America’s new capital framework makes few concessions. It is more demanding than anything yet contemplated in Europe By Melvyn Westlake

BASEL – Significant variation in the way that some of the world’s largest banks assess credit risks in their banking books is revealed in the latest study undertaken by the Basel Committee aimed at trying to ensure a fair and consistent application of its global rules. Many of the largest banks determine the risk weighting they assign to their assets (RWAs), according to their own internal models. The level of these RWAs sets the amount of safety capital banks should hold.

BASEL – Global banking regulators released two consultative papers in late June on the treatment of derivatives-related transactions under the Basel bank capital adequacy framework.

WASHINGTON - The US government is hampered in its efforts to assess global insurance issues by restrictions placed on US access to information by international organisations, according to top US regulator Roy Woodall.

BASEL – The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in June it has extended the term of office of BIS general manager Jaime Caruana to end-March 2017.

LONDON, FRANKFURT, BRUSSELS – Insurers named regulation, and in particular the European Union’s embattled Solvency II project, as their number one risk in the latest “Banana Skins” survey organised by the London-based think tank, the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI).

MOSCOW – A three-month delay in Russia’s implementation of the Basel III bank capital rules, along with some dilution in their application, is unlikely to result in any change in the level of capital held by the country’s larger banks, according to Fitch, the credit rating agency. The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) announced a retreat in early July from the stricter proposals originally adopted.

WASHINGTON – By the end of this year, US regulators expect implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, which launched the largest regulatory overhaul of the financial system for decades, to be substantially complete, according to Mary Miller, the treasury undersecretary for domestic finance.

BASEL – Banking supervisors should adopt a risk-based approach to supervising banks’ management of risks arising from money laundering and the financing of terrorism, global regulators said in June.

SYDNEY - ANZ bank's growing Asian operations are facing some constraints as nations in the region implement new global banking rules in different ways, Graham Hodges, the Australian bank’s chief executive, said in July.