Banks resigned to hefty increase in regulatory trading capital, but fear proposed measures will lead to double counting By Melvyn Westlake

Industry standards board asked to develop global best practices framework, as Europe and America move towards legislation By Roger Aitken

LONDON, April 2 (Global Risk Regulator) – World leaders agreed in London today that all institutions, markets and financial contracts that could threaten the stability of the financial system should be subject to regulation, thus bringing hedge funds and credit rating agencies under closer supervision. The blacklisting of tax havens also features in the communiqué from the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit.

LONDON, April 2 (Global Risk Regulator) – As world leaders today endorsed the principle of fair value accounting, America’s accounting rule-makers voted to relax rules that critics say have deepened the global financial crisis and exaggerated bank losses.

LONDON, March 30 (Global Risk Regulator) – A regulatory reform agenda that prevents the kinds of systemic risks shown up by the global financial crisis from occurring again is a major task facing this week’s Group of Twenty (G20) summit in London, according to US president Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Global Risk Regulator) – US president Barack Obama will underscore at next week’s Group of Twenty (G20) summit the need to raise standards of financial regulation across the globe and encourage “a race to the top rather than a race to the bottom,” US Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers today.

BRUSSELS, March 26 (Global Risk Regulator) – A compromise deal that breaks the stalemate over Europe’s Solvency II reform of insurance regulation will ensure a “prudentially sound directive”, despite leaving out controversial cross-border group support provisions for the time being, a senior European parliamentarian said today.

LONDON, March 19 (Global Risk Regulator) – The UK government, the host of next month’s Group of 20 (G20) summit on the global financial crisis, declined comment today on reports that the meeting will adopt an agreed global plan for stronger regulation.

BRUSSELS, March 20 (Global Risk Regulator) – European Union leaders today set themselves an end-of-year deadline for agreeing ambitious reforms of financial supervision in a bid to make markets safer for investors, Reuters news agency reports from Brussels.

Congress and President’s Working Group are likely to propose a new, powerful stability regulator. But what institution should do the job? By Melvyn Westlake