As of 20 June, credit rating agencies (CRAs) will have to follow stricter rules which will make them more accountable for their actions. The new rules also aim to reduce over-reliance on credit ratings while at the same time improving the quality of the rating process. Credit rating agencies will have to be more transparent when rating sovereign states . . .

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-555_en.htm?locale=en

EU finance ministers have failed to agree on how to rescue troubled banks in any future crisis.  . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23020056#

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) says banks have done their bit to help economic recovery and now governments must do more. . . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23025355#

Since 2007, actions by central banks have prevented financial collapse. Further accommodation is borrowing time for others to act.  But the time must be used wisely. The focus of action must be on balance sheet repair, fiscal sustainability and, most of all, the economic and financial reforms needed to return economies to the real growth paths authorities and the public both want and expect (Chapter I). After reviewing the past year’s economic developments (Chapter II), the remaining economic chapters of the 83rd Annual Report cover the critical policy challenges in detail: reforming labour and product markets to restore productivity growth (Chapter III), ensuring the sustainability of public finances (Chapter IV), adapting financial regulation to ensure resilience of the increasingly complex global system (Chapter V), and re-emphasising the stabilisation objectives of central banks (Chapter VI).  . .

http://www.bis.org/publ/arpdf/ar2013e.htm

Senior bankers guilty of reckless misconduct should be jailed, a long-awaited report on banking commissioned by the government has recommended. . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22954586