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CONTENTS

Domestic Banking 2

Domestic General 4

European Banking 5

European General 6

International Banking 6

International General 7

Press Releases 8

BANKING & FINANCE LITIGATION UPDATE

ISSUE 76

mailto:[email protected]

2 | Issue 76 - Banking & Finance Litigation Update

DOMESTIC BANKING

BANK OF ENGLAND

1. The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of

England has decided to hold interest rates at the

record low of 0.5 per cent, where they have been

held since March 2009. The Bank's emergency

stimulus of £375 billion has also been left at the

same level.

Telegraph.co.uk, 8 May 2014

2. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD) has called on the Bank of

England to "address the risks of excessive house

price inflation" by tightening up access to the

Help to Buy scheme.

Independent.co.uk, 7 May 2014

3. Growth forecasts for the UK have been upgraded

by the Bank of England for the second time in two

months, with confidence in manufacturing now

higher than it has been for forty years. The

forecast for growth in the first three months of the

year rose from 0.9 per cent to 1 per cent.

Telegraph.co.uk, 23 April 2014

BARCLAYS

4. A major overhaul of Barclays Bank is underway

after the bank's chief executive, Antony Jenkins,

announced that 19,000 jobs will be lost. 7,000 of

the job losses will come from the company's

investment banking arm, which Jenkins is

determined to scale back to avoid further rows

about bonus increases. Barclays will also create

an internal "bad bank" to house undesirable parts

of the investment operations as well as some of its

operations in Europe.

Guardian, 9 May 2014

5. Barclays has issued its financial results which

show a reduction in overall group profits from

£1.8 billion to £1.7 billion, whilst turnover fell to

£6.1 billion, a drop of 13 per cent. Investment

banking was the heaviest to be hit, where profits

were down by almost half to £668 million for the

first quarter of 2014.


6. Barclays is to provide a £1 million package of

assistance to the financial co-operative sector,

which includes credit unions, and which acts as an

alternative to pay day lenders and loan sharks.

Barclays has said it will allow credit unions to use

its branches to operate from for free and will also

provide them with access to its mobile payments

technology, Pingit, at no cost.

Guardian.co.uk, 30 April 2014

CO-OPERATIVE BANK

7. The Co-op Bank has completed a £400 million

fundraising with existing shareholders and new

institutional investors agreeing to take shares to

that value. The Co-op Group's holding in the bank

will reduce from 30 per cent to 20 per cent.

Sunday Times, 11 May 2014

8. The publication of Sir Christopher Kelly's 152

page report on the crisis at the Co-operative Bank

has found that poor management, bad lending, a

flawed culture and a merger with the Britannia

Building Society that ought never to have

happened were all a part of the mutual board's

failings. The report identifies nine reasons for the

crisis and fifteen lessons to be learned.


HSBC

9. HSBC has succumbed to shareholder pressure and

reduced the amount of a "performance" share

award, worth about £2.25 million, it had planned

to give to chairman Douglas Flint. The banking

group informed investors that any payout would

have a limit of £1 million and the head of its

remuneration committee pledged that the bonus

would be a one-off.

Times, 15 May 2014

10. The first three months of 2014 saw HSBC suffer a

20 per cent drop in pre-tax profits, a figure that

reflected the impact in its investment banking

activities of "challenging market conditions".

HSBC's investment banking saw pre-tax profits go

down by a fifth to $2.87 billion, mirroring declines

reported by other European and US investment

banks, mostly as a result of a fall in revenues from

fixed-income trading.

Financial Times, 8 May 2014

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP

11. Plans by Lloyds Banking Group to list its TSB

branches on the London Stock Exchange ahead of

a flotation have been approved by the European

Commission. The Commission's first deadline

for the sale of the 631 branches has been extended

from November 2013 to the end of 2015. The

flotation is expected to take place by the end of

June this year.

Telegraph, 14 May 2014

12. Lloyds Bank has released figures for the first

quarter of 2014 which show an increase of 20 per

cent in underlying profit to £1.8 billion. The bank

has also announced that it intends to float more

than 25 per cent of its TSB business before the

end of June this year and will allow retail

investors to purchase shares through

intermediaries. It also hopes that its results will

let it restart the payment of dividends to investors.


THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND

13. Citizens Financial Group has filed documents with

the US Securities and Exchange Commission for

an initial public offering which would raise in the

region of $100 million for The Royal Bank of

Scotland ("RBS"). A listing by RBS's American

business, which is reckoned to be worth

approximately $15 billion, will facilitate the

restoration of billions of dollars of capital to the

UK.


14. Profits at RBS doubled in the first quarter of 2014

aided by decreasing bad loan impairments and the

first profit since the financial crisis for its Irish

business, Ulster Bank. The lender reported a pre-

tax profit of £1.64 billion compared with £826

million in the same period in 2013. Chief

executive Ross McEwan said there is still much

work to be done and lots of issues from the past to

consider.

Telegraph.co.uk 2 May 2014

15. The chairman of SME banking for RBS and

NatWest has maintained that the two banks, who

announced they have been in touch with over

270,000 firms offering to lend them a total of

more than £10 billion, are "very much open for

business".

Times, 5 May 2014

16. Further institutional investors have joined a legal

action against RBS over its 2008 £12 billion rights

issue only months before it collapsed and had to

be bailed out.

Times, 2 May 2014

17. RBS has cautioned that if Scotland votes for

independence, the whole of RBS's business would

be affected, resulting in greater costs and poorer

credit ratings. RBS has previously warned it might

have to relocate its legal headquarters and some of

its operations to England in the event of

independence.

Thetimes.co.uk, 26 April 2014

18. RBS's proposal to hand out bonuses to top bankers

worth up to twice their salaries has been thwarted

by the Treasury and the lender has warned of a

"commercial and prudential risk" to its business as

a result. RBS said key senior employees would

likely leave for competitor banks able to give out

larger pay packages.

Telegraph, 26 April 2014

19. RBS has been fined HK$6 million by Hong Kong

regulators for inadequate controls which allowed

Shirlina Tsang Pui Yu to lose £24.4 million. The

rogue trader was found guilty of fraud, which

RBS had reported to the Securities and Futures

Commission of Hong Kong, and was jailed in

2013.

Times, 23 April 2014

20. A Clifford Chance report commissioned by RBS

has exonerated the lender over allegations made

last November by Lawrence Tomlinson that it had

purposely put small business customers in

financial strife out of business for its own gain.

The law firm found "no evidence" of misconduct

by the lender and said its investigation of RBS's

controversial global restructuring group had found

nothing to indicate that SME customers had failed

as a result of the lender's actions.



STANDARD CHARTERED

21. After experiencing a detrimental shareholder

revolt at its annual general meeting in London,

Standard Chartered has promised to reconsider the

way in which it pays its bosses. 41% of

shareholder votes were against the pay policy for

the coming three years.


22. Although Standard Chartered continues to face

difficult market conditions, its performance for the

first quarter of 2014 is in keeping with

expectations. The lender's operating profits fell by

a "high single digit percentage".

Telegraph.co.uk, 8 May 2014

DOMESTIC GENERAL

23. Research from the London School of Economics

shows that the UK's largest four banks have set

aside £21.5 billion in advance of more fines and

payments to customers for previous bad

behaviour. This amount is in addition to almost

£25 billion in costs already paid out by the banks.


24. Less than a quarter of the compensation owed to

small businesses by banks over mis-sold interest

rate swaps, has so far been paid. The Financial

Conduct Authority ("FCA") scheme is unlikely to

make its target of securing compensation of £3.75

billion by the end of July.

Times, 9 May 2014

25. In the first of a number of flotations by so-called

"challenger banks" looking to raise money and

provide competition for established lenders on the

high-street, OneSavings Bank has announced that

it intends to list on the London Stock Exchange in

June and raise £41 million.


26. Regulators have been subject to criticism about

the way that the penalty process is currently

handled. The Treasury is consulting over changes

to the current regulatory regime which could

result in a new body being created to oversee

fining and banning decisions.


27. Despite an insistence from banks that they are

ready to provide companies with the money they

need, lending to small and medium-sized

businesses has dropped by the biggest amount in

over a year. After a £200 million rise in February,

net lending to SMEs was down by £1.1 billion in

March. The drop came despite efforts by the Bank

of England and the government to improve the

situation, such as a refocusing of the Funding for

Lending scheme. Net lending to the wider

corporate world also fell in March, down by £2.3

billion, the fifth consecutive monthly drop.

