HM Treasury has published The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Excluded Activities and Prohibitions) Order 2014 and an accompanying explanatory memorandum. The Order was made on 23 July 2014. Articles 1, 2 and 3 and the Schedule to the Order come into force on 1 January 2015, the substantive provisions of the Order come […]

Dodd-Frank Section 619 “Prohibitions on proprietary trading and certain relationships with hedge funds and private equity funds”, more snappily known as the “Volcker Rule”, has recently undergone some incremental developments. The FRB, OCC, FDIC, SEC and CFTC jointly issued a FAQs document addressing the following matters: The reporting dates and date rules for trading metrics. […]

As the electrified ringfence-erecting Banking Reform Bill is poised to enter the statute books, the FT reports HSBC is thinking of hiving off its UK operations in response. The global bank has proposed carving out its UK operation, and floating this retail-focussed, reconfigured bank on the London exchange. The article points out that such an […]

On 15 March 2013, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS) published its Third Report on proprietary trading within banks. The PCBS considers that there is no commonly-accepted definition of proprietary trading and recognises that most activity undertaken by banks results in some form of proprietary position.   However, it is primarily concerned with trading in […]

Introduction On 8 March 2013, three draft statutory instruments to be made under the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill 2012-13 (the “Banking Reform Bill”) were published by HM Treasury: The Financial Services and Markets 2000 (Ring-fenced Bodies and Core Activities) Order (the “Ring-fenced Bodies Order”); The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Excluded Activities and […]

Introduction On 4 February 2013, the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill 2013 (the “BRB”) was published on the UK Parliament website.  The BRB had its first reading in the House of Commons on 4 February, and its second reading on 5 February.  Its purpose is to implement the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking […]

…said George Osborne in a speech to staff at JP Morgan in Bournemouth yesterday.  According to the Chancellor, the reset button comprises four main elements: The transfer of responsibility for banking supervision from the FSA back to the Bank of England, which will have the “power to call time before the party gets out of […]

The FT reports that the German finance ministry has proposed legislation dealing with banking reform that has been interpreted as a rejection of the concept of ringfencing as contemplated by the Liikanen report.  Instead, the draft bill would require banks to set up a separate unit for proprietary trading activities that accounted for either EUR […]

On 21 December 2012, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards published its first report, in which it gives consideration to the draft Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill and associated proposals which give effect to the conclusions detailed in the Vickers’ report. Whilst the Commission supports the introduction of ring-fencing, its Chairman Andrew Tyrie MP, stated […]