International Banker (December 18)
If Japan’s Financial Services Agency and the nation’s “asset-management industry work together to establish ‘customer-oriented business operations’, they may succeed in gaining the trust of retail investors, and the financial assets of Japanese households may finally show a visible shift from cash and deposits to securities.” Two decades of failed efforts starting with the Big Bang financial reform suggest “it will take much effort to gain the trust of retail investors, some of whom have experienced disappointing returns in the past. Unless the Japanese financial industry works harder than ever for customers’ interests, the goal of ‘savings to investments’ will turn out to be elusive once again.”
Tags: Asset-management industry, Big bang, Customer-oriented, Disappointing, Elusive, Failed, Financial assets, Financial Reform, FSA, Households, Investments, Japan, Retail investors, Securities, Trust
Bloomberg (August 25)
“The Tokyo Stock Exchange Group Inc.’s purchase of its Osaka rival is off to a rocky start.” Shares in the “Osaka exchange plunged by a record 16 percent yesterday amid speculation the merger will hurt profit.” Many of the concerns center on trading disruptions at the larger exchange, for which executives had their pay docked following a reprimand by the Financial Services Agency.
Tags: FSA, Merger, OSE, Share price, Trading glitches, TSE
Economist (January 5, 2011)
The EU and Financial Services Authority (FSA) announced guidelines governing bonuses for the financial service sector. The Economist is not impressed, characterizing the guidelines “as remarkable and unhealthy regulation.” The Economist laments that “bad bonus rules are worse than bad bonuses” and may have unintended consequences that increase, rather than decrease, risk.
Tags: Bonuses, EU, Financial services, FSA
The Independent (June 17)
The UK will eliminate the Financial Services Authority (FSA), assigning its regulatory functions to the Bank of England (BOE). The Independent agrees the FSA was “next to useless,” with the fatal weakness of seeing “the world through the eyes of those firms it was supposed to be monitoring.” The newspaper hopes the new regulators at the BOE “will regard themselves as gamekeepers….rather than cheerleaders.”
Tags: Bank of England, FSA, UK
