Back in 2009, G-20 leaders have called for all standardized over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives to be cleared through central counterparties (CCPs). By now, 18 of the 24 Financial Stability Board (FSB) member jurisdictions have provided for mandatory central clearing frameworks in place, covering at least 90 percent of all standardized OTC derivatives in their jurisdictions. However, the authorities in several countries remain confronted with the hows and wherefores of mandatory central clearing, also in light of the international dimension of OTC derivatives contracts. This paper examines the policy options available to countries that have yet to fully conform to the clearing mandate, centered on the setup of local CCPs or on the use of foreign CCPs, and elaborates on their feasibility, risks and benefits from an economic, legal and tax viewpoint.

This note intends to provide advice to bank supervision and resolution authorities and policymakers seeking to deal with opaque bank ownership or significant overhang of related-party exposures.

This paper explores the intersection of climate change policies with banking supervisory law. Statutory mandates define banking supervisory agencies’ objectives, functions and powers. Policies that aim to address climate change risks appear fully germane to banking supervisors’ main objective of safety and soundness. As such, banking supervisory agencies have a duty to address climate risks in light of their mandate. A mandate that is not anchored on safety and soundness in light of best practice would blur the accountability of banking supervisory agencies and undermine their legitimacy also with respect to climate. While legal changes can help provide greater legal certaintly, particularly given the long-term perspective of climate change, bank supervisory agencies can take action without fundamental reforms of their legal framework. Accordingly, they have set expectations or requirements for banks to incorporate climate into their strategy and business model, risk management, and governance. A combination of legal instruments—based on soft law and hard law—helps to achieve this objective. Notwithstanding implementation challenges, taxonomies and disclosures remain important tools, and banking supervisors should assess their role in the development of such tools in light of their mandate. The key responsibility to address climate risks rests on banks, and corporate governance frameworks could assist.

Debt opacity burdens the public and can exacerbate debt vulnerabilities in many countries. Both low-income and developing countries and emerging market economies have critical gaps in debt transparency, and the implementation of international standards and guidelines has lagged. The paper surveys the legal frameworks of sixty jurisdictions and reveals the critical weaknesses that hinder debt transparency, which include weak reporting obligations, limited coverage of public debt, inadequate monitoring, unclear borrowing and delegation processes, unfettered confidentiality arrangements and weak accountability mechanisms. Because laws entrench practices and bind the discretion of policy makers and debt managers alike, subjecting them to public scrutiny, legal reform is a necessary part of any solution to the problem of hidden debt, though it may entail a difficult and time intensive process in many jurisdictions.

This paper proposes an integrated crisis management and resolution framework for the EU's single banking market. It comprises a European Resolution Authority (ERA), armed with the mandate and the tools to deal cost-effectively with failing systemic cross-border banks, and is designed to address many fundamental operational and incentive problems. It also seeks to reduce moral hazard and better protect countries against the risk of twin fiscal-financial crises by detaching banks from government budgets. The ERA would be most effective if it were twinned or combined with a European Deposit Insurance and Resolution Fund.

L’opacité de la dette alourdit le fardeau pour les citoyens et peut aggraver les vulnérabilités liées à la dette dans bien des pays. Tant les pays en développement à faible revenu que les pays émergents présentent de graves lacunes en matière de transparence de la dette, et la mise en oeuvre des normes et lignes directrices internationales est à la traîne. Le présent article examine les cadres juridiques de 60 pays et révèle les faiblesses majeures qui font obstacle à la transparence de la dette, notamment des obligations d’information peu contraignantes, une couverture restreinte de la dette publique, un suivi insuffisant, des procédures d’emprunt et de délégation peu claires, la grande latitude laissée aux accords de confidentialité et des mécanismes de reddition de comptes. Parce que les lois ancrent les pratiques et restreignent les pouvoirs discrétionnaires des gestionnaires de la dette et des gouvernants, les soumettant à l’examen du public, la réforme du droit est un élément essentiel de toute solution au problème de la dette cachée, même si, pour de nombreux pays, cela doit être un processus long et difficile.

While the days of coal extractions and hardworking miners seem to cease in Europe, the formation of new mining masculinities takes place in the east. In Indonesia coal seems to be a promising driver of development to fuel the countries energy supply and exports. While the impact of mining on environmental degradation and land right struggles has been discussed in multiple works, the question still remains on how mining together with Corporate Social Responsibility practices changes local masculinities and the social construction of gender. While the terms of mining and masculinities have been strongly interlinked in western societies, the question arises of how this impacts remote regions in Indonesia that have lived on largely self-subsistent livelihoods.0Alessandro Gullo answers these questions by taking a more holistic approach in engaging in gender as well as masculinity theory in order to shed light on the formation of new masculinities and gender role developments in the vast forest regions of Borneo.

This technical note and manual (TNM) addresses the following issues: advantages and disadvantages of different types of depositor preference, international best practice and experience in adopting depositor preference, and introducing depositor preference in jurisdictions with or without deposit insurance.