Business leaders attack bank capital plans
June 14, 2010--Business leaders in France and Germany are sounding the alarm over plans to force banks to hold more capital to cover risk-taking, saying the proposed new rules would be “catastrophic” for the financing of European companies.
Laurence Parisot, head of France’s business confederation Medef, told the Financial Times the proposals being finalised by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision later this year, known as Basel III, presented the risk of “a real contraction in credit. The schema being prepared by the Basel committee would be catastrophic”
Medef’s German counterpart, the BDI association of German industry, has also written to the European Commission to warn of the dangers of overzealous regulation.
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Source: FT.com
Europe-wide body to oversee OTC clearing
June 14, 2010--A new pan-European supervisory agency is set to be given a crucial role to decide which over-the-counter derivatives contracts must be cleared centrally, by European Union proposals to regulate the swaps market.
The decision is likely to be controversial in London, home to the bulk of OTC business and to most of Europe’s central counterparties (CCPs), or clearing houses. They are currently overseen by the UK markets regulator.
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Source: FT.com
Investors bypass rating agencies on securitisation
june 14, 2010--European investors are increasingly relying on their own analysis of securitisation deals rather than the rating agencies, according to a survey that also shows how interest in the sector is still scarred by the havoc wrought during the financial crisis.
Bishopsfield Partners, a structured finance consultancy, said that almost two-thirds of investors that it had surveyed believed that the industry had been "truly damaged" by the crisis - even though European deals have seen far less impairment of the underlying loans (and have held on to their high ratings) than their US counterparts.
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Source: FT.com
MiFID Monthly Market Share Reports-May 2010-Thomson Reuters
June 14, 2010--The Thomson Reuters MiFID Market Share reports for 2010 have been updated and are now available.
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Source: Thomson Reuters
EU sizes up 'temporary, emergency' naked short selling ban
June 14, 2010-- European regulators could ban naked short selling and CDS swaps but only short-term and in crisis situations, an EU consultation document circulated on Monday shows.
According to the consultation, which is open until July 10, market authorities could be given "powers to impose temporary restrictions on short selling and Credit Default Swap transactions in an emergency."
CDS trade and naked short selling -- when a dealer does not actually have the securities being traded -- are often highly speculative activities which the authorities have blamed in the past for market volatility and the taking on of too much risk.
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Source: EUbusiness
European Equity Market Report -May 2010-FESE
June 14, 2010--The May 2010 FESE European Equity Market Report is now available
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Source: FESE
First estimate for the first quarter of 2010-EU27 current account deficit 23.4 bn euro
13.2 bn euro surplus on trade in services
June 11, 2010--The EU271 external current account2 recorded a deficit of 23.4 billion euro in the first quarter of 2010, compared with a deficit of 50.6 bn in the first quarter of 2009 and a deficit of 9.2 bn in the fourth quarter of 2009.
In the first quarter of 2010, the EU27 external balance of trade in services recorded a surplus of 13.2 bn euro, compared with a surplus of 13.3 bn in the first quarter of 2009 and a surplus of 19.1 bn in the fourth quarter of 2009.
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Source: Eurostat
Asset managers to focus on building trust, increasing transparency
June 11, 2010--A large majority of asset managers worldwide believe building clients' trust and increasing transparency will be the biggest challenges in the coming years, according to consultant KPMG.
KPMG canvassed senior executives at 17 large asset managers in Europe, the US and Asia Pacific and said most respondents thought focusing on trust and transparency would strengthen the sector, improve investment conditions and increase investors' faith.
The consultant said asset managers were also looking increasingly for ways to comply with regulation while lowering costs and increasing transparency. Heleen Rietdijk of KPMG Financial Services: "It will become more difficult to generate earnings because legislation aimed at increasing capital requirements will lead to a liquidity shift in the market.
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Source: IP&E
Gold generates highest real monthly returns in May
June 11, 2010--Gold made its investors happy last month, yielding the highest monthly real returns among other financial instruments, with the rates of 9.81 percent when adjusted for inflation using the producer price index (PPI) and 8.94 percent when adjusted for the consumer price index (CPI).
The Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) released its latest report on Friday on the rates of real return yielded by investment instruments in May. According to the report, the monthly real return rate of the US dollar and deposit interest were 4.81 percent and 1.83 percent, respectively, last month while the euro and the benchmark index of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (?MKB) suffered monthly real losses at rates of 1.77 percent and 3.77 percent, respectively, when adjusted for the PPI. When adjusted for the CPI, the US dollar and deposit interest brought monthly real profits of 3.97 percent and 1.02 percent, respectively, while real losses were 2.55 percent in the euro and 4.54 percent in the stock exchange.
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Source: Todays Zaman
Netherlands : Economic Survey
June 11, 2010--The OECD’s latest economic survey of the Netherlands, to be published on Wednesday 16 June 2010, looks at the challenge of withdrawing the emergency stimulus measures brought in to tackle the financial crisis.
It also looks at two challenges facing the new government; boosting growth and ensuring sustainable public finances at the same time as measures to secure occupational pensions. The issues of widespread congestion and a rigid housing market also need to be addressed urgently.
A news conference on the survey will be presented by the OECD’s Chief Economist, Pier Carlo Padoan and the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Maria Van der Hoeven, at 11.15 the same day at the Nieuwspoort Press center, Lange Voorhout 10, The Hague. Further information about the event is available from Job Frieszo, tel: +31- (0)70 379 6120; j.frieszo@minez.nl.
A Policy Brief with the main conclusions will be freely accessible in pdf format (in English, German and French) on the OECD’s web site at www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/netherlands.
Source: OECD
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