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The Australian regulator is pushing for faster implementation of Basel III rules among its banks. It is doing so because it can — the country's banks are in good shape. Others, like the Europeans, are not so lucky, but the regulatory and market pressure is on.
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In good times, investors trust forecasts and concentrate on individual securities. In bad times, the macro picture is all that matters – so you get a succession of hypes. Jackson Hole was the latest – it won’t be the last.
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Members of Afme’s Securitisation Division are hard at work hammering out details of the Prime Collateralised Securities initiative, hoping that regulators and politicians will let the ABS industry off the hook. But the PCS shouldn’t be a copy of covered bond standards. It should be better.
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Covered bonds might be in for their biggest ratings shake-up over the next year. The result could be the loss of many traditional investors, but others will step in to take up the slack.
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Contingent capital might seem like a clever tool for corporate borrowers to increase the equity credit of their hybrid securities. But investors should not get too excited: it's not time to set up that dedicated fund yet.
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Peripheral banks are struggling to tap markets, but a supranational guarantee scheme is not the easy solution it might appear to be.
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In the surreal world of accounting regulations, not being able to sell something turns out to be a good thing.
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Observing before acting has a veneer of sense about it. But we shouldn’t expect to learn anything much from the European Commission's observation period ahead of the introduction of the Liquidity Coverage Ratio. It's pointless.
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The faces may have changed but financial blunderers are still running the show in Dublin. The latest folly: selling one third of the best bit of their banking system for €1bn — after spending more than €60bn on the worst.