Standards

Briefs ....

Regulatory barriers | "Terrorist-sponsoring" states | Qatar regulation | Basel II

Business lobby groups the US Chamber of Commerce and BUSINESSEUROPE have announced a strategic partnership designed to address regulatory barriers between transatlantic markets. Last April’s US-EU summit saw the creation of the Transatlantic Economic Council as part of an attempt to achieve regulatory cooperation, and the two lobby groups will work cooperatively with the Council and monitor its progress.  



The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has "temporarily" suspended a controversial web tool designed to provide investors with information on which companies do business in "terrorist-sponsoring" states. Announcing the decision, SEC chairman Christopher Cox said that since its launch this tool has experienced "exceptional traffic" and many positive comments. However, he added, the regulator also received negative feedback, particularly over the tool's inability to access more recent data about a company's activities in a "terrorist state" since the date of its last annual report. Therefore, he announced, the tool is being temporarily suspended while changes are made to meet the various concerns expressed.



Qatar is to establish a single integrated financial regulator, unifying the Qatar Financial Markets Authority, the QFC Regulatory Authority and the Department of Banking Supervision. Qatar also intends to create one set of regulatory standards applicable to all financial institutions, which the country hopes will allow international businesses to operate in a familiar regulatory environment with minimal compliance costs.



US regulators have reached an agreement on implementation of the Basel II capital requirements, bringing the regulatory regime for the country's large banks closer to that adopted by Europe. US agencies - including the Federal Reserve - have agreed to drop several differences between the US and European regimes, including an insistence on a 10% limitation on aggregate reductions in risk-based capital requirements.

August 2007