Swiss Banks Letter, Canadian HFT Rules, Tesco Chair: Compliance
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — Swiss banks seeking to avoid U.S. prosecution by disclosing how they helped Americans evade taxes asked the Justice Department to back off demands that they also cooperate with other nations.
Lawyers representing 73 Swiss banks wrote on Oct. 21 to object to terms of a proposed non-prosecution agreement that spells out how banks can achieve amnesty through a disclosure program announced last year. The letter suggests a wide range of changes to the model accord, including a requirement that banks “cooperate fully” with “any other domestic or foreign law enforcement agency” in any investigation.
The banks argue that the requirement turns a U.S.-focused program into a global cooperation agreement, according to the letter from 18 law firms obtained by Bloomberg News.
More than 100 firms, or about a third of Swiss banks, signed up for the program in December, seeking to end a six-year crackdown on the world’s largest offshore haven. After a year of banks scouring accounts for information, a draft non-prosecution agreement dispatched last month by the department’s tax division is more demanding than banks had anticipated.
Compliance Policy
Plan to Split Too-Big-to-Fail Banks Is Obsolete, Denmark Says
Denmark won’t back a proposal to split Europe’s biggest banks as the region’s first country to enforce bail-in rules questions the value of more regulation.
A proposal by Michel Barnier, the European Union’s financial services chief, to break up systemically important banks has resurfaced with local regulators trying to defend national interests, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News.
Danish Business Minister Henrik Sass Larsen, in an interview at the parliament in Copenhagen, defended the current regulation.
The proposal for reforming bank structures has come under attack on multiple fronts since Barnier presented it in January.
His plans require approval from national governments and the European Parliament to take effect.
TMX to Change Equity Bourse Rules to Slow High-Speed Traders
TMX Group Ltd., the operator of Canada’s largest stock exchange, announced a plan to slow down high-frequency traders and simplify the nation’s equity markets.
TMX will introduce minimum order sizes for brokers and a speed bump on its Alpha Exchange from next June. The exchange operator will add a long-life order type to both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. in the fourth quarter of 2015. These orders will have a minimum resting time, and in return they will get priority over other orders at the same price.
The decision comes as the Toronto-based exchange faces the prospect of competition from Aequitas Innovations Inc., which is trying to open a Canadian stock market that blunts what it views as unfair advantages enjoyed by high-frequency trading firms. Regulators have yet to give their blessing for Aequitas to open after rejecting the firm’s initial application.
The proposed changes require regulatory approval, including a period for public comment, TMX said.
Comings and Goings
Tesco Chairman Expresses ‘Profound Regret’ at Missteps
Tesco Plc Chairman Richard Broadbent expressed his “profound regret” for accounting irregularities at the U.K.’s biggest supermarket company.
Profit was overstated by 263 million pounds ($422 million), with more than half of that amount pre-dating this year, the Cheshunt, England-based company said yesterday.
Broadbent, who is leaving the company, said in a presentation to analysts that he will prepare for his own succession.
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–With assistance from Eric Lam in Toronto, Peter Levring in Copenhagen, Giles Broom in Geneva, Jeffrey Vögeli in Zurich, David Voreacos in Newark and Paul Jarvis in London.
To contact the reporter on this story: Carla Main in New Jersey at cmain2@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net. David Glovin, Charles Carter
