United States (US)
Over two years, top US banks’ capital fell 5%
Stress capital buffer could reduce CET1 a further $40 billion
Citi shed over $32bn of counterparty exposures in Q4
Risk-weighted assets for CCR exposures dropped -12%
Top 10 operational risks for 2020
The biggest op risks for 2020, as chosen by industry practitioners
Top 10 op risks 2020: IT disruption
Risk of downed systems, from hack or outage, continues to make op risk managers fret
At US G-Sibs, rates derivatives notionals the lowest since 2014
Banks cut interest rate swaps notionals by -18% year-on-year
CDX on junk bonds jumped 65% in H1 2019
Notionals to which CCPs were counterparty increased +85%
FCMs clamour for formal rule on separate account margin
Costly compliance effort will be to no avail if CFTC relief expires in June 2021
Dollar OIS volumes hit $3.3trn high
Short-dated swaps dominated trading in last week of February
Systemic US banks’ trading portfolios swell 10% in 2019
US Treasuries held-for-trading soar 28% on Q4 2018
Low risk assets pile up at systemic US banks
Sub-100% risk-weighted assets increased by $157.9 billion
UK bank market RWAs ebbed in 2019
HSBC shed $5.9 billion of market RWAs in 2019
Swaps exposures of US G-Sibs dropped 12% in Q4
Net current credit exposures hit $474.8 billion by year-end
Cross-border trading could suffer under IM rules
Conflicting US and EU cash reinvestment rules may force buy side to post bonds
Fund securitisation makes capital vanish – and watchdog growl
Probe into possible “abuses” of CFO structure could hit wider investments, experts say
Rates trading revenues up 154% at top US banks
Net gains on interest rates-related exposures top $21 billion
Top banks’ US Treasury holdings up 26% in 2019
Fair value gains follow plummeting yields on government paper
TD Bank’s US unit incurred eight VAR breaches in 2019
Number of backtesting exceptions pushed the bank’s VAR capital multiplier to 3.75
Goldman hits the Collins floor
Changes to loss-given-default models caused advanced approaches credit RWAs to plummet
Fewer losing trading days at top US banks in 2019
State Street posted most losing days in 2019, with 146
Capital buffers edge lower at systemic US banks in 2019
CET1 excess above institution-specific amounts slid 228bp at median G-Sib
Synthetic Libor faces legal obstacles
EU benchmark rules may thwart ‘tough legacy’ fix, reviving calls for blanket legislation
Wells Fargo’s VAR spiked in Q4
Interest rate VAR increased to $211 million in last quarter of the year
Systemic US banks shed $70bn of repo exposure in Q4
Goldman Sachs lowered repo exposures 13% quarter-on-quarter
EU funds loaded up on US debt in 2019
Net purchases of US debt up +962% in 2019