March 31, 2011 ISDA announced the outcome of the annual process to determine members of ISDA's five regional Determinations Committees.

Islamic Financial Services Board March 31, 2011 The IFSB has adopted two new Guidance Notes for the Islamic financial services industry: 1. Guidance Note in Connection with the IFSB Capital Adequacy Standard: The Determination of Alpha in the Capital Adequacy Ratio for Institutions (other than Insurance Institutions) offering only Islamic Financial Services (GN-4) 2. Guidance Note on the Recognition of Ratings by External Credit Assessment Institutions(ECAIs)on Takāful and ReTakāful Undertakings (GN-5) Neither of the guidance notes that have been adopted have yet been published, but will be

March 31, 2011 The Bank Levy is a new tax and the guidance provided in the HMRC manual explains how HMRC believes the draft legislation applies in relation to the collection and management of the Bank Levy. The legislation takes precedence over the guidance if there are discrepancies.

Financial Services Authority March 2011 The FSA has published a consultation paper setting out the FSA's proposals for removing the rules permitting the use of non-EEA regulators' rules in calculating the group capital requirements of a UK banking/investment firm group on a standardised approach. The FSA proposes to revoke the equivalence rules in BIPRU 8. That is, they propose to delete BIPRU 8.7.35R, 8.7.36G and 8.7.38R from the FSA Handbook. This will mean that for the purpose of aggregating the capital requirements of a non-EEA subsidiary into the consolidated capital requirements of a UK

March 2011 The European Commission has published an explanatory memorandum to the proposal for a Directive on credit agreements relating to residential property. According to the memorandum, the proposal has to be seen in the context of efforts to create an internal market for mortgage credit and against the background of the financial crisis. The financial crisis has had a substantial impact on EU citizens. Although an important contributing factor was the growth in securitisation, which allowed creditors to pass the risk of their lending portfolios to investors, consumers have faced the