On September 3, 2014, the BCBS, the IOSCO and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (the "Joint Committee") issued a report setting out their findings from a recent survey of their members on supervisory colleges for financial conglomerates ("FCs"). The survey aims to indicate whether cross-sectoral issues and specific questions relating to FCs are addressed effectively within supervisory colleges, and to also provide information about the Joint Forum's principles for the supervision of FCs (in particular, Principle 6 regarding supervisory co-operation, co-ordination and information sharing) and their implementation. The survey concludes that most supervisors have a set of principles in place for supervising FCs as well as memorandum of understanding or co-ordination arrangements, and that most supervisors also believe that cross-sectoral issues are adequately and effectively reviewed within FC supervisory colleges or sectoral supervisory colleges. Issues on the implementation of principle 6 were identified, including that: (i) not all member jurisdictions have a specific supervision framework in place for FCs; (ii) there are insufficient specific mechanisms for supervisory co-operation in periods of crisis; and (iii) there are opportunities for regulatory arbitrage due to differences in the regulatory and supervisory frameworks for FCs. The Joint Forum intends to reconsider these issues in a year's time.
The report is available at: http://www.bis.org/publ/joint36.pdf.
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