Solvency II

Return of a heavyweight

Sustained economic recovery in Japan will probably lead to the end of the country's zero interest rate levels in the third quarter of this year. What impact will this have on risk management and the use of derivatives? And how will it affect the…

Preparing for Pillar II

The German regulator published guidelines on the minimum requirements for risk management at the end of last year, partly to integrate the requirements of Pillar II of Basel II into German Law. Alexander Campbell talks to Helmut Bauer, BaFin's head of…

Synthetic ABS is hot property

The emergence of credit default swaps on ABS has led to the development of an index of these securities. Nadia Damouni looks at the prospects for this rapidly evolving corner of the market

The BPA enigma

Deficit-ridden UK pension schemes are revisiting the idea of selling liabilities onto the bulk purchase annuity market, attracting new players with new business models

FSA provides overview of approach to CRD

The FSA presented an overview of the authority’s approach to the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) at its CRD implementation conference. Hector Sants, managing director of wholesale and institutional markets, highlighted the biggest developments in…

Banks get stressed

The UK's Financial Services Authority has called on banks to improve stress testing of possible disruptive events, while the Basel Committee declared last year that firms must supplement their value-at-risk models with stress tests. But some bankers…

MiFID Level 2 text on the table

BRUSSELS – In early February, the European Commission tabled formal draft proposals for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) Level 2 text, detailing new trade reporting and transparency requirements for securities industry participants.

Timetable chaos

US regulators' decision to delay Basel II by one year has frustrated international banks, causing some to reassess their global implementation plans. With the US regulators yet to release national implementation guidelines, bankers and supervisors are…

A case for convergence?

With Basel II regulatory capital becoming increasingly more risk-sensitive, the value of a separate economic capital system must be questioned. Christopher Hall of Risk Advisors considers the differences between economic capital and regulatory capital,…

Pillars of wisdom

European insurance regulation is shifting from Pillar I rulebook to Pillar II dialogue. But the dialogue may be evolving into a poker game. Aaron Woolner reports