Opposition to ECB bank supervision and debt mutualisation is mounting. They may be major issues in next year’s elections By Klaus Engelen

Less than two years after the Basel III capital and liquidity rules were agreed by international regulators, dozens of countries are in the throes of adopting them. Here are some recent developments monitored by GRR.

WASHINGTON – America’s insurance supervisors are among the first regulators to adopt the financial-trade tagging system that world leaders want to see taken up globally to help avoid a repeat of the trade-tracking chaos seen during the 2007-09 financial crisis.

BASEL – Many large banks already meet the tougher Basel III capital standards, but those that don’t were, at the start of this year, around €374.1 billion short of what they will need, in aggregate, to fully comply with the new rules. That is revealed by the latest monitoring exercise conducted by the Basel Committee. A semi-annual monitoring framework has been set up by the Committee, which crafted the Basel III capital and liquidity standards, in order to gather full evidence on their impact.

LONDON – An economically damaging liquidity drain of up to $30 trillion, far higher than some earlier estimates, could result from global regulators’ plans to impose initial margin requirements on non-centrally-cleared derivatives, according to the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives industry.

FRANKFURT – Europe’s insurance sector watchdog has warned the European Union’s top financial regulator that a feared delay in the implementation of the radical Solvency II insurer safety regime is undermining EU credibility in international regulatory discussions. And within the EU, a delay is likely to result in conflicting national insurance regulations emerging in the absence of Solvency II.

BASEL –Supervision of financial conglomerates must place great emphasis on such firms being able to measure, manage and report all material risks to which they are exposed, including those stemming from unregulated entities and activities, global regulators stressed in a September document.

ISTANBUL – Macroprudential policy instruments in a jurisdiction should be in the hands of an independent authority, arguably the central bank, with the explicit aim of maintaining financial stability, Bank for International Settlements general manager Jaime Caruana said in September.

LONDON – EU banks have raised more than €200 billion ($259bn) in fresh capital since December, when the European Banking Authority (EBA) launched its re-capitalisation exercise aimed at shoring up confidence in Europe’s banking sector. In a final report on the results of the exercise, released in early October, the EBA said the banks increased their top quality capital mainly by issuing new equity, withholding dividends and reducing holdings of risky assets.

PARIS – Europe took final steps in September toward meeting world leaders’ commitment to bring over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading under supervision by publishing technical standards for the European Union’s market infrastructure regulation. But critics said the rules were too tough and could result in EU clearing houses charging more margin (collateral) than their US rivals.