Feature
Avoiding the next catastrophe
This piece is taken from Daniel J. Kramer's speech which was the keynote address at IMN and the International Herald Tribune's Symposium on high performance investing in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Keeping afloat in difficult times
David Robinson may have to wait for international markets to settle before his two-pronged investment methodology brings him significant returns
CIBC has over $200 million exposure to Enron
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) has total exposures of US$215 million to Enron, the group said today.
JP Morgan Chase admits $500 million exposure to Enron
JP Morgan Chase said today that it has $500 million of unsecured exposure to Enron.
Munich Re sees billion dollar loss in third quarter
Munich Re, the reinsurance group, today reported a euro1.2 billion ($1.06 billion) loss for the third quarter. This was mainly due to the effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, said the German firm.
Jim Oliff appointed COO of FFastFill
Jim Oliff, second vice chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), has been appointed chief operating officer of online risk software vendor FFastFill.
Indosuez in equity derivatives reorganisation
Credit Agricole Indosuez’s equity arm, CAI Equities, plans to introduce a single trading platform as part of its plans to integrate its global trading and derivatives operations. As a result, the firm's WI Carr Securities Asian derivatives team will…
Banks move to boost credit derivatives liquidity
JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have agreed to standardise most of the items on their European credit swap master agreements, in a move designed to increase liquidity in the credit derivatives market.
FSA to open securitised derivatives to retail sector
The UK's financial watchdog, Financial Services Authority (FSA), plans to allow retail investors to invest directly in securitised derivatives for the first time by initiating a flexible listing regime.
Homeside hurts NAB’s profits
National Australia Bank (NAB) has reported a fall in profits of 36% for the year, with the drop attributed primarily to hedging blunders at its US mortgage subsidiary Homeside in September.
Balancing belief and science
Japan’s banks are protesting against Basel’s proposed operational risk capital charge. They claim their risk levels are much lower than those of banks from other countries, but there is little hard data available to back this claim up. Anthony Rowley…
Wrestling with Basel II
The revisions to the Basel Accord have enormous implications for Japan, a nation with a banking system still getting to grips with non-performing loans and the impact of mark-to market accounting rules. Anthony Rowley reports from Tokyo.
Unresolved Basel II issues include total capital and economic impact, says UK central banker
OXFORD, ENGLAND - The question of what should be the appropriate overall level of protective capital in the world’s banking system remains one of the unresolved issues of the Basel II banking accord, said deputy Bank of England governor David Clementi…
Banks still nervous about gross income as an op risk indicator
BASEL - Banks seem pleased with many aspects of the recent working paper on operational risk issued by global banking regulators, but are still nervous about some of the cross-border anomalies that could be thrown up by the use of gross income as a risk…
Basel regulators may scrap 90% IRB floor for credit risk
Global banking regulators will soon abandon their controversial 90%, two-year floor on the benefit banks could reap by moving to the advanced internal ratings based (IRB) technique for calculating capital charges against credit risk under the Basel II…
DrKW and Raft establish new op risk management standard
Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and Raft International, the component-based software provider to the financial services industry, have jointly developed and deployed Radar, a near real-time global operational risk management…
Op risk capital charge difficult to devise in imperfect Basel II, says US central banker
NEW YORK - The lack of an agreed methodology and credible loss data has made it extremely difficult to devise an operational capital risk charge under the terms of the Basel II bank capital accord, a senior US central banker acknowledged in mid-October.
Basel II would mean banks less able to deal with NY attacks, US Senate told
WASHINGTON - The operational risk capital charge proposed by global banking regulators would create a "perverse incentive" against banks taking measures to cope with operational hazards such as the September 11 attacks in New York, the US Senate’s…
Basel moves on disclosure
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision recently announced two significant revisions to its new capital adequacy framework (new Basel Capital Accord or Basel II), which are set to have positive and far-reaching implications for the global banking…
Hong Kong banks set to struggle with Basel II
Many of Hong Kong’s banks could struggle to implement the Basel II capital adequacy accord because of their lack of sophisticated risk management systems, professional services firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu said in October.
Basic shortcomings
The Basel regulators have missed their chances with their latest op risk paper, argues Jacques Pézier.
Good in parts
Tony Blunden welcomes the Basel regulators’ latest thoughts on operational risk, but questions their continued emphasis on the past.