PARIS – Credit rating agencies in Europe have made some progress in complying with new EU regulations, but they have more to do, says the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Some 19 rating agencies have registered with ESMA, which is now the industry supervisor in Europe, and applications for registration from several others are being assessed.

BASEL/LONDON – The world’s 101 biggest banks would have needed an extra €208.2 billion ($272 billion), in aggregate, to meet the Basel III minimum capital requirements had the standards been in force at the middle of last year, according to the latest monitoring exercise undertaken by the Basel Committee, which crafted the new standards. However, the shortfall is €166 billion less than it was six months earlier.

NEW YORK – Financial sector reform must go forward, despite intense pushback from industry, at least in part because the “oversize banking” model of too-big-to-fail institutions is more dangerous than ever, according to the world economy’s chief watchdog.

BASEL – The Financial Stability Board (FSB), responsible for coordinating implementation of the post-crisis global financial reforms, has appointed new chairmen to three of its key standing committees overseeing respectively the global financial system, the impact of financial regulation, and adherence to international standards.

CANBERRA – Wayne Byres, currently secretary general of the Basel Committee of global banking supervisors, is to head Australia’s banking watchdog from June 2014, the Australian Treasury said in April.

LONDON – Britain’s new so-called “twin-peaks” system of financial regulation will be much better focused than the single regulator model it replaces, according to Andrew Bailey who heads the new UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

BOTTMINGEN, Switzerland – Top global financial regulator Jaime Caruana backs the controversial idea of a global capital rule to guard insurers against unexpected losses, something to which the United States is opposed.

BASEL – Global banking regulators propose cracking down on banks exploiting a loophole that enables them to reduce regulatory capital requirements by buying credit default protection.

WASHINGTON - America’s final version of the international Basel III bank capital and liquidity rules must allow banks to offset some of their capital with private mortgage insurers in order to reduce potential taxpayer burdens, a top insurance industry executive told lawmakers in March.

WASHINGTON - The US Senate in April confirmed former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White as the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the federal agency which supervises America’s stock markets and is writing new, post-crisis rules for financial markets. White received wide bipartisan support in the Senate thanks to her reputation as a tough former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where she went after mobsters and terrorists.