Insight Report: Regulation in Global Banking

Synopsis
The report provides a detailed overview of regulatory initiatives taken by governments and regulatory bodies across the world in the past few years.
It provides an insight into emerging regulations such as Basel III, FATCA and Dodd-Frank, and their impacts on the retail banking industry .
It provides a regional analysis of retail banking regulations and their impacts on banks operating in their respective regions.
It provides insights into the impact of regulatory developments on banks' key business lines and corporate structures.  

Summary
Prior to the economic downturn, financial services companies primarily employed high financial leverage to increase profitability. However, these companies have now been pressured to deleverage and seek alternative sources of profit by the changed economic picture, a rise in regulatory mediation, and competitive issues. In this altered environment, a new operating model is needed, one rooted in attaining the primary relationship - or at least one of the main relationships - with the customer, recreating trust, and forging active customer relationships. However, the global financial institutions continue to face numerous tests to bring stability back in the financial system and win customer trust.
Basel III regulations aim to overcome the shortcomings of the Basel II regime, which failed to effectively address risk exposures in the banking industry. The new regime proposes stricter capital and liquidity requirements for banks to ensure they remain resilient to financial shocks. It has also upgraded internal risk assessment processes and disclosure requirements to bring more transparency in banks' functioning. However, given the weak condition of banks due to rising regulatory pressures, operating costs and falling profit margins in several key economies such as the US and members of the European Union (EU), the timing of implementation remains uncertain, with migration to minimum capital requirements already delayed until the end of 2018.  
Scope
 This report provides an overview of the level of regulatory enforcement in the banking industry across various regions.
It discusses key factors which drive governments and regulatory bodies to formulate and implement these regulations.
It analyzes key operational and technological trends among banking institutions as a result of evolving regulatory dynamics and business environments.
It discusses the current and future outlook of the retail banking industry and its product classes as a result of these regulations
Outlines the market opportunities and challenges for retail banks due to changing regulatory landscape 
  
Reason To Buy
 Gain insights into various regulatory developments that have taken place across different markets to combat rising money-laundering activity.    
Analyze the challenges on the business operations of retail banking institutions due to these regulatory developments.
Assess the impact of these regulations on the global economy and financial system, and how financial institutions have been taking initiatives to deal with these changes.   
Understand the impact on products and services, as well as companies' corporate structures as a result of regulatory developments. 
Key Highlights
Basel III is a comprehensive risk-based approach on capital adequacy and risk management for the banking industry, and aims to provide better protection to depositors and minimize firm failures. The project was initiated by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision as an extension of the Basel II regulations to develop a revised set of capital-requirement and risk-management standards. Basel III is expected to enable banks to hold capital against market, credit and operational risks, and will consist of reform guidelines targeted at improving regulatory supervision and risk management for banks. 
In addition to Basel III reforms, regions such as America and Europe are registering significant shifts in their regional regulations. These regulatory changes are mostly in line with Basel III, but address domestic circumstances more effectively. In the US, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, among others, are expected to push banks to pay attention to the quality of their capital, lending practices and consumer protection.
In Europe, which remains heavily in debt after the financial crisis of 2008 and the eurozone crisis, regulators have taken an aggressive stance. The 2013 banking regulations such as Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and revised Capital Requirements Directive (CRD 4), combined with the Liikanen proposal to ring-fence retail depositors' funds, are expected to overhaul the banking industry in the region. On the other hand, the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and African regions show relatively low activity in bringing in new regulations compared to their Western counterparts.
Money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion are major ongoing issues faced by the banking industry, leading to various regulatory reforms worldwide. In the US, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted in 2010 to address tax evasion by US citizens via foreign financial institutions and some non-foreign financial entities (NFFEs).