Financial Regulatory Forum

   By Jan Dahinten and Neil Chatterjee
SINGAPORE, Oct 26 (Reuters) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Christian Noyer warned that banks are taking the same risks that led to the financial crisis and said they should preserve capital rather than pay it out to bankers and investors.His comments came as regulators around the world mull reforms to lower the risks that large banks can pose to the financial system and rein in the type of recklessness that fueled the credit crisis.

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PARIS, Oct 23 (Reuters) – France’s lower house of parliament on Friday approved a plan to impose a 10 percent tax on bank profits in 2010 despite opposition from the government.The National Assembly, adopted the opposition-proposed measure by 44 votes to 40.

However, a source in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party said the government would ask for a new vote, claiming a technical problem because two UMP deputies had accidentally voted the wrong way.

There are 577 deputies in the lower house and President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party has a comfortable majority but many were absent for the evening vote.

By Mark Felsenthal
WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve must continue measures to prop up the economy for an extended period but can’t do so indefinitely for fear of triggering an inflationary surge, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned on Thursday.

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By Wayne Cole
SYDNEY, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Australia’s central bank raised its key cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 percent on Tuesday and heralded more to come, saying it was safe to row-back on stimulus now that the worst danger for the economy had passed.

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By Lilla Zuill and Grant McCool
WESTPORT, Conn./NEW YORK, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Joseph Cassano has come home to face the music.
The former AIG executive closely associated with one of the most sensational collapses in corporate history, recently slipped back into the United States.

Under intensifying investigations by the FBI and other agencies, the 54-year-old Cassano had until recently been living in London.

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DUBLIN, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Hedge funds which bet unsuccessfully that Ireland would default on its sovereign debt want the country to reject the EU’s reform treaty this week to recoup some of their losses, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said on Monday.

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By Steve Slater and Foo Yun Chee
LONDON/BRUSSELS, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Europe’s banks face a shakeout as a result of the European Commission flexing its muscles over state aid that the sector gratefully accepted to survive a financial crisis.

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By Jan Strupczewski
BRUSSELS, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The European Union will support maintaining policies that poured trillions of dollars into economies and call on a G20 meeting for progress on trade talks to help boost a recovery, a draft policy document said.

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By Caren Bohan

NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama warned financial firms on Monday to heed the lessons of Lehman Brothers’ collapse a year ago and get behind a regulatory overhaul he wants Congress to pass this year.
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WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s speech in New York on Monday will focus on financial reform and the need to strengthen the system to avoid another economic collapse, the White House said on Friday.

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