Times, 2 May 2014

28. Seven large banks and Nationwide Building

Society are to be tested by the Bank of England to

see if they would have enough capital following a

number of 'doomsday' situations. The scenarios

include an increase in the base rate to 4 per cent,

unemployment soaring to nearly four million, the

pound sinking by 30 per cent and house prices

collapsing by 35 per cent. The stress tests will be

formally applied before the end of 2014, and those

banks which fail the tests might be required to

raise new capital or reduce riskier practices. They

may also have to conserve cash by being forced to

suspend staff bonuses or dividends. The Bank's

Prudential Regulation Authority will conduct the

tests.


29. Registrations for Paym, the new mobile-to-mobile

payments system, had reached 360,000 by the

system's launch. Most of the major banks are

backing Paym, though customers at RBS/NatWest

will not be able to use it until later in the year. The

system lets customers make and receive payments

directly to a current account using just a mobile

phone number, and without having to reveal

sensitive account details. By 2018, the Payments

Council expects 1 billion payments to have been

made via Paym.

Guardian.co.uk, 29 April 2014

30. New rules will provide more help to people who

have sent money to the wrong account by accident

and are trying to get it back. Under a voluntary

code, which is being overseen by the Payments

Council, banks or building societies will act within

two working days once they are informed by a

customer that a mistake has been made with a

payment. If the funds cannot be reclaimed

immediately, further investigations will be made

and the customer informed of the outcome within

20 working days.


31. As the authorities increase their assessment of the

country's ability to withstand cyber-crime and

terrorism, top financial institutions in the UK are

to be subjected to simulated attacks on their

computer infrastructure. The unprecedented

programme of "ethical hacking" is being overseen

partly by the Bank of England. The scenarios used

by the testers will draw on information from

intelligence reports on hacker threats from

criminals, rogue states and terrorists.

Financial Times, 22 April 2014

32. Consumer group Which? has warned that bad

advice from bank staff on a financial

compensation scheme risks losing savers

thousands of pounds. Which? found that bank staff

"routinely" gave wrong information on the

Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which

is designed to compensate savers in the event that

their building society or bank goes bust. Not one

member of staff at the 13 providers who were

tested mentioned that only £85,000 of the

£100,000 being put forward for depositing would

be protected in the event of a collapse of the

building society or bank.


33. A major change for high street banking could be

on the cards, following news that 29 companies

have now applied for banking licences, up on the

total of 21 in autumn 2013. Applications for three

would-be new banks are being considered by the

FCA, with 26 more planning to apply. The FCA

has not provided details about who has applied and

how long the process might take.


EUROPEAN BANKING

CREDIT SUISSE

34. The finance director of Credit Suisse has

announced that nothing "materially untoward" has

been discovered in the Swiss lender's investigation

into foreign-exchange trading.


DEUTSCHE BANK

35. Investors are putting pressure on Deutsche Bank to

raise capital amid concerns over the bank's ability

to cope with a slump in global debt markets and a

tougher regulatory environment. When the

European Central Bank ("ECB") takes over as

regulator in November, Deutsche is expected to

face a stricter regime of oversight. Insiders at the

bank accept the strong likelihood that, following

Eurozone-wide bank health checks later in 2014,

the bank will be directed to raise fresh equity.


EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

36. As the ECB kept its benchmark interest rate at a

record low of 0.25 per cent for another month, its

president Mario Draghi signalled that the central

bank will loosen monetary policy in June in order

to fight the persistently low inflation in the

Eurozone.


37. Mario Draghi has backed plans for the publication

of non-attributed minutes of ECB governing

council meetings. The move would put the ECB

more in line with its counterparts in the UK, US

and Japan.


38. Warning of the increasing risks posed by a

strengthening euro, Mario Draghi has given a

strong hint that the central bank is ready to begin

quantitative easing.


SANTANDER

39. Research indicates that more discontented current

account customers are selecting Spanish-owned

Santander as a new home for their everyday

banking than any other provider.

Sunday Telegraph, 11 May 2014

40. For the first quarter of 2014, Santander UK

reported a leap of 48 per cent in pre-tax profits to

£416 million as revenues rose 13 per cent to £1.1

billion. One-off costs, like making provisions for

the cost of redress for insurance mis-selling, have

also been lowered by the Spanish-owned lender.

Chief executive Ana Botín said the lender has

granted £5.7 billion of mortgages to households,

which includes £62 million as part of the help to

buy initiative and £1 billion to those buying for the

first time.



