John McFarlane, chairman of Barclays, holds that eliminating bonuses for investment bankers could remove “temptation to cut corners”. At the British Banker’s Association Annual conference, McFarlane explained that the flaws of bonuses were exposed during the financial crisis and the main problem was that most of the returns in banks went to employees and not
Accountants and their regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, are under fire following the Queen Counsel’s George Bompas suggestion that “the legal cornerstone underpinning the entire edifice of bank accounting is defective”. The Times newspaper had access to Mr George Bompas’s legal opinion dated August 14 strongly criticising the work of accountants at the top of the profession. The senior lawyer commissioned by the
A jury last week found former UBS and Citi trader Tom Haynes guilty of eight counts of conspiring to manipulate the London interbank lending rate (LIBOR) which is based on the rate at which leading banks are willing to lend to one another and is used as the basis for setting financial contracts around the
In March 2015 the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched a call for candidates for its Consultative Working Group (CWG) for the Investor Protection and Intermediaries Standing Committee (IPISC). Following his application, Juan Manuel Viver of BETTER FINANCE’s Secretariat has been appointed to the CWG. Josina Kamerling, Head of regulatory outreach for the EMEA region at
Last Friday (19 June), European Union finance ministers reached an agreement on a draft law aimed at tackling the problem of so-called too-big-to-fail banks, eventually forcing banks to curb proprietary trading and giving national regulators the power to split off risky trading activities from safer lending operations. The deal would apply to banks whose trading
International Conference "A Capital Markets Union for Growth, Jobs and Citizens" on May 6 2015 in Brussels Please find here the keynote speech of Ciprian Cristea, Head of Unit SME Access to finance, European Commission.
As part of the recommendations set out in its White Paper “An Agenda for Adequate, Safe and Sustainable Pensions”, the European Commission set up the Track and Trace your Pension in Europe (TTYPE) project. Under this project, six pension providers aim to develop a cost-effective European pension tracking system that offers sufficient “added value” to
Lundi 23 mars 2015, la FAIDER (Fédération des Associations Indépendantes de Défense des Epargnants pour la Retraite) organise les États généraux de l’épargne retraite à la Maison de la Chimie à Paris pour son 10ième anniversaire. La conférence discutera de la place pour l’épargne retraite, nouvelles pistes pour l’épargne retraite, ainsi que du cadrage économique et d’une
Equity Crowdfunding means people investing in an unlisted company – usually at an early stage of its lifecycle – in return for shares. However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), UK-based financial regulatory body found out that most companies in equity crowdfunding misled investors about the risks involved. Information regarding the companies was often – if
The European Central Bank will make the accounts of its policy deliberations available to the public, starting with its upcoming meeting on January 22. However, the minutes will not reveal the vote counting or details on how individual board members voted. This will ensure that policy makers do not come under undue political pressure from