G20 watchdog toughens up new rule for securities financing
Global regulators are making it more expensive for hedge funds and insurance companies to raise money from loaning shares in a bid to curb hitherto unregulated risks in “shadow banking”.
Securities financing are typically short-term money-raising transactions between banks and other financial institutions, involving the lending and borrowing of shares or the use of repurchase agreements or repos.
The market is worth an estimated $3.9 trillion globally.
Regulators worry that as banks become tightly controlled by the authorities following the 2007-09 financial crisis, risky financing will shift to the hitherto less regulated “shadow banking” sector made up of hedge funds, insurance companies and other non-banks.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which coordinates regulation for the Group of Twenty (G20) economies, published on Monday its new rule for the first global minimum “haircut” or discount on collateral used to back securities financing transactions, toughening up its original draft proposal.
“The regulatory framework for haircuts on securities financing transactions issued by the FSB today addresses important sources of leverage and the level of risk-taking in the core funding markets,” FSB Chairman Mark Carney said in a statement.
From the end of 2017, banks must impose a haircut of at least 6 percent on the collateral they receive from non-banks as “insurance” on the value of securities being loaned. The FSB had originally proposed a minimum haircut of 4 percent.
This means that for every $100 a hedge fund, for example, gets from a securities transaction, the bank must collect collateral worth at least $106.
Source: Reuters- G20 watchdog toughens up new rule for securities financing
