Financial Regulatory Forum

   By Matt Falloon and David Milliken
   LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) – One set of encouraging economic data would not mean that a recovery is entrenched and the British government must keep borrowing to support growth, finance minister Alistair Darling said on Wednesday.
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ISTANBUL, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The Group of 20 major nations may blacklist countries that have lax financial regulation and impose sanctions on them, mirroring its crackdown on tax havens, Britain’s finance minister was quoted as saying.

“Just as we want to go after tax havens, we want to go after regulatory havens as well,” Alistair Darling told Emerging Markets magazine in an interview published on Saturday.

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LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – UK Finance Minister Alistair Darling plans to force the country’s banks to draw up ‘living wills’ that would allow them to be dismantled more easily in the event of another financial crisis, the Financial Times reported.

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By Sumeet Desai and Anna Willard
LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – World finance leaders shifted their focus from crisis fighting to banking reform on Friday as evidence mounted that the worst global recession in decades was finally drawing to a close.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for tougher new bank capital requirements aimed at curbing some of the risky lending practices that have been blamed for the crisis, a position supported by another global banking powerhouse, Britain.

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By Sumeet Desai and Matt Falloon
LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – British finance minister Alistair Darling on Friday threw his weight behind U.S. proposals to strengthen the capital buffers of banks but said there were still differences of opinion among international policymakers.

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By Anna Willard
BRUSSELS, Sept 2 (Reuters) – European finance ministers pledged on Wednesday to clamp down on banker bonuses, raising the prospect of spreading such payouts over years or demanding back money if business turns sour.

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By David Milliken and Matt Falloon
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) – The Bank of England took a far
bigger step than expected to boost Britain’s recession-hit
economy on Thursday, stunning markets by expanding its
quantitative easing plan to 175 billion pounds from 125 billion.

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By Andy Bruce
LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – British businesses are slowly finding it easier to raise funds from debt markets and bank loans, two surveys showed on Monday, a day after Britain’s finance minister said he was concerned about lending costs.  Companies were able to raise more finance from longer-term markets like corporate bonds in the second quarter, according to respondents in the Bank of England’s quarterly Asset Purchase Facility report, as liquidity and price transparency in the market improved. (more…)