In a surprise development, J Christopher Giancarlo chair of the the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) might be in the running to take over at the Bank of England. 

Three innovation hubs have been given the go-ahead by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and are aimed at helping central banks to better understand and to collaborate around developments in fintech. 

Data obtained by the consultancy RSM under a freedom of information request shows that the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) received reports of 819 cyber incidents in 2018, a surge from the 69 reported in 2017. 

While there are no obvious risks to global financial stability as of yet, there are a number of vulnerabilities that are a cause for concern, such as high levels of debt in certain parts of the economy, said Agustín Carstens, general manager at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has stirred much excitement in the financial sector, promising to increase the speed and efficiency of clearing and settlement, but one analyst believes the optimism is overdone. 

Those who report on wrongdoing within their firms are now better protected from reprisal by their employers, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said in a statement. 

The latest round of US stress tests shows banks to be in good shape having amassed considerable capital over the years allowing some of them to make bumper pay-outs to shareholders. 

China is apparently planning tougher rules on the pricing and fund inflows into the $2tn cash management products (CMP) industry.

There currently is no need to modify the total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) rule, but further efforts are needed to implement the standard effectively, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) said in a statement.

At the request of the European parliament, pan-EU regulators have looked into withholding tax reclaim schemes, often involving company dividends, and found that activity around these reclaims might be affecting the integrity of European securities markets and individual firms.