The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards has announced that it has established a panel to investigate the failure of HBOS. The work of the panel will be parallel to the investigation into the bank, which has already been proposed by the Financial Services Authority. The panel has held a public evidence session in which several former and current HBOS senior officials were cross-examined.

It has been reported that Barclays is set to appear in the High Court in London on Monday, November 5th, to defend a £38 million claim filed by Guardian Care Limited over the alleged mis-selling of interest rate swaps by the bank. The litigation may be a test case as to how the English courts will approach litigation arising from LIBOR-related claims. Lawyers for the claimant are reportedly intending to argue that the bank’s involvement in LIBOR manipulation this summer should mean that any interest rate derivatives sold by Barclays are potentially voidable.

See: NFA fines New York Forex Firm, Forex Club LLC, and Its Former CEO Peter Tatarnikov, $300,000. See also: Complaint and Decision.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler delivered a speech before the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC") in Toronto, Canada in which he discussed the progress of major market jurisdictions on the coordinated approach to legislation and implementation of reforms. According to Chairman Gensler, as of October 12, swaps market reform focused on three areas: clearing requirement, transparency initiatives and swap dealer registration. Chairman Gensler noted that, although Canadian dollar interest rate swaps were not included in the clearing of standardized swaps in July, the CFTC will consider (in

The Financial Services Authority is consulting on changes to its fee structure, primarily to prepare for the first period of operation of the new Prudential Regulation Authority ("PRA") and the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA"). Among other issues, the consultation considers: the introduction of separate fee blocks for PRA and FCA firms; the basis for PRA/FCA minimum fees; and revisions to discounts for European Economic Area firms with branches in the UK. Comments on the consultation should be submitted by January 7, 2013.