Free Republic

The European Union and the United States agreed on Thursday to implement the new global Basel III capital adequacy rules for banks as soon as possible, EU financial services chief Michel Barnier said after a meeting in Washington. The Basel rules are the world’s main regulatory response to the 2007-09 financial crisis, aimed at preventing a repeat crisis where banks had to be bailed out by their governments. … An EU official said ambassadors from the 27 member states meeting on Thursday also backed proposals for a capping of bankers’ bonuses to no more than the equivalent of their fixed...

Question: Do you think leverage requirements should be part of any financial regulatory reform in the United States, regardless of what happens to Basel II capital requirements? Sheila Bair: Although the intense public debate over Basel II seems like a thing of the distant past, I remain committed to the idea that leverage requirements are important for banks not just in the United States but around the world. By providing capital even when risk-based measures (erroneously, as it turned out) indicate minimal risk, the leverage ratio is a critical part of our overall approach to capital regulation. When we emerge...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Bank holding company Guaranty Financial Group Inc. said it is "probable it will not be able to continue as a going concern" as it restated results that include an additional $1.45 billion in write-downs. The moves, disclosed in a securities filing Thursday, set the stage for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to take over operations of the company, including more than 160 branches in Texas and California. With about $15 billion in assets, Guaranty could become the biggest federally insured financial firm to fail this year. In May, the banking operations of BankUnited FSB in Coral Gables,...

U.S. regulators closed seven small banks on Friday, a pace matching a one-day total seen earlier in July and bringing the number of failures so far this year to 64. Six of the banks were in Georgia and were subsidiaries of Security Bank Corp, having a total of 20 branches, $2.8 billion in assets and about $2.4 billion in deposits, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said. State Bank and Trust Co of Pinehurst, Georgia, agreed to assume all of the deposits at the six banks, whose branches will reopen under State Bank's name. State Bank will also purchase $2.4 billion...