UBS

41. UBS has announced that it intends to split its

Swiss retail and private banking divisions from its

British business, in a move that will make it easier

to break the bank up. The split will also mean that

if another crisis affects the foreign side of the

business, the Swiss regulators could refuse to bail

it out, letting that side of the business fail or

leaving any bail out to the UK government. With

regulators requiring the bank to hold a lower

amount of capital against the risk of failure

following a split, UBS will be able to pay a special

dividend of SwFr 0.25 a share. The first quarter of

2014 saw revenues at the bank remain flat at SwFr

1.9 billion, with pre-tax profits falling to SwFr 659

million from SwFr 690 million.

Times, 7 May 2014

EUROPEAN GENERAL

42. According to a study by rating agency Fitch, even

though investors are lining up to lend them money,

a majority of Europe's banks have suffered an

increase in bad loans. Compared with 2012, there

was an 8.1 per cent increase in impaired loan

volumes in 2013, to just over €1 trillion.


43. With investors using billions to chase the smaller

volumes of bonds being issued, Europe's financial

institutions have seen funding costs fall to pre-

eurozone crisis lows. According to the iTraxx

senior financials index, which measures the cost of

bond insurance, the past three months have seen

borrowing costs for banks and insurers reduce by

almost a fifth.


44. In one of the most significant breakthroughs in

global attempts to crackdown on tax evasion,

Switzerland has undertaken to hand over the

details of foreign accounts to other countries. The

agreement by Switzerland to sign up to a new

global standard on automatic information

exchange came at a meeting of European finance

ministers.


45. Ten member states have agreed to implement a

levy on financial transactions by 1 January 2016,

moving the European Union closer to a financial

transactions tax. This has annoyed UK chancellor

George Osborne, who has threatened to bring a

new legal challenge.


46. The European Banking Authority has published

details of the financial and economic shocks that

lenders in Europe must prove they can weather in

upcoming sector health checks. Under the tests,

lenders in the EU will need to be able to withstand

a rise in funding costs, a new recession, a global

debt markets sell-off and sharp falls in equity and

property prices. The tests apply across all 28

member states, but are a key part of a

Comprehensive Asessment of banks in the

Eurozone, which is being undertaken by the ECB

as it gets ready to take on supervisory duties in late

2014.


47. Caixabank and Sabadell, two big Spanish lenders,

have both reported fewer bad debts in the first

quarter of 2014, indicating the beginnings of a

turnaround in the country's banking sector

following the damage caused by the financial

crisis. The loan data presents some of the clearest

signs yet that the turnaround in the Spanish

economy is starting to reach banks and borrowers.

Guardian, 25 April 2014

INTERNATIONAL BANKING

BANK OF AMERICA

48. Bank of America (BoA) shareholders have voted

all 15 nominated directors onto the bank's board at

the annual shareholders meeting, as well as

supporting the bank's auditors PWC. The votes

came after the discovery of an accounting mistake

which forced BoA to suspend its dividend and

despite calls from investors to vote against

directors with responsibility for auditing and not to

support PWC.

FT.com, 7 May 2014

49. The discovery of an accounting mistake has forced

BoA to suspend its first dividend increase for

seven years and shelve its planned $4 billion share

buy-back programme. The error concerned the

treatment of structured notes issued by Merrill

Lynch, which BoA purchased during the financial

crash in 2008. The Bank will now have to amend

and redo its stress tests for the Federal Reserve.


50. Bruce Thompson, the chief financial officer at

BoA, has announced a surprise net loss of $541

million for the first quarter of 2014, down from a

profit of $1.1 billion at the same time in 2013.

The loss comes as a result of the bank setting aside

$6 billion to cover legal costs it expects to incur in

the future.


BANK OF CHINA

51. Bank of China, the fourth largest bank in China,

has been ranked in the top ten in the Forbes list of

the world's largest public companies. The other

three Chinese banks, Industrial and Commercial

Bank of China, China Construction Bank and

Agricultural Bank of China, were the top three

largest companies in the world.

Thetimes.co.uk, 8 May 2014

GOLDMAN SACHS

52. Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs has

posted an 11 per cent drop in its first quarter

profits. Declines in the bank's fixed-income

trading revenue depressed the results. Net income

for the quarter fell to $1.95 billion, down from

$2.19 billion in the same period in 2013. There

was an 8 per cent fall in revenue to $9.33 billion,

though this was better than estimates of $8.70

billion.

