European Securities and Markets Authority May 30, 2012 ESMA has published regulatory technical standards for credit rating agencies setting out: i. information they should provide when registering with ESMA; ii. how information disclosed to central respositories should be presented; iii. how ESMA will assess rating methodologies; and what information agencies will have to submit for ESMA to supervise compliance.

The Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU May 15, 2012 EU Economic and Finance Ministers have approved the proposed Capital Requirements Directive. The Directive focusses on strengthening capital requirements for banks, but also contains measures on the transparency of banks' leverage, corporate government, and sanctions for banks that infringe the rules. The Directive is intended to enter into force on January 1, 2013.

European Securities and Markets Authority May 7, 2012 ESMA has published a call for evidence on key elements to be included in its guidelines for harmonised transaction reporting and on updates on its OTC derivatives guidelines. ESMA will consider all comments received by June 4, 2012, and will define its further work in these areas on the basis of views submitted.

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight yesterday issued an updated version of the Guidebook for Part 20 Reports, which provides additional guidance and detailed instructions for submitting large swaps trader reports to the Commission. View release in full here(links externally to CFTC website).

European Banking Authority May 15, 2012 The European Banking Authority has published a discussion paper outlining its preliminary thoughts of what should be the key elements of a EU-wide bank recovery plan. The EBA has invited comments on the discussion paper, which should be sent in no later than June 15, 2012.