This report explores the key challenges and critical areas of focus for foreign financial institutions arising from the Dodd-Frank Act. Since becoming law in July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act has come to dominate the financial sector landscape in the US. Over 2,000 pages long, the legislation is focussed on creating a system of oversight that reduces risk to the financial system, enhances consumer protection and increases transparency of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market.

These are deeply uncertain days for central and eastern Europe. Despite the region's extraordinary post-communist transformation in the past two decades, it depends heavily on western Europe to buy its exports and provide capital. For now, that is its Achilles heel rather than a source of strength. Much of 2010 and early 2011 saw recovery in the region, apart from in the Balkans. But after the eurozone debt crisis  intensified last summer, the outlook worsened again.

Mobile payments have been at the top of the industry's mind for some time now, but much of the conversation to date has emanated from the gut, rather than the brain. Operating on instinct and convention, many in the industry have been trying to understand and attack this problem based on what they feel to be true or what they sense consumers want. The Global Insights team sought the same answers that everyone else did, but was committed to developing a rigorous, reliable framework from which to approach from the problem.

Across the Middle East and South-East Asia, Islamic financial institutions hold aggregated assets estimated to be worth $50 billion. To some, this cash-rich sector represents a huge opportunity for growth and investment. But perhaps, what Islamic banks can really offer is a set of guiding principles that can enhance financial stability, four years after the crisis.

La presente nota repasa brevemente el funcionamiento del FEEF, el mecanismo de ayuda financiera creado a mediados de 2010 por los Gobiernos de la zona euro para rescatar los Estados miembros que se encontrasen con problemas para conseguir financiación a través de los mercados de capitales. Se concluye que, a pesar de las reformas introducidas en este instrumento, los problemas de su diseño y de su estructura han provocado que el FEEF haya fallado como mecanismo que evite el contagio financiero a las economías sistémicas de la región.

La crisis financiera mundial, que se inició en Estados Unidos como una crisis de deuda subprime y que, posteriormente, ha pasado por una serie de etapas diferentes -la última de las cuales ha sido la crisis de la deuda soberana de la zona del euro- alteró significativamente la trayectoria de crecimiento en Estados Unidos y en la zona del euro. Tras una severa recesión y una recuperación relativamente discreta, en los próximos años se prevé un período de moderado crecimiento. Por consiguiente, varios analistas han comparado la situación que atraviesan actualmente Estados Unidos y la zona del euro con la llamada «década perdida» de Japón en los años noventa, el episodio más reciente en el que una economía avanzada experimentó un prolongado ajuste de los balances sectoriales, una persistente debilidad de la actividad económica, un rápido aumento de la deuda pública y una acusada y duradera corrección a la baja de los precios de los activos.

The Basel Committee's Research Task Force Transmission Channel project aimed at generating new research on various aspects of the credit channel linkages in the monetary transmission mechanism. Under the credit channel view, financial intermediaries play a critical role in the allocation of credit in the economy. They are the primary source of credit for consumers and businesses that do not have direct access to capital markets. Among more traditional macroeconomic modelling approaches, the credit view is unique in its emphasis on the health of the financial sector as a critically important determinant of the efficacy of monetary policy.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today publishes a questionnaire on the identification of users/investors needs on credit institutions Pillar 3 disclosures. The questionnaire invites interested parties to comment on the issues/areas that users of Pillar 3 disclosures consider to be the most important from their perspective and that, accordingly should be the focus of the EBA's 2012 assessment of Pillar 3 disclosures. This questionnaire will also allow to identify possible stakeholders for a future dialogue with the EBA on Pillar 3 issues once the analysis of the responses has been completed. It is expected that both the analysis of the submitted responses and possible meetings with interested parties will be performed and completed during the planning phase of the 2012 exercise.

These Guidelines are seen as an important means of addressing weaknesses in the regulatory capital framework and in the risk management of financial institutions. Their objective is to contribute to a level playing field and to enhance convergence of supervisory practices across the EU.

This chapter reproduced courtesy of the World Gold Council was first published by Central Banking Publications in their annual RBS Reserve Management Trends in April 2012.

El Reglamento (CE) n.º 1060/2009 del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, de 16 de septiembre de 2009, sobre las agencias de calificación crediticia, impone a las agencias de calificación crediticia la obligación de cumplir normas de conducta para mitigar los posibles conflictos de intereses y garantizar una elevada calidad y una transparencia suficiente de las calificaciones y el proceso de calificación. A raíz de las modificaciones  introducidas por el Reglamento (UE) n.º 513/2011 del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, se asignaron a la Autoridad Europea de Valores y Mercados (AEVM) competencias para registrar y supervisar a las agencias de calificación crediticia.

The eurozone is caught in a ‘diabolical loop' in which weak domestic banking systems damage sovereign fiscal positions and conversely, in which risky sovereign positions disproportionately threaten domestic banking stability. A European-level banking system could go a long way towards breaking this unfortunate loop and stabilising the eurozone. This would require a European safety net for cross-border banks.

La fidelidad de los clientes españoles con sus bancos está por debajo de la media global. Un 12 por ciento de los clientes españoles considera muy probable abandonar su banco en los próximos seis meses, mientras que un 45 por ciento está considerando esta posibilidad. A nivel mundial, un 9 por ciento cambiaría de banco en los próximos seis meses mientras que un 40 por ciento estaría considerándolo.