The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s (BCBS) Basel III standard includes a countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) regime. National authorities can implement a CCyB requirement to ensure that the banking system has an additional buffer of capital to protect against potential future losses related to downturns in the credit cycle.

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Alstom Network UK Ltd has been ordered to pay a total of £16.4 million for conspiracy to corrupt relating to a contract to supply trams in Tunisia. This sentence comprises £15 million in fines and £1.4 million in costs. The company was convicted in April 2018 of conspiracy to corrupt, having paid an intermediary called Construction et Gestion Nevco Inc. (Nevco) €2.4 million to secure an €79.9 million contract with Transtu, the company responsible for running the Tunis Metro. To satisfy internal compliance checks and make its agreement with Nevco appear a legitimate contract for services, Alstom helped to produce paperwork as ‘evidence’ of services rendered.

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The European Commission has presented its Opinions on euro area Member States’ 2020 Draft Budgetary Plans, taken steps under the Stability and Growth Pact and adopted the fourth Enhanced Surveillance Report for Greece. Since July this year and for the first time since 2002, no euro area Member State is under the Excessive Deficit Procedure. The euro area debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to continue its declining path of recent years and to fall from about 86% in 2019 to about 85% in 2020. This is happening against the backdrop of a weakening European and world economy.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against two individuals and two companies they control in connection with an alleged $6 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 55 investors, many of whom are senior citizens or small business owners. According to the SEC’s complaint, Neil Burkholz of Boca Raton, Florida, and Frank Bianco, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, through their companies Palm Financial Management LLC and Shore Management Systems LLC, solicited investors by falsely representing that their proprietary options trading strategies were highly profitable.

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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) recently launched the BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Singapore. This is the BIS’s first expansion of its global footprint in 17 years. The BIS Innovation Hub will foster innovation and greater collaboration amongst the central banking community globally. It will enhance the understanding of financial technology, and aid the development of innovative solutions to benefit and enhance the financial system. The BIS has also recently established Hub Centres in Hong Kong SAR and Switzerland. Together, the Centres will identify and develop in-depth insights into critical trends in technology affecting central banking; develop public goods in the technology space to improve the functioning of the global financial system, and serve as a focal point for a network of central bank experts on innovation.  Continue reading…

Agility has become somewhat of a buzzword in recent months, as experts attempt to pin down the qualities required of businesses if they wish to succeed in today’s challenging environment. For many businesses, Brexit is proving the ultimate test of corporate agility, as boardrooms and risk teams grapple with the huge number of unknowns and a vast spectrum of possible outcomes and timings.

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The European Banking Authority (EBA) published a Consultation Paper on the draft amended Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on passport notification. The review of the two Regulations aims at improving the quality and consistency of information to be provided by a credit institution notifying its home competent authorities when it intends to open a branch or provide services in another Member State, as well as the communication between home and host authorities. The consultation runs until 13 February 2020.

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