Proposed reforms for ratings industry not as harsh as feared. Market participants favour self-regulatory code, and disclosure By Melvyn Westlake

Washington agency sets out approach to cutting cross-border securities trade barriers. US-Aussie move surprises Europe By Oonagh Leighton

It could be 2010, or even later, before America joins most of its peers. Differences between regulators rumble on

LONDON – Strong disagreements between national supervisors have made it impossible for them to put forward a fully agreed set of proposals on the regulatory treatment of banks’ hybrid capital. This is clear from the published advice delivered by supervisors in late March to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, in Brussels.

RDO, Slovenia – EU finance ministers agreed at a two-day meeting in early April to give the greenlight to plans to reinforce the role of colleges in the supervision of Europe’s major financial institutions. However, there are still many questions about how these strengthened colleges should work, whether they should be put on a formal, legal basis, and whether their activities should be coordinated.

BASEL – Market users need to understand better the structure and risks of the credit risk transfer (CRT) products in which they invest, according to the Joint Forum of banking, insurance and securities market regulators.

LONDON – Irate bankers have won modest concessions from EU regulators over the proposed treatment of their large exposures, but less than they hoped. This became apparent in early April when the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) published its advice to the European Commission* on how to revise the rules dealing with large bank exposures to single counterparties or groups of connected counterparties.

BRUSSELS – The European Commission in April launched a two-month consultation on possible changes aimed at strengthening the Capital Requirements Directive, or CRD, the law that applies the Basel II bank safety rules in the 27-nation European Union bloc.

WASHINGTON – Efforts to raise standards among US hedge funds and bring the rapidly growing industry closer to the investment mainstream were ramped up in mid-April with the release of separate, but complementary sets of best practices from two blue-ribbon expert panels. Requested in September by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), chaired by the US Treasury, the two best practices reports are officially described as the “most comprehensive public-private effort to increase accountability” for asset managers and investors in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry.

NEW YORK – The 5-nation Senior Supervisors Group, has released the results of a review* undertaken into disclosure practices for complex financial products. Such products are at the heart of the current financial crisis, and the senior supervisors say financial firms should find the review useful for assessing and enhancing their own disclosure policy.