Federal Reserve
Foreign banks face $475 billion subprime losses
Although banks such as UBS have reported massive subprime-related writedowns in the early stages of the mortgage crisis, European banks are not over-represented in the subprime market, according to research published by the US Federal Reserve.
US Fed issues standardised approaches NPR
Daily news headlines
Small US banks free to pursue Basel II standardised approaches
The Federal Reserve has announced it will permit smaller US financial institutions to implement the standardised approach for Basel II compliance, acknowledging misgivings raised by banks over previous proposals.
Fed expert to speak at OpRisk Asia
Daily news headlines
Fed proposes unfair practices rules for cards and overdrafts
Daily news headlines
Really too big to fail?
Are bulge-bracket investment banks really too big to be allowed to fail? Despite the upheavals such a failure would cause, the consequences may have been overblown, argues David Rowe
Vision on
Regulation
Fed heightens its scrutiny of investment banks
Daily news headlines
Fed will support securities market directly
The US Federal Reserve Bank will start backing primary securities dealers as well as banks through its discount in another attempt to stave off a general financial collapse, it announced yesterday.
Vanilla's the flavour
Interest rates
Profiting from divergence
Interest Rates
Central banks offer $20bn auctions to revive liquidity
The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the central banks of the UK, Canada and Switzerland have agreed upon a series of auctions to provide billions for credit-starved financial institutions.
Kroszner lauds Basel II bank reforms
Daily news headlines
US Federal Reserve Board gives green light for Basel II
Daily news headlines
Kroszner: “Investors less informed than they originally thought”
Investors in structured credit assets, such as collateralised debt obligations, recently “realised they were much less informed than they originally thought”, according to US Federal Reserve governor Randall Kroszner.
US regulators encourage loss-mitigation strategies
Six US regulatory agencies have called for more loss-mitigation strategies to prevent homeowner defaults on mortgages. In a joint statement released yesterday they said that all regulated financial institutions that service mortgage loans should take…
Bernanke: Increasing risk premiums “probably healthy”
An increase in the premiums investors require to take risk is probably a healthy development, said US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.
Barings: Subprime not to blame for increased LBO risk
Spread widening in corporate credit and leveraged debt has been wrongly attributed to the fallout from the US subprime mortgage market, according to Baring Asset Management.
Bringing down the house
There is evidence to support the claim that the subprime mortgage crisis in the US may have had its roots in operational risk problems. But just what caused the crisis, and could it have been averted if the firms involved had robust op risk frameworks in…
Fed board member calls for flexibility
Regulators must keep up with intermediaries: Fed board governor