WASHINGTON – US regulatory agencies have beefed up their liquidity risk requirements for banks and thrifts, and incorporated principles that bring the American regime more closely into line with guidance issued in 2008 by the Basel Committee. The joint policy statement, issued in late-March, emphasises the importance of cash flow projections, diversified funding sources, stress testing, a cushion of liquid assets, and a formal, well-developed contingency funding plan as primary tools for measuring and managing liquidity risk.

LONDON – Radical reform of Britain’s financial regulation is called for in a strongly-worded report issued by the key House of Commons Treasury Committee, at the end of March. Committee members believe the actions governments had to take to ensure financial stability during the recent crisis “have resulted in a market which operates on the assumption that systemically important firms will be rescued if necessary.”

BASEL - The financial crisis has further emphasised the importance of closer international cooperation among home and host supervisors in the effective supervision of international banks, global banking regulators say in consultation document issued in March*.

WASHINGTON – A growing body of uncoordinated proposals from individual countries is jeopardising the goal of achieving the coherent set of regulatory standards necessary for a robust global financial system, a leading international banking industry body warned in April.

BASEL – Global regulators want all Group of Twenty countries to implement policies based on the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB’s) code on bank pay and rewards this year, after a review found countries were moving with different speeds over the code.

BASEL - The build-up of maturity mismatches by internationally active banks during the financial crisis was a major weakness and should be better monitored and managed, according to a high-level body monitoring global financial markets.

BASEL – Supervisors need a comprehensive understanding of a group as a whole, including its non-regulated units, to ensure effective group-wide supervision, according to global insurance regulators seeking to close the so-called regulatory gaps exposed by the financial crisis.

After months of bitter protest, insurers may be about to win concessions on Solvency II. But will they be enough?

Regulators looking at how to improve US insurer solvency rules aren’t convinced that Europe’s Solvency II framework is a good example for America to follow.

AIG trauma prompts a Congressional review amidst Federal versus State skirmishing. Multi-state approach reasserted