MOSCOW – The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) revoked the licences of five banks in December, including Investbank, the largest bank headquartered in the exclave of Kaliningrad. Investbank ranked 79 in Russia by tier 1 capital at end-2012 according to thebankerdatabase.com. This brings to 26 the total number of bank licences revoked during 2013. The largest was Masterbank, 46 by tier 1 capital, which lost its licence in November 2013 over alleged money-laundering and accounting irregularities. Several of the banks that lost licences in December, including Smolensky Bank and Project Finance Bank, had suffered deposit outflows and requested liquidity assistance from the CBR in the weeks leading up to their closure. In addition, two other regional banks – Solidarnost in Samara and Ellipse in Nizhny Novgorod – are receiving financial assistance from the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) to prevent collapse. Their existing shareholders may lose control over these banks.

BASEL – The Financial Stability Board (FSB), working with the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), published a consultative document on assessment methodologies for identifying the latest class of global systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs). These are categorised as non-bank, non-insurer (NBNI) SIFIs. The consultation period closes on 7 April 2014.

The Basel Committee and the European regulators have banks’ internal risk models in their sights By Charles Piggott

The nine globally systemic insurers are ready to work with international supervisors to meet G20 deadline By Philip Alexander

Federal Insurance Office stops short of demanding centralised regulatory powers, but calls for greater standardisation By Philip Alexander

A selection of news items generated by the American regulatory reform agenda

Risk managers welcome greater clarity, but fear proposals are divorced from reality of trading desk business practices By Philip Alexander

A framework of regulation for shadow banking is taking shape. But there are worries that some aspects are not strict enough By Melvyn Westlake

Maystadt warns making IFRS more European could send negative signal on accounting convergence By Charles Piggott

Draft European report seeks tighter definition for benchmarks affected, but sparks concerns over loopholes By Philip Alexander