LONDON - Credit rating agencies are the de facto regulators of the world’s reinsurance industry and it’s probably best to leave it that way, according to Alan Punter, professor of insurance and risk management at London’s Cass Business School.

WASHINGTON – The head of the US Federal Reserve’s banking supervision and regulation division, Rich Spillenkothen, will retire on June 30 after thirty years of service with the US central bank, including nearly 15 as head of the division.

WASHINGTON – The hedge fund adviser registration rule, which came into effect in the US on February 1, has “had unintended, but totally predictable consequences,” according to Cynthia Glassman, one of the five commissioners on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – US Federal Reserve Bank chairman Ben Bernanke warned in March that rapid growth in commercial real estate exposures relative to capital and assets raises the possibility that risk-management practices in America’s smaller banks may not have kept pace with growing risk concentrations.

BRUSSELS – Europe’s top financial regulator welcomed moves in late February to aid the convergence of US and European accounting standards and enhance consistency, comparability and efficiency in global capital markets.

With America’s revised Basel II plans imminent, supervisors seek to reassure the doubters. By David Keefe

An assessment based on public information suggests Basel II capital requirements for US banks will be higher, not lower.

The Solvency II timetable remains under pressure and CEIOPS, the European supervisory body for insurance, wants political advice. Results of first Solvency II test run revealed he complex Solvency II project for improving the safety and soundness of Europe’s insurance industry is in a crucial development phase and faces a very challenging timetable.

Big US banks worry that the delayed Basel II implementation proposals won’t let them maximise capital regime’s potential - By David Keefe

Bankers want a new relationship with regulators. They are calling for a strategic dialogue to achieve more “effective” rule-making - By Melvyn Westlake