Ferguson gets a roasting from lawmakers. Differences remain between regulators. But is it all just theatre?

On February 27, a key sub-committee of the US House of Representatives held hearings on the new capital adequacy accord. Here\'s a summary of the prepared testimonies.

LONDON - In a sharp reversal of policy that has deeply disappointed capital markets, Britain\'s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has decreed that banks will no longer be able to raise Tier One Notes (TONs) as part of their core regulatory capital.

BRUSSELS - A very real risk exists that the complexity of the Basel II bank capital accord will restrict the ability of banks to manage risks, the ability of supervisors to supervise and the capacity of markets to evolve and adapt, a leading UK banker said in March.

LONDON - Investment firms that choose to adopt the standardised approach to calculating their operational risk capital charge should not be penalised by having to hold more capital than other firms that opt for a cruder approach.

BASEL - Bank of Spain governor Jaime Caruana will from July 1 succeed William McDonough as chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Basel Committee said in early March.

BASEL - It now seems quite probable that the treatment of securitisation, under the proposed Basel II capital accord, will not be settled in time for the publication of May\'s crucial, final consultative paper on the shape of this new regime for the world\'s banks.

LONDON - Victor Dowd will in April join the professional risks division in London of insurance broker and risk management services provider Aon.

BASEL - Banks have made progress in collecting operational loss data, but there\'s still a lack of a fully comprehensive sense of the range of potential op risk loss events experienced by banks because of gaps in data collection.

LONDON - UK supervisors must introduce risk-based reforms of insurance industry regulation quickly at the same time as they deal forcefully with the industry\'s current problems, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF).