WASHINGTON, April 19 (Global Risk Regulator) – Maintaining an integrated global financial system is especially important as policymakers seek to reduce systemic risk from so-called interconnectedness, the world’s top financial regulator has told the finance ministers of the biggest economies.

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Global Risk Regulator) - The Group of Twenty (G20) economies plan to task the Financial Stability Board (FSB) with overseeing the reform of financial benchmarks such as Libor, according to Reuters news agency.

Two senators prepare legislation to hike bank capital ratios and scrap Basel III. Stunned reaction to admission megabanks are ‘too-big-to-jail’ By Melvyn Westlake

Report shows only three countries have key bail-in powers as IMF warns that oversize banking is more dangerous than ever By David Keefe

Attention is turning from regulatory overhaul to future growth. An EU Green Paper sets out possible approaches and obstacles By Melvyn Westlake

Latam banks push ahead; Singapore scores

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

BASEL – A significant toughening of the current framework for measuring and limiting banks’ large exposures to single counterparties is proposed by the Basel Committee in a consultative paper, issued in late March. It intends this new regime to be complementary to its Basel III capital and liquidity standards. The proposed rules governing large exposures will have a binding Pillar 1 status in line with Basel III standards, rather than come under a softer, Pillar 2 approach that permits greater supervisory discretion. However, the Committee has decided not to specify internationally harmonised supervisory actions to be taken when a bank breaches the limit.

BASEL – Financial lobby groups are pushing back against the Basel Committee’s proposals to tighten the global rules for securitisations, warning that this will starve the economy of credit. They insist that bank issuers and sponsors of these products have already achieved significant progress in making this industry safer since the 2007-09 crisis.

BRUSSELS – The first pillar of a eurozone banking union dropped into place in mid-March, six months after the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, issued proposals for the establishment of a single supervisory mechanism (SSM) for banks, within the European Central Bank (ECB).