The spotlight\'s on the way the Big Four auditing firms operate; but if less than four is bad, is a Big Twenty any better?

The draft EU law on a new insurance regime is about to emerge – as insurers name increasing regulation as their No. 1 risk

Hopes of further early progress on reforming the regulation of reinsurance business in the US, long a bone of contention with Europe, were dimmed in June when a key task force postponed a report on the feasibility of proposed reforms until the autumn.

Top Washington regulators still split over final rule for new capital standard. FDIC continues to adopt tough stance over safeguards By David Keefe

Worries over Basel II divergences resurface as bank industry leaders meet in Athens. Top regulator’s pledge on rules burden By Melvyn Westlake

US regulators have come up with new proposals to implement the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Reactions are predictably mixed By Melvyn Westlake

US regulators should be particularly cautious and prudent in making changes to the system of bank capital as it would be a mistake to assume the next 10 years will be as benign as the last in terms of economic conditions, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) vice chairman Martin Gruenberg said in late May.

May 29 was the deadline for comment on the US federal banking supervisory agencies’ proposed guidance on the advanced approaches for measuring risk under the Basel II capital rules, as detailed in the supervisors’ earlier notice of proposed rulemaking, or NPR, on implementing Basel II in the US. The deadline for comment on the NPR closed at the end of March, but many of the 14 banks and trade associations responding to the guidance prefaced their remarks by repeating their criticisms of the US interpretation of the international Basel II framework as expounded in the NPR.

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany – Despite the failed attempt by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to win support at the summit meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations in early June, for a hedge fund code of practice, German regulators are undeterred. Axel Weber, president of the Deutsche Bundesbank told Global Risk Regulator a few days earlier that he did not expect an agreement on a code this year, given the resistance of countries such as the US and Britain. But Germany wanted to “start a process.” There was growing support for the idea, and some kind of code would eventually emerge, he thought.

WASHINGTON – A regulatory regime for credit rating agencies in the US took final shape in late May, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to adopt final rules implementing the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act passed by Congress last September.