The European Commission has launched a public consultation on further possible changes to the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) aimed at strengthening the resilience of the banking sector and the financial system as a whole.

Today's London Financial Times (26 June) contains an article by Gillian Tett on the use of credit derivatives by banks and hedge funds.  I also note that much of the talk about the current economic malise focuses on how to account for complex financial instruments - have the rules on fair value accounting and mark-to-market accelerated the downturn? This is clearly a problem area for banks, other financial institutions and probably large corporates but is it more widespread?