By John O’Donnell
   BRUSSELS, April 13 (Reuters) – European finance ministers will attempt to settle differences over how best to impose extra taxes on banks at a meeting in Madrid this week, sources familiar with the talks said.

   LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) – Britain’s financial regulator has fined and banned two former executives of Northern Rock, the troubled mortgage lender taken into state ownership two years ago, for misreporting mortgage arrears numbers.

   April 13 (Reuters) – Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans to introduce a capital requirement for credit default swap clearinghouses and an accreditation system for their major shareholders, the Nikkei business daily reported.

   By Dan Margolies
   WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) -  Despite fraud rates of over 58 percent and 83 percent at two of Washington Mutual Bank’s top-producing loan production offices in 2005, the bank did nothing to address the problem, according to findings released Monday by a congressional panel.

    FRANKFURT, April 12 (Reuters) – U.S. banking supervisors could get indirect powers to ban proprietary trading by banks even if the “Volcker rule” is not in the financial reform bill, a banking consultant with close contact to decision-makers said.

   WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) – The Obama administration will resist any efforts to weaken a “comprehensive and strong” change to the way the U.S. financial system is regulated that lawmakers are now debating, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said on Monday.

    BERLIN, April 11 (Reuters) – The Bundesbank will not agree to any new national financial supervision structure that might impinge upon its independence, a board member of the German central bank said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

    NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s bailout of the financial system is expected to cost $89 billion, much lower than earlier projections, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing Treasury Department officials.

   By Langi Chiang and David Stanway
   BOAO, China, April 11 (Reuters) – China’s banks must report on the quality of their loan books by the end of June and take fresh steps to rein in risky lending to land developers, the chief banking regulator said on Sunday.

    By Huw Jones
   LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) – Radical and carefully thought reform is needed to shield British taxpayers from having to bail out troubled banks again, a UK parliamentary report said on Monday.