LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Britain’s financial watchdog wants
more banks to help set Libor, saying firms that do not volunteer
to join panels that calculate the interest rate daily could be
compelled to.

The Financial Services Authority wants to make it harder to
rig Libor – the London interbank offered rate, a benchmark used
in contracts worth an estimated $500 trillion worldwide.

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Derivatives regulators from major
trading centres promised on Tuesday to minimise cross-border
clashes over their new rules to rein in risks in the $640
trillion sector and give industry extra time to adjust.

World leaders agreed in 2009 to increase transparency by
requiring swaps contracts to be recorded, cleared and traded on
electronic platforms by the end of this month, but not all
countries are ready.

LONDON (Reuters) – Bankers’ pay needs to be curbed further to reflect the risk of a bank failure many years after a bonus has been awarded, the Bank of England (BoE) said before the annual bonus season begins next month.

The European Union has already introduced curbs on bankers’ bonuses after huge payouts were criticized for helping to create the climate that led to the financial crisis in 2008. Bank shareholders, too, expressed dismay at large bonuses for bank employees despite poor returns.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s new financial watchdog will temporarily ban financial products for up to a year, rather than wait for the results of a full investigation, if it feels they do not offer value for money or make it harder for consumers to shop around.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be launched in April to help draw a line under two decades of mis-selling endowment mortgages, pensions, loan insurance and other products.

LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Britain’s new financial watchdog
will temporarily ban financial products for up to a year, rather
than wait for the results of a full investigation, if it feels
they do not offer value for money or make it harder for
consumers to shop around.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be launched in
April to help draw a line under two decades of mis-selling
endowment mortgages, pensions, loan insurance and other
products.

LONDON (Reuters) – Most Libor interest rates should be scrapped by April to restore trust in what remains of the tarnished benchmark that was rigged by Barclays and other banks, a trade body said on Thursday.

The British Bankers Association (BBA) said only 30 of 150 variations of the London Interbank Offered Rate should remain under a proposal it published for consultation.

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Most Libor interest rates should
be scrapped by April to restore trust in what remains of the
tarnished benchmark that was rigged by Barclays and
other banks, a trade body said on Thursday.

The British Bankers Association (BBA) said only 30 of 150
variations of the London Interbank Offered Rate should remain
under a proposal it published for consultation.

LONDON (Reuters) – Banks need a new business model and the threat of forced separation of investment and retail banking should be put into law to help curb risky behavior, UK regulators said on Wednesday.

Andrew Haldane, director of financial stability at the Bank of England, told a panel of lawmakers that Britain’s Vickers plan to impose extra capital on the deposit-taking arms of banks by 2019 to make them safer, may not be enough to protect the taxpayer.

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Corporate lobbying is on the verge
of derailing an attempt by regulators to make companies account
more clearly for leased equipment, the head of a global
accounting rules body said on Tuesday.

The International Accounting Standards Board and its U.S.
counterpart, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, agreed in
June to require companies to put leases longer than a year on
their balance sheets.

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – A former top accountant defended
how his firm checked the books of HBOS before the bank was
rescued in the financial crisis, saying nobody saw what was
coming.

HBOS had to be taken over by Lloyds in January 2009
for 12 billion pounds ($19.2 billion) and the enlarged group was
bailed out by the UK taxpayer who now has a 40 percent stake.