, Britain’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) is not relaxing its proposed tough new liquidity regime in any material way for the major banks. After three consultative documents, and months of discussion with the industry, the FSA issued a policy statement* in early October setting out most of the elements of the final regime that will start to be implemented from the end of the year.

SYDNEY – Australia is among the first countries to strengthen liquidity risk management rules for banks in the wake of the financial crisis. In mid-September, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), launched a public consultation on proposals that will enhance qualitative risk management requirements for authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs); extend their ‘going concern’ cashflow projection requirements; strengthen the current APRA-defined stress testing; and introduce a standardised reporting framework for collecting regular liquidity data.

LONDON – Stress tests applied to 22 major European cross-border banking groups indicate that their aggregate Tier 1 capital ratios will be well above 9%, under a baseline scenario, reflecting current macro-economic projections. This compares with the 4% Tier 1 minimum capital ratio set under the Basel international accords. However, should economic conditions be more adverse than currently expected, this would have a significant impact on the potential losses of the banks concerned.

BASEL – Beefing up the global financial system requires well designed policies that will be robust over the long run, something that necessarily takes time, the body charged with spearheading the international regulatory response to the global financial crisis told world leaders in September.

WASHINGTON – A clear vision of future financial system regulation is needed to provide clarity and boost confidence, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the multinational agency that monitors the global economy, in its latest financial stability report. It urges governments and other authorities not to be tempted by the recent easing of tail risks (catastrophic risks) to relax their efforts to map out the path to a more robust financial system. “A holistic, understandable approach needs to be formulated so that the private sector can plan appropriately,” the IMF says.

WASHINGTON – Reinsurance regulation in the US took a significant step towards reform and modernisation in September when America’s state insurance supervisors unanimously backed a new regulatory framework, according to International Underwriting Association (IUA) chief executive Dave Matcham.