US approach to new capital regime has put differences with EU in the spotlight. European banking representatives will lay out concerns at Washington meeting. By David Keefe

BASEL – The importance of a robust flow of information between supervisors when implementing the new capital adequacy rules for banks is highlighted in a paper issued in early June by the Basel Committee. The relationship between a home supervisor in the country where a cross-border banking group is headquartered, and the host supervisors in countries where the group’s subsidiaries are located, is potentially fraught.

WELLINGTON – Two fundamental challenges facing the Islamic financial services industry are the need to operate as an integral part of the international financial system, and to do so on a sound and stable basis, a top official with the leading international standard-setting body for Islamic finance said in June.

WASHINGTON – Mark Olson is resigning as a member of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve system with effect from June 30.

LONDON – The results of the final worldwide test of the Basel II bank safety rules ahead of their implementation are similar in many respects to those of the US test that caused such alarm, US Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said in June.

Banks on both sides of the Atlantic are wrestling with advanced op risk concepts. Progress is distinctly mixed and some banks are choosing to delay, reports Oonagh Leighton

Final bank regulator guidance on key accounting issues reflects a fresh, principles-based approach that should help to limit spats with accounting rulemakers

The guidance on the prudential supervision of banks’ implementation of the fair value option is structured around seven principles that fall into the following two broad categories:

The need for a harmonised regime is emphasised at the EU public meeting on Solvency II. A tight timetable causes worries about the value of QIS2. By David Keefe

Insurance regulators agree with accounting rule-makers that in valuing insurer liabilities an approach to modelling should be used whereby observable inputs from deeply liquid markets are used to the fullest extent possible, and the remaining elements are modelled.