NAIROBI – The Central Bank of Kenya is undertaking a number of initiatives that should eventually allow the country to adopt the new, Basel II capital standard for banks, which is starting to be introduced around the world this year. Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), said in late August that among the most critical prerequisites for his country’s adoption of Basel II was the shift to Risk-Based Supervision (RBS), which began there in 2004. RBS focuses on “assessing the adequacy of banks’ risk management frameworks in identifying, measuring and mitigating inherent business risks,” he explained in a speech at the opening of the 7th East African banking School.

NEW DELHI – The unsatisfactory performance of India’s credit rating industry is a major threat to the successful adoption of the international Basel II bank safety rules by the country’s banking system, according to one of India’s leading research institutes.

SEOUL – South Korea’s financial services watchdog has hired veteran banking regulator William Ryback, who retired in August from a top-level role with the Hong Kong regulator, as a special adviser with the aim of reinvigorating implementation of the complex Basel II bank safety rules. An aspiring Asian financial centre, South Korea is due to start putting the rules into effect in January.

HONG KONG - Yiu-Kwan Choi took over from September 1 as deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) with responsibility for banking stability on the retirement of William Ryback at the end of August.

LONDON – Europe’s reinsurers are hoping for the best from the autumn meeting of America’s state insurance supervisors at the end of September in terms of proposed reforms of US reinsurance regulation and the associated collateral rules that have long vexed foreign reinsurers.

SYDNEY – Australia’s regulators have released reporting requirements, set a risk-weight for capital requirements on margin lending and issued guidelines on credit rating agency recognition in respect of the Basel II bank safety rules.

Stricter guidelines proposed under the forthcoming Solvency II regime should mitigate the impact of increased risk for European insurers whose exposure to the recent turmoil in credit markets has been limited as a result of successful risk management approaches and systems, according to a leading credit rating agency.

Europe’s commodity traders and supervisors agree that the tricky issue of European regulation must be tackled. But the Commission is leaving few clues about its ultimate thinking

European banking regulators overestimate the extent of credit risk in the commodities derivatives business and have consequently drawn incorrect conclusions about resulting systemic risk, according to RWE Trading, the trading arm of Germany’s RWE energy group.

As the draft legislation to reform the insurance industry starts its passage through Parliament, supervision questions and third-country issues are coming to the fore.