BRUSSELS, July 7 (Global Risk Regulator) – European Union finance ministers today attempted to forge a plan to strengthen banks’ balance sheets to ward off future shocks amid calls from Germany for a temporary relaxation of capital requirements to support lending, Reuters news agency reports.

LONDON, July 6 (Global Risk Regulator) – A summary of recent international regulatory news follows: EU OTC plans expect default swap clearing deadline to be met BRUSSELS – The off-exchange derivatives industry is expected to move the clearing of controversial credit default swaps (CDS), frequently blamed for a malign role in the global financial crisis, to approved central clearing parties (CCPs) by the end of this month, the European Union’s top financial regulator said at the end of last week.

WASHINGTON – While undoubtedly useful, it’s not a disaster if convergence of accounting and regulatory loan loss provisioning rules cannot be achieved, a top Australian regulator said in June.

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Consumer protections are fundamental to the quality of credit upon which the economy is built and cannot be viewed as an ancillary component of a scheme to regulate for safety and soundness, according to a top US regulator.

BRUSSELS – The strengthening of centre-right political parties seen in the European Parliamentary elections in June won’t mean a let-up in the pressure to shake-up financial regulation in the European Union, according to political analysts.

CANBERRA – Australia’s involvement in global regulatory reforms will intensify as a result of the country’s membership of the expanded Basel Committee of global banking regulators, the country’s top financial regulator said in June.

WASHINGTON – Unless changes are made to the state-based way insurance is regulated in the US, it will be almost impossible to negotiate regime recognition between the Europe Union and America in the context of the EU’s radical Solvency II reforms, a leading EU parliamentarian told Washington lawmakers in June.

Proposals to reduce systemic risk, and create a unified federal regulatory system are made in a trenchant new report

One-size-fits-all reforms of over-the-counter derivatives will hurt commodity trading – but is there any alternative?

To regulate federally or not to regulate federally? That’s always the question in US insurance reform. Will an Office of National Insurance open the door to change?