LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – Bankers’ bonuses should be
capped at twice their basic pay and “golden hellos” handed back
if performance disappoints, European Union lawmakers said on
Tuesday.

The bloc’s parliament and member states are approving a
draft law to implement Basel III, global rules to toughen up
bank capital and liquidity requirements from 2013 to plug
regulatory gaps highlighted by the financial crisis.

LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) – Banks should be banned from
giving outside brokers direct access to markets as part of a
sweeping crackdown on computerised high-frequency trading, a
European Parliament report said on Monday.

The report was the assembly’s initial response to a draft
law aimed at reining in computerised or algorithmic trading and
other advances in technology which have made it harder for
supervisors to see the full picture and control markets.

LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) – Banks should be banned from
giving outside brokers direct access to markets as part of a
crackdown on computerised high frequency trading, a European
Parliament report said on Monday.

The report was the assembly’s initial response to a draft
law aimed at reining in computerised or algorithmic trading and
other advances in technology which have made it harder for
supervisors to see the full picture.

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) – Exchanges should slap higher
fees on traders who cancel many of their buy and sell orders to
stop potential abuses from ultra-fast high-frequency trading, a
senior European Union lawmaker said on Friday.

“We need a deceleration of high-frequency trade, more retail
investor protection and containment of excessive speculation,”
said Markus Ferber, a centre-right German member of the European
Parliament’s economic affairs committee.

BRUSSELS/ LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) – Retail investment
funds across Europe will be subject to stricter controls that
safeguard investors, according to proposals from the European
Commission designed to prevent a repeat of the Bernard Madoff
fraud.

In a draft of a new law seen by Reuters, which will be put
to countries and the European parliament for approval in the
coming months, the European Commission proposes imposing strict
legal liability on trustees of funds should they fail to
safeguard investor cash.

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) – British banks need to raise new
capital as soon as they can, because the global financial system
remains fragile despite action by the European Central Bank to
shore up the euro zone, the Bank of England’s new risk watchdog
said on Friday.

The BoE’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said banks had
gone as far as they could to raise capital by keeping down pay
and dividends, and called on the government to give it powers to
force banks to raise capital if they resisted.

LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) – The “Big Three” credit rating
agencies must improve their explanations of downgrades, the
sector’s European Union regulator said in a report on Thursday,
noting other shortcomings.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which
became the main supervisor for ratings agencies in the EU last
year, examined Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and
Fitch in December.

LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) – The European Parliament’s
economic affairs committee overwhelmingly backed a draft law to
implement new capital rules for insurers, including a package of
measures that will make the new regime less burdensome for the
industry.

The vote, carried by a majority of 37 to five, makes it
virtually certain that the changes will survive into the final
version of the new so-called Solvency II rules, due to come into
force in January 2014.

LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) – European Union regulators may
extend the scope of next year’s bank stress tests to check
whether business models are too risky or vulnerable, a senior
source familiar with the matter said.

The European Banking Authority (EBA), made up of financial
regulators from the bloc’s 27-member countries, is completing
this year’s stress test which obliged 31 lenders to plug a 115
billion euros hole to bring up their core capital level to 9
percent of risk weighted assets by the end of June.

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) – European Union plans to impose
losses on the bondholders of ailing banks have been further
delayed amid concerns they could increase banks’ borrowing
costs, EU officials said on Monday.

The EU’s executive has drafted a law with measures designed
to shield taxpayers from having to prop up lenders in another
financial crisis by sharing the burden of a wind-up or rescue
with bondholders.