Pfizer/Allergen merger abandoned; cross-border deals set for slowdown.

The sovereign-bank nexus or the doom loop? Whatever you like to call it, senior German and European policymakers are wrong to want to limit bank holdings of government debt.

Basel’s rule-makers rely too heavily on blunt standardized measures.

BCBS wants greater comparability; new risk weights worry bankers.

With the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (Mifid II) on the horizon, the regulation is likely to impact FX market structure – indirectly.

European banking authorities have diluted ‘currency mismatch’ haircut rules in forthcoming non-cleared derivatives legislation – but the bigger issue remains that traders still don’t know if they will have to post collateral on their uncleared FX derivative trades.

Insurance companies will struggle to fill real asset allocations until the industry gets better at structuring infrastructure risk.

Asic launches investigations; ANZ, Macquarie and CBA probed.

It is the wider impacts that could undo financial firms, whatever the regulators recommend.

EC demands rethink on Mifid II transparency; end investors criticise focus on liquidity.

France leads new European AML push; tech payments firms most vulnerable.

The Single Supervisory Mechanism, the eurozone’s new banking supervisor, is tasked with combating financial fragmentation, building a banking union and, above all, making Europe’s banks investable once again. The first few months of its tenure were some of the most difficult since the dark days of the euro crisis. Bankers’ scepticism about the new regime is the least of their worries.

Apart from standardizing the numerator for banks’ solvency ratio (capital), the eurozone and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision are going to analyse and, where necessary, harmonise the denominator (risk-weighted assets).

Revelations of benchmark fixing and manipulation appear to have created a more favourable environment for FX industry participants to highlight suspected wrongdoing but the data tell a different story in the UK.

Negative swap spreads are more than a sign of dysfunction in the interest-rate derivatives market. They are the result of fundamental changes in the structure of the capital markets that have been forced by post-crisis banking regulation.

Investors dump Deutsche after CFO funding boast; Fears spread to other bank stocks.

Whether they were birth pangs for a nascent asset class, or regulatory ripples, the latest woes in bank capital reveal the unresolved problems of the new bail-in regime.

It’s easy to blame technical factors and investors’ misunderstanding of the new AT1 market for February’s sharp sell-off across the bank sector, but investors may have a firm grasp of the fundamentals.

Secondary yields rise above cost of equity; bankers pin hopes on lack of alternatives.

Subordinated debt meltdown raises capital questions; investors and issuers ‘don’t know’ how bail-in works.

The global FX code of conduct being developed by the FXWG under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements has moved a step closer to becoming a reality, with a first draft being released to market participants for feedback.

A lack of clarity around the definitions of principal and agency trading, and the evolution of the grey area of the hybrid could give rise to further foreign-exchange scandals if the issue is unresolved. Markets and regulators are pro-actively putting these FX trading practices under the microscope.

For many of the largest private banks 2015 was a year of restructuring and geographical retrenchment. Only a few global players remain. This year looks set to be just as turbulent, but will clients put up with yet more change?

Low interest rates in emerging Europe are driving less committed players out of the private banking market but giving a boost to regional lenders by enhancing the appeal of investment products.

Bail-in uncertainties remain; Portugal and Italy mark tough start for BRRD.

Unable to agree on whether or not a credit event had occurred, Isda has had to turn to outside help to determine what has happened at Novo Banco.

The Basel Committee on Bank Supervision released long-awaited guidance on a new capital regime for market risk in January. It did not, however, solve the mystery of which bank was the outlier in a study of the potential effect of a change in trading risk evaluation.

Regulatory requirements have increased the cost associated with notional pooling as a liquidity management tool, with many banks restricting the product to their best-rated clients.

Portugal’s central bank had very few options when it decided to bail-in senior bondholders of Novo Banco at the end of last year. The move has dismayed investors and may breach the ECB’s newly introduced bail-in powers. Have years of effort in developing a bank resolution regime already gone up in smoke? And what does it all mean for a deeply shaken market for bank funding?

FX sales teams are now more restricted in how much market colour they can provide to clients, challenging the relationship-driven industry.