Bankers optimistic about legislation to overturn parts of the 4-year old Act. Only 20% of companies would need to comply - By Melvyn Westlake

Europe’s regulators are starting to realise that commodity firms cannot be treated as banks. Moves encourage traders - By David Keefe

The Basel II credit risk standardised approach is much less risk-sensitive than the Basel II advanced approach and does not make use of the most advanced risk management practices, according to US Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke.

LONDON – The Futures and Options Association, a leading European trade body, has fired a trenchant counterblast to controversial proposals from Britain’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) over how financial firms should implement the new EU financial markets law due to come into force in November 2007. The FSA’s proposals came in a mid-May Discussion Paper on implementing the “best execution” provisions of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) – the sweeping new law designed to create a single financial services market across the 25-country bloc.

WASHINGTON – Christopher Cox, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced in early August that there would be no appeal against the June decision of the Washington DC Circuit Court to overturn the Commission’s hedge fund registration rule. The court had been considering a lawsuit against the rule, brought by Phillip Goldstein, who runs hedge funds from his home in Pleasantville, New York State.

MANILA – Philippines central bank, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), intends to maintain the present minimum overall capital adequacy ratio of 10% for banks and quasi-banks when the country adopts the new Basel capital standard on July 1, 2007. This is one of the decisions approved by the BSP Monetary Board as part of the guidelines for local implemention of the new international standard (Basel II), aimed at bolstering the safety and soundness of banks. Although the Monetary Board (MB) approved the guidelines in June, they were only published in August.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The date for implementing an advanced approach to assessing credit risk under the complex Basel II bank capital rules is some way off for most banks in the Caribbean, one of the region’s leading central bankers has said. Central Bank of Barbados governor Marion Williams said the three-year history of credible internal credit ratings required to implement the advanced internal ratings-based (IRB) approach will extend the time for implementation.

KAMPALA – Uganda’s central bank is analysing responses from banks to a Basel II impact assessment survey so as to come up with a detailed Basel II plan, Bank of Uganda acting deputy governor David Opiokello has said.

MÉRIDA, MEXICO – Bank supervisors from central banks and supervisory agencies in 120 countries endorsed in early October an updated version of the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision and its Methodology.

A new website – www.solvencyii.co.uk – was launched in late September by the International Underwriting Association (IUA) of London to discuss Solvency II and provide information about the project.