Independent.co.uk, 18 April 2014

MORGAN STANLEY

53. US investment banking giant Morgan Stanley is to

make a new push into consumer banking. The

bank's efforts will be directed at lending to

existing brokerage clients, especially loans and

mortgages secured against customers' portfolios of

bonds and stocks, though other products have also

been examined as part of the banking shift. Chief

executive James Gorman said that retail banking

had become so important that publishing separate

results had been explored by executives, though

the idea has been rejected for the time being.

Officials at the bank have been looking for ways

to lend more and offer new deposit products to

retail customers.


54. In a sign that its strategy of focusing on wealth

management is paying off, Morgan Stanley has

defied the recent banking slowdown and posted a

55 per cent increase in profits for the first quarter

of 2014. The period saw the bank make $1.49

billion (£886 million), with revenues up 3.8 per

cent to $8.8 billion, with its wealth management

unit contributing $3.6 billion of that. Morgan

Stanley is the only Wall Street bank to have seen

its fixed-income trading unit grow, with a revenue

increase of 8 per cent.


INTERNATIONAL GENERAL

55. In response to moves by regulators to set tougher

requirements on risks linked to interest-rate

movements, banks are preparing for a fight over

capital requirements. The initiative from the

standard-setting Basel Committee has been called

"the final frontier" in bank capital rules by one

consultant. If regulators can reach an agreement on

more demanding global standards, consultants

believe that some banks may be forced to

accumulate extra capital. Lobbyists have

complained that new requirements could see an

approach to interest rate risk that is "one size fits

all", which would not acknowledge the varied

business models pursued by banks.


56. One of the US Federal Reserve's policymakers has

said that, despite indications that the recovery of

the US economy might be slowing, it is likely that

the Fed will carry on tapering its multi-billion

dollar bond-buying programme at a similar pace.

Hawkish Fed member Richard Fisher said that the

Fed was still on course to tail off its stimulus by

the end of 2014.


57. With rapidly growing commercial ties between

China and Southeast Asia driving increasing use

of China's currency, Singapore has overtaken

London as the biggest offshore trading hub outside

Hong Kong for the renminbi. The change shows

the renminbi's swift internationalisation, as well as

the competition between financial centres in Asia

and Europe for a cut of the business.



58. Prosecutors from the US Department of Justice

have flown to London to question individuals as

part of an investigation onto foreign exchange rate

fixing. A number of UK-based currency traders

"on the periphery" of the investigation have been

invited by the Department of Justice to attend

interview in London, as opposed to the United

States. The UK financial regulator has also asked

to be present at the interviews, the first set of

which have already taken place, with further

interviews planned.


59. Should the ECB decide to cut key interest rates

below zero, the Bank of New York Mellon could

move to charge clients for depositing euros.


60. The city of Providence, Rhode Island, is suing

dozens of major US banks and others on Wall

Street, over high frequency trading (HFT). The

city claims that manipulation of market data in

favour of split-second stock-trading firms by

banks, exchanges and others, defrauded investors.


PRESS RELEASES

61. Forbes appointed by the Chancellor as external

member of the Monetary Policy Committee

The Chancellor has announced that Kristin Forbes

has been appointed as external member of the

Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The

appointment will take effect in July, with Dr

Forbes attending the MPC meeting on 7 July. The

appointment will initially be for a 3 year term. Dr

Forbes will replace Ben Broadbent, who was

appointed as Deputy Governor for Monetary

Policy in March. Ben will continue to serve as a

member of the MPC by virtue of his new position

HM Treasury, 15 May 2014 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/kristin-forbes-

appointed-by-the-chancellor-as-external-member-of-the-

monetary-policy-committee

62. Ending Too Big to Fail – progress to date and

remaining issues - speech by Sir Jon Cunliffe

In a speech on Tuesday 13 May, Jon Cunliffe

reviewed the progress made by regulators in

addressing the issue of Too Big To Fail and set

out some remaining issues. He described the two-

pronged approach taken by regulators: first, to

reduce, but not eliminate, the probability of failure

by increasing the resilience of financial

institutions; second, managing the impact of

failure via the resolution framework and by

making investors bear losses.

Bank of England, 15 May 2014

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/

news/2014/076.aspx

63. Bank of England maintains Bank Rate at 0.5%

and the size of the Asset Purchase Programme

at £375 billion

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy

Committee has voted to maintain Bank Rate at 0.5

per cent. The Committee also voted to maintain

the stock of purchased assets financed by the

issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.

