Financial Regulatory Forum

   By Edward Taylor and Kirstin Ridley
FRANKFURT/LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Neelie Kroes’s campaign to shrink banks and launch vast asset sales has angered bankers, who accuse the firebrand European competition commissioner of kicking the industry when it’s down.Investment bankers close to some of the bailed-out lenders blame Kroes for undermining attempts to rebuild the once-lucrative industry by forcing massive, near-simultaneous asset sales, while banning acquisitions.

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  LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Britain is set to announce on Tuesday a long-awaited deal with its bailed-out banks, including a record rights issue for Lloyds Banking Group and hefty disposals for Royal Bank of Scotland to appease the EU competition regulator and boost competition.

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WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department will announce on Monday that three more funds have met requirements to get government financing that will let them begin purchases of banks’ so-called toxic assets.

Treasury said last Wednesday, which was Sept. 30, that Invesco Ltd and Trust Company of the West, or TCW, were the first of nine public-private investment funds to raise the necessary capital to launch the program for buying toxic assets.

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By Lesley Wroughton
ISTANBUL, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The head of the International Finance Corp said on Saturday that the group plans to work with private equity funds, debt servicing companies and major banks to soak up toxic assets held by banks in emerging markets.

The IFC, the World Bank’s private-sector lender, said this week it would contribute up to $1.5 billion toward a proposed $5 billion global scheme that would invest in or mobilize investment to buy up distressed assets.

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U.S. Treasury launches first toxic asset funds
    WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) – The first two funds involved in the government’s plan to purchase toxic assets have raised about $1.13 billion, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday. (more…)

By Karey Wutkowski
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has selected a Texas-based mortgage servicer as the first buyer in a test of its program aimed at cleansing toxic loans from banks’ balance sheets.
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   ZURICH, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Swiss bank UBS currently has no plans to buy back toxic assets which were transferred to the country’s central bank last autumn as part of a government rescue package, a spokeswoman said on Thursday. 
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   By David Lawder
   WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department should consider expanding programs to cleanse troubled assets from bank balance sheets if current efforts fail to restart markets or if economic conditions worsen, a U.S. bailout watchdog panel said on Tuesday. 
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WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is launching the first test of its Legacy Loans Program to help banks rid their balance sheets of toxic assets so they can raise new capital and increase lending, the agency said on Friday.
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