Concerns over a real estate bubble in China
For decades, China was referred to as the “sleeping giant.” This reference is to the great potential impact of the country, its vast population, and its economy, but also to the fact that this potential was largely unrealized for hundreds of years. Well, the sleeping giant is awake! And the world financial press is now full of analysts following China and the international ramifications of its every action on the world economy.
On Monday U.S. state and federal authorities announced a criminal case against France’s BNP Paribas, which has pleaded guilty to several U.S. sanction violations. According to the Justice Department, BNP concealed billions of dollars in transactions for clients in Cuba, Iran, and Sudan and has agreed to pay $8.9 billion in fines.
The agreement by the French bank to plead guilty is the first time that a global bank has agreed to plead guilty to large-scale violations of U.S. economic sanctions. Along with the monetary penalty that BNP must pay, the settlement includes a temporary ban on dollar-clearing transactions and the cutting of ties with some employees.
Makovsky, a communications company, recently interviewed 225 executives from banks, credit card companies, mutual funds, and other financial services providers about their outlook on Wall Street. The study showed that “81% of Financial Service companies continue to struggle with reputational and customer service issues stemming from the financial crisis six years ago.” (more…)
More than six months after the release of final Volcker Rule regulations, banking organizations continue to grapple with a long list of interpretive questions and an opaque process for seeking clarity from the Volcker agencies. Regulatory silence broke for a brief moment this past week in the form of a short interagency FAQ and, from the OCC, interim examination guidelines for assessing banking entities’ progress toward Volcker Rule compliance during the conformance period.
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The financial crisis generated concern that banks were taking excessive risks and they did not have adequate capital to run their operations. It was not clear if the existing Basel framework demonstrated weakness to contain the crisis or if it was the framework that led to the liquidity crisis and ultimately to the financial crisis. The U.S. government, through the Federal Reserve used funds under TARP to inject liquidity in the financial system. Even today the printing of money (quantitative easing) is going unabated to prop up the economy. Given this background, the regulation of banks has become increasingly important. Under the new Basel III requirements, U.S. regulators are requiring stronger leverage ratios for major U.S. banks. This would restrict banks to limit their borrowing and force them to fund their operations through equity.
On December 10, 2013, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“FRB”), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued jointly developed final regulations. By doing this, federal agencies implemented § 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act (Volcker Rule).
What exactly is Bitcoin? You may have heard a great deal about this in the media. You may know that it is a virtual currency. You may have heard news that the evaluation of Bitcoin once skyrocketed to a record of $900. But you may not have heard an analysis of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies in the legal community.
Some recent news in the financial industry are indicating that bailout banks that received taxpayer money after the 2007-08 financial crisis may be starting to show signals of recovery and paying back some of the investments made by federal governments.
On March 20, 2014, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System announced the results of the annual company-run stress tests for the 30 largest banking institutions, concluding that the institutions have improved their capital positions and are now better positioned to endure conditions of extremely severe stress than they were five years ago. For Mid-sized Banks, this announcement offers a glimpse into the implementation of the stress-test public disclosure requirements, which such institutions are required to meet in 2015.