Bank of England, 8 May 2014

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk//publications/Pages/

news/2014/005.aspx

64. Bank of England Houblon £50 banknote to be

withdrawn on 30 April

The £50 banknote carrying the portrait of Sir John

Houblon, the first Governor of the Bank of

England, is to be withdrawn from circulation on

30 April. This withdrawal was first announced on

16 January 2014. From the end of 29 April only

the £50 note featuring Matthew Boulton and

James Watt, introduced in November 2011, will

hold legal tender status.

Bank of England, 29 April 2014


news/2014/072.aspx

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/kristin-forbes-appointed-by-the-chancellor-as-external-member-of-the-monetary-policy-committee



http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/news/2014/076.aspx






65. Bank of England publishes details of UK stress

test for major UK banks and building societies

In March 2013, the Financial Policy Committee

recommended that regular stress testing of the UK

banking system should be developed to assess the

system’s capital adequacy. In a Discussion Paper

published in October 2013, the Bank of England

set out proposals for the main features of a

framework for annual and concurrent stress-

testing of the UK banking system. The Bank of

England has set out further details of the scenario

for the stress tests that the eight major UK banks

and building societies will be undertaking this

year. This is a step towards the medium-term

stress testing framework outlined in the

Discussion Paper.



news/2014/071.aspx

66. EBA publishes common methodology and

scenario for 2014 EU-banks stress test

The European Banking Authority has released its

methodology and macroeconomic scenarios for

the 2014 EU-wide stress test. While the extensive

process of banks' balance sheet repair is already

underway, the test, designed to assess banks'

resilience to hypothetical external shocks, will

identify remaining vulnerabilities in the EU

banking sector and will provide a high level of

transparency into EU banks' exposures.

European Banking Authority, 29 April 2014

http://www.eba.europa.eu/-/eba-publishes-common-

methodology-and-scenario-for-2014-eu-banks-stress-test

67. New mortgage rules come into force

New rules from the FCA have come into force

which will put common sense at the heart of the

mortgage market and prevent borrowers ending up

with a mortgage they cannot afford.

Financial Conduct Authority, 25 April 2014

http://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/new-mortgage

-rules-come-into-force

Bank of England Houblon £50 banknote to be

withdrawn on 30 April

The £50 banknote carrying the portrait of Sir John

Houblon, the first Governor of the Bank of

England, is to be withdrawn from circulation on

30 April. This withdrawal was first announced on

16 January 2014. From the end of 29 April only

the £50 note featuring Matthew Boulton and

James Watt, introduced in November 2011, will

hold legal tender status.



news/2014/072.aspx

66. Bank of England publishes details of UK stress

test for major UK banks and building societies

In March 2013, the Financial Policy Committee

recommended that regular stress testing of the UK

banking system should be developed to assess the

system’s capital adequacy. In a Discussion Paper

published in October 2013, the Bank of England

set out proposals for the main features of a

framework for annual and concurrent stress-

testing of the UK banking system. The Bank of

England has set out further details of the scenario

for the stress tests that the eight major UK banks

and building societies will be undertaking this

year. This is a step towards the medium-term

stress testing framework outlined in the

Discussion Paper.



news/2014/071.aspx

67. EBA publishes common methodology and

scenario for 2014 EU-banks stress test

The European Banking Authority has released its

methodology and macroeconomic scenarios for

the 2014 EU-wide stress test. While the extensive

process of banks' balance sheet repair is already

underway, the test, designed to assess banks'

resilience to hypothetical external shocks, will

identify remaining vulnerabilities in the EU

banking sector and will provide a high level of

transparency into EU banks' exposures.

European Banking Authority, 29 April 2014

http://www.eba.europa.eu/-/eba-publishes-common-

methodology-and-scenario-for-2014-eu-banks-stress-test



http://www.eba.europa.eu/-/eba-publishes-common-methodology-and-scenario-for-2014-eu-banks-stress-test


http://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/new-mortgage-rules-come-into-force








68. New mortgage rules come into force

New rules from the FCA have come into force

which will put common sense at the heart of the

mortgage market and prevent borrowers ending up

with a mortgage they cannot afford.

Financial Conduct Authority, 25 April 2014

http://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/new-mortgage

-rules-come-into-force



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