Banks must cover capital reserves

German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck is considering working to strengthen federal regulations on banks' use of capital reserves, following the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis and liquidity problems which have hit the financial sector, reports Forbes.

Initially reported in Spiegel magazine, Steinbrueck said the problems in the financial sector prove that the international regulations grouped under the Basel II agreement are not sufficient.

The magazine said Steinbrueck is thinking over plans to force banks to cover high-risk credit products with larger amounts of their capital reserves.

The level of awareness and the interest to comply with regulatory and IT governance issues are high in the Philippines, but only a few companies are practising it, IBM executives said, according to the Inquirer.

"The awareness and the interest to comply are high. But on the actual compliance, they're just starting. We don't know the extent of compliance," said Aileen Judan-Jiao, country services executive of IBM Global Technology Services Philippines.

Introducing a suite of IT governance services, framework and tools, IBM executives said the "highly regulated" industries are expected to initially adopt IT governance, since they are now under pressure to become more visible and accountable to stakeholders and customers.

Federal regulators charged 69 accounting firms and partners with violating a landmark 2002 anti-fraud law, by auditing public companies without registering with the board that supervises the accounting industry, reports the New York Times.

There were no 'big four' or major accounting firms among the businesses involved. Yet the action was significant because it represented the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) first cases alleging violation of a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley law.

The SEC said 50 of the firms and partners had settled with the agency.