WASHINGTON - Leading industrial countries endorsed proposals in April to strengthen the regulatory and capital framework for crisis-scarred bond insurers. The changes should promote a reduction in the risks posed by these highly-leveraged firms. The firms, known as monoline insurers, guarantee that investors in bonds will get their principal and interest back.

LONDON – Trustees overseeing the global accounting rule-makers of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are accelerating two key reforms aimed at enhancing the integrity and transparency of their work. This will mean bringing forward to January 1, 2009 the creation of a monitoring group to oversee the Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation, the IASB’s oversight body, and an expansion of the IASB to 16 members from 14.

BRUSSELS – A key EU lawmaker is backing Europe’s insurance industry by supporting the so-called compact approach to calculating a controversial capital threshold in the proposed Solvency II framework for making the EU’s insurance industry safer and sounder.

Accounting and valuation problems move centre-stage as the political ramifications of the credit crisis hit home By David Keefe

An optional federal charter for US insurance could defuse row with EU, but formidable obstacles to implementation remain By David Keefe

EU’s largest insurance industry seems to escape lightly. But regulators worry over the way stress testing is conducted. Fourth impact study for Solvency II gets under way

BASEL, Switzerland, April 16 (Global Risk Regulator) – Global banking regulators today announced steps to strengthen the world’s banking system, while urging prompt implementation of the Basel II bank safety rules to help tackle shortcomings identified by the current financial turmoil.

BRUSSELS, April 16 (Global Risk Regulator) – The European Commission today launched a two-month consultation on possible changes aimed at strengthening the Capital Requirements Directive, or CRD, the law that applies the Basel II bank safety rules in the 27-nation EU bloc.

WASHINGTON, April 13 (Global Risk Regulator) - Financial market overhauls announced by the Group of Seven industrial powers on Friday seek to rid the system of the “perverse incentives” that caused the current global crisis, senior policymakers reported by Reuters news agency said.

FRANKFURT-am-Main, Germany, April 9 (Global Risk Regulator) – The world’s biggest banks today called, as an urgent priority, for top-level talks to tackle the limitations of the current mark-to-market, or fair value, accounting approach.