Proposals to deal with too-big-to-fail firms will be put to November’s G20 Seoul summit. But bankers object to any extra capital charges By Melvyn Westlake

A fundamental review of the regulatory treatment of bank trading books is underway. Bankers fear move to make trading unattractive

European Commission’s latest regulatory proposals give lawmakers chance to renew their fight to give more powers to pan-EU Supervisory Authorities, reports Melvyn Westlake

*All share orders on trading venues to be marked as ‘short’ (so-called “flagging”) if they involve a short sale.

OTC derivatives in the EU to be reported to central data centres (trade repositories), where regulators in the EU will have access.>? ESMA to be responsible for surveillance of trade repositories and for granting / withdrawing their registration.

A selection of news items generated by the American regulatory reform agenda

The Basel III capital and liquidity standards tackle some of the major shortcomings revealed by the global financial crisis, a top US central banker said in October in a further, strong and detailed US endorsement of the international agreement to toughen bank safety rules.

BERNE – Switzerland is the first country to decide it will “gold plate” the international rules agreed by regulators on September 12, aimed at significantly increasing banks’ capital requirements so that they can better withstand periods of stress. These agreed rules, known as Basel III, more than treble the minimum common equity capital that banks must eventually hold, from the present 2%, to 7% in good times. Total regulatory capital, under this agreed framework will be 10.5%.

BRUSSELS – The European Commission is putting its weight behind the idea of a Financial Activities Tax that could be levied at an EU-level, and potentially raise some €25 billion ($35 billion), on some estimates. This emerges from a ‘Communication’ issued in early October by the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, assessing the benefits and disadvantages of a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), designed to tax the value of most transactions, and a Financial Activities Tax (FAT), that falls on the profits and wages of financial firms.

BRUSSELS – Despite pressure from the banking industry, international accounting rule-makers are reluctant to adopt the US approach to netting, or offsetting, positions in the derivative contracts that banks can use to hedge the risk of adverse price fluctuations in their financial assets and liabilities, a top global standard-setter said in September.