HONG KONG -- A stark warning that the rapid lending growth of Chinese banks could be building up new risks has come from Moody\'s rating agency.

FRANKFURT am MAIN - Close cooperation between financial supervisors must be maintained in case a crisis emerges from the increasing hedge fund involvement in the credit risk transfer market, says a European Central Bank (ECB) report* issued in May.

BRUSSELS - Maintaining closer links between academics and banking regulators will be important in the implementation phase of the Basel II rules in Europe, Belgian central bank governor Guy Quaden said in May.

WASHINGTON - US bankers emitted a collective sigh of relief in May with the issuance of the keenly awaited new rule proposed by the Federal Reserve Board to revise the types and amounts of securities that qualify as Tier 1 capital for bank holding companies.

BRUSSELS -The single supervisor model of financial regulation has the potential to undermine a central bank\'s ability to manage financial crises, a top US central banker said in May.

SINGAPORE - Singapore cut the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) for local banks to 10% from 12% in late May as it made changes to the CAR framework to allow domestic banks to manage their capital more flexibly.

BASEL, Switzerland - Global banking regulators confirmed in early June that they would exclude gains and losses from changes in a bank\'s own credit rating and from cash flow hedges from the calculation of regulatory capital.

Regulators take a studied approach to Basel II. But competitive pressures and pride seem to make adoption inevitable

US policy on Basel II might have been different had the Office of Thrift Supervision joined the debate earlier. Now the OTS is fully involved. It suggests smaller US banks should consider adopting the new accord. David Keefe talks to OTS managing director Scott Albinson

By classifying all private equity and venture capital investments as high risk, the New Basel Accord overlooks the fact that the riskiness of the asset class varies hugely depending on the investment channel used, argues the leading representative of the private equity industry in Europe*