Description: In November 2011, a number of associations, including the American Council of Life Insurers [ACLI], filed comments with the Brazilian regulatory authority urging Brazil to stop restricting reinsurance access to only domestic reinsurers in one of the world’s leading emerging markets for insurance. This article examines the background and legitimacy of this complaint.

Description: The main elements of the current US, Canadian and proposed Solvency II regulatory capital regimes for property and casualty insurance companies are compared in this paper.

Description: This essay argues against the securitization of residential mortgages. The originating lending institution should have significant skin in the game when it makes a loan, but the securitization process removes this important financial control.

Description: The purpose of paper is to outline and illustrate some of the more important differences among the current US and Canadian regulatory capital regimes and the standard formula of the Solvency II framework using a hypothetical term-life insurance portfolio as an example.

Description: This paper discusses the new Basel Accord for Capital Adequacy which refines the minimum capital requirements for banks. The seesion looks at the analysis of credit and market risks with the emphasis on to what extent the collection, storage and evaluation of data calculated with internal approaches is dispensable by the use of Basel II-data for bank banagement.

Description: This essay examines the root causes of the 2008 global financial crisis precipitated by the bursting of the housing bubble. The author suggests that if fraud is not addressed, future crises, perhaps even worse, will occur.

Description: When regulators examine financial institutions, one of the most important areas on which they focus is capital requirements. This essay argues that we can’t push for neither too high nor too low default probabilities. Regulate too high and you introduce rigidity to the system: you choke the economy. Regulate too low and you introduce softness in your foundations: they cannot for long sustain the economy. Therefore, regulation should be set to provide a 'window for business'.

Description: In this article, the author discusses financial regulation and the financial crisis.

Description: Read the June 2016 issue of Taxing Times.

Description: This article discusses the the 1998 alternartive XXX model regulations and the potential tax impact on the definition of life insurance and on reserve deductions associated therewith.