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In a speech to a conference on the 12 March, 2019, to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Financial Stability Institute, Mr Agustin Carstens, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements, set out what the FSI has achieved and objectives for the future.

On 13 March, the Bank for International Settlements Basel Committee issued a statement regarding "crypto-assets." Some of its basic assumptions are wrong and fundamentally misleading.

It's not enough but it's a start. And it's too little, too late. The USA's Federal Reserve Board no doubt hopes that by taking a strong line against two individuals that it can diminish the damage done to Goldman Sachs over its participation in the Malaysian financial case relating to 1MDB. And the fact that it's taken so long for the Fed to act doesn't cast the regulator in an especially good light, either.

The weak-side Convertibility Undertaking (CU) of HKD7.85 to USD1 under the Linked Exchange Rate system (LERS) was triggered yesterday during the London and New York trading hours. The HKMA sold US dollars (USD) for Hong Kong dollars (HKD) of HKD1,507 million. The Aggregate Balance will reduce by the corresponding amount to HKD74,802 million on 12 March.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has this afternoon issued a notice relating to a fake website for a bank.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has suspended the former responsible officer of China Merchants Securities (HK) Co., Limited for compliance failures.

If you were going to launch a pump and dump spam-scam masquerading as legitimate share picks from a regulated stockbroker, you'd want to make sure your mail was at least opened, wouldn't you? So you'd layer one trigger word after another until you found the target's sweet spot and, all the while, you would have to avoid those pesky spam-filters. So you'd use current buzzwords so that the victim dare not ban them for fear of missing out. Want to see how it's done? PS: watch out for suspicious action on the US shares mentioned.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded Guosen Securities (HK) Brokerage Company, Limited (Guosen) and fined it HKE15.2 million for failures in complying with Counter-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing (CFT) regulatory requirements when handling third party fund deposits

Similar e-mails are being distributed naming businesses that it is common for financial services businesses to deal with. SWIFT and Western Union are the bait for the unwary. HSBC in Dubai makes an appearance, too, to increase the credibility of the scheme.

Every dog has his day and, sometimes, every idiot gets his hands on a computer. Here's an example received at our registered office. Maybe it's not a a scam, but for sure it's not accurately targeted commercial mail, either.

GoFundMe is a crowdfunding platform where people post requests for money for a variety of reasons. It's not Kickstarter which has a specific business model and relates solely to businesses wanting a little bit of help with the development of a product. Some of the things that appear on GoFundMe are brilliant. Some are, well, not. Here are some of the nots.

Following an ASIC investigation, the Federal Court of Australia has wound up Australian financial services Licensee CFS Private Wealth Pty Ltd and Combined Financial Solutions Pty Ltd, a corporate authorised representative of CFS Private Wealth, and restrained its director, Graeme Walter Miller, from providing financial services for 25 years. Miller is also disqualified from managing corporations for three years.

In an unusual case, an Australian who applied to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) was refused. He appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) which has upheld the decision. That, of itself, is uncommon but it's the grounds for refusal that turn it into a story.

But first some interesting information about information.

Another day, another judgment against an Australian banking group for misconduct. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission's civil action against two WestPac group companies ended with findings of fault - but, again, ASIC has not succeeded on grounds upon which it thought it was safe. Spoiler alert: the case was commenced before the start of the Royal Commission on Misconduct in Banking, etc.

The UK's Treasury is not anxious to make it known that the UK is, despite the cries of various EU officials, in fact ready, willing and kind-of able to enter into bi-lateral agreements with third countries. The US Treasury, on the other hand, thinks shouting it from the rooftops is a good idea and has issued a notice regarding an agreement relating to "Prudential Measures Regarding Insurance and Reinsurance (U.S.-UK Covered Agreement. " But.. there's a stumbling block.