Regulation
Central bankers debate Basel II delay in Madrid
The central bankers and bank supervisors charged with creating a new regime for bank capital were due to meet in Madrid on Friday 10 October to decide whether to postpone the implementation of the rules, according to the Financial Times. The issue was to…
ECB shake-up in response to staff discontent
The European Central Bank is to reshuffle its management in response to claims that the eurozone central bank is becoming too bureaucratic, the Financial Times reports. Feelings inside the bank's Eurotower headquarters in Frankfurt have been running high…
Crunch meeting for Caruana - Special Feature
CentralBanknet's Monday special feature focuses on the Basel Committee's current crunch meeting in Madrid and the key issues for Jamie Caruana's chairmanship.
Swiss National Bank calls for deregulated economy
In his debut speech, reported by the Financial Times, the Swiss National Bank's board member for financial markets, Philipp Hildebrand, called for broad deregulation of the domestic economy to tackle unemployment and protect the country's long-term…
Syria issues money laundering law
The Syrian President has issued a decree providing the legal framework to combat money laundering in the country, according to a report by AME Info. The law improves the legal framework of the banking system and creates a new authority affiliated to the…
FATF to review Philippines' anti-money laundering
A team from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will arrive in the Philippines later this month to review the implementation of anti-money laundering laws, Agence Presse reports. The review is part of the process of removing the country from the FATF…
IAIS expands core principles for insurance
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has revised and expanded its Insurance Core Principles and Methodology, offering new guidance for the effective operation of supervisory systems around the world. The 28 principles cover all…
Qatar to enact anti-money laundering rules soon
The deputy governor of the central bank of Qatar has said that anti-money laundering laws will be issued in the near future, according to Mena FN. The Law aims to establish a legislative framework for the policies and regulations to be adopted for…
Li Ruogu: Financial Supervision and central banks
In a speech on 'The Role of the Central Bank in Financial Supervision' given on 26 August, Li Ruogu of the People's Bank of China said that China established the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) in April this year as a special watchdog for the…
Warning issued over UK money laundering directive
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants warned the UK Treasury on Monday 29 September, according to the Financial Times, that the new money laundering directive, due to come into force in January, may swamp the National Criminal Intelligence…
Poole on Self-Regulation in Pension Systems
In a speech on 'The Role of Self-Regulation and Voluntary Compliance Incentives in the Design of Pension Systems' William Poole of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said the United States does not have a perfect pension system. Indeed, the system…
SARB appoints Kruger as registrar of banks
Errol Kruger will replace Christo Wiese as registrar of banks in South Africa from 1 October, Dow Jones reports. As registrar, Kruger will be responsible for ensuring the soundness of banks and banking groups registered in South Africa.
African bank supervisors agree to up co-ordination
In efforts to harmonise supervisory practices, the Accra Mail reports, delegates from member countries at the Ninth Annual Meeting of Banking Supervisors from West and Central Africa agreed to forward their prudential regulations, current banking laws…
G10 ministers and CB governors meet in Dubai
Ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Ten met in Dubai and despite an improvement in the overall economic outlook, drew attention to the "significant internal and external imbalances that persist, which could weigh on the sustainability of…
CNB's Zdenik Tma on AML and int'l standards
Governor of the Czech National Bank, Zdenik Tma, gave a speech on "Challenges of free capital movement and the role of international standards" in which he focuses on the prevention of money laundering.
Jordan unblocks Hamas funds
Jordan's Central Bank has retracted a decision to freeze accounts belonging to leaders of Hamas, the radical Palestinian organisation.
CB Jordan under fire over Hamas freeze
Deputies in the Jordanian Parliment have called for the sacking of CBJ Governor Umayyah Tuqan after the central bank's decision to freeze funds belonging to Hamas, according to the Jordan Times.
Afghanistan Central Bank licenses foreign banks
The central bank of Afghanistan, 'DaAfghanistan bank, on Thursday 18 September issued three commercial banking licences to three foreign banks and allowed them to operate in the war-ravaged country, according to Chinaview.
IMF set to criticise RBNZ
The IMF is expected to criticise the Reserve Bank of New Zealand when it visits New Zealand in November, according to Reuters The IMF is expected to be critical because the RBNZ has little control of banks. Most are foreign-owned by big Australian banks.
German regulator in pledge over new Basel code
Germany's main financial regulator has pledged to implement changes for the new international capital adequacy requirements by 2006, the Financial Times reported. The initiative comes as attempts to reach agreement over the Basel II code suffered a…
Basel's best bet is to keep it simple
Much progress has been made in constructing a regulatory capital framework that can benefit both the industry and its regulators. At this late stage, this article in the Financial Times says, careful revision is necessary to guarantee that the five-year…
New global banks' rules could be delayed
Wim Duisenberg, ECB president, said on Wednesday 10 September "It could be that it [Basel II] would come in the course of or maybe toward the end of 2007", according to the Financial Times. His remarks were the first by a central banker admitting that…
BMA Governor attends launch of Islamic bank unit
Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Governor of the Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) said Monday "The global Islamic banking industry is witnessing tremendous growth, both in terms of volumes of business and in terms of number of institutions, many of…
UAE to implement Basel II accord
The UAE central bank announced Monday it would adopt the risk assessment mechanism known as Basel II, which will go into force in 2007. The governor of the central bank said final touches were being added to the system in order to enable banks to…