LONDON (Reuters) – Europe’s banking watchdog is stepping in to strengthen consumer protection after the rigging of Libor interest rates and mis-selling of financial products.

The European Banking Authority said new rules were urgently needed for home loans and other products given mis-selling scandals, poor compliance with anti-money laundering rules, and the manipulation by Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) used to help price some consumer loans.

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – European Union lawmakers
proposed on Tuesday that companies should have two auditors to
check their books, beefing up proposals to boost competition and
standards in the audit market.

The idea represents a significant addition to a draft EU law
designed to improve the performance of auditors blamed for
giving banks a clean bill of health just before they were
rescued by taxpayers in the 2007-09 credit crunch.

LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Banks and investment firms have
until the second quarter of next year to scrap pay incentives
that could encourage the mis-selling of financial products,
European Union regulators said.

The draft plan marked a widening remit for the EU’s
securities watchdog as it pushes into investor protection
territory, traditionally a preserve of national supervisors.

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – The United States should
reject Basel III bank capital standards if the international
panel that drafted them does not make dramatic changes to the
rules, a director at the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
said on Friday.

Speaking at the American Banker regulatory symposium, FDIC
director Thomas Hoenig said the current standards deserve a
total rethink because they are too complex and are based on
subjective judgment calls.

LONDON (Reuters) – Global securities regulators are to study how the interest rate Libor, which was rigged by British banks including Barclays, and other money market benchmarks should be supervised and how they are set, to restore market confidence.

Barclays, hit with a record fine of more than $450 million in June, is widely expected to be the first of several banks punished for attempting to manipulate Libor – the London interbank offered rate.

LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – A rule forcing banks to hold
cash buffers to survive financial shocks must “raise the bar”, a
top regulator said on Thursday, dampening hopes among lenders
for a big rowback so they can lend more to struggling economies.

World leaders have agreed to introduce the first global
liquidity rule for banks from January 2015 as part of efforts to
shield taxpayers from having to rescue banks again.

LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – A sweeping reform of Europe’s
derivatives market will be rolled out over several months and
not with a “big bang” in January to allow banks time to bed down
the system before they risk enforcement action, regulators said
on Tuesday.

World leaders agreed in 2009 during the financial crisis to
crack down on trading in the opaque $648 trillion derivatives
market that is conducted mainly between 15 of the world’s
biggest banks.

LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Safeguards proposed by Brussels
to stop a newly beefed-up European Central Bank from calling the
shots on banks beyond the euro zone are unlikely to satisfy
Britain and other EU countries that do not use the common
currency.

The EU faces weeks of hard bargaining before a banking union
puts the banks of the 17 countries that use the euro under the
authority of the ECB next year, giving the Frankfurt-based ECB
unprecedented new powers.

LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union will propose a panel of experts to adjudicate banking rule breaches, as an extra layer of protection so that the European Central Bank cannot impose its will on the pan-EU banking regulator when the ECB takes over supervision of euro zone banks.

Under a proposed banking union for the euro zone countries, the ECB is meant to take over primary supervisory power for the 6,000 banks in the 17 countries using the euro.

LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union’s banking watchdog will have new powers to overrule the European Central Bank when the bloc’s single market is threatened, a document obtained by Reuters showed.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday will present a blueprint for a euro zone banking union with the European Central Bank (ECB) as the main supervisor for the currency area’s 6,000 banks.