Switzerland has a long tradition of organising its core financial market infrastructure as a joint enterprise, according to the ‘user-owned, user-governed’ principle. In the case of the repo market, the current solution has proven its worth. Nonetheless, due to changes in the stock market and regulatory environment, the SNB has undertaken a reassessment of the situation. In the light of this, the SNB has decided to conduct its monetary policy operations via a new trading platform, provided by SIX Group Ltd, as of May 2014. In this way, the repo market will be based on an integrated solution, in which the trading platform, securities settlement system and payment system are covered by a single source. Moreover, further developments will also be possible, for example the expansion of trading to incorporate further products. Since the new trading platform will resemble the existing Swiss franc repo system (Eurex Repo), access for market participants will entail only minimal adjustments. We are confident that an integrated solution is the best means of ensuring a robust repo market infrastructure. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Charts  4  BIS central bankers’ speeches
Nocera noted that “in 2007, the chief executives of the Too Big to Fail Banks made, on average, $ million … more than double the compensation of the top nonbank Fortune 500 executives.” A recent survey conducted for the Wall Street Journal of CEO compensation at 350 public companies shows that financial services compensation has been tempered; the rate of increase in compensation for 2010 was just 1 percent.11 The Journal attributed this to higher levels of scrutiny of financial firms as well as pressure from shareholders and regulators. Even so, some financial-sector CEOs enjoyed robust increases in their total compensation, including a 74 percent increase and a 51 percent increase at two of the five largest U.S. banking organizations. Interestingly, the trading revenue of these two firms accounted for almost half of the $ billion in total trading revenue mentioned by Mr. Wilmers. These recent numbers buttress Nocera’s reasonable conclusion that bank CEOs “were being compensated in no small part on their trading profits – which gave them every incentive to keep taking those excessive risks.” I am sympathetic to these concerns. I have no problem with risk takers being rewarded with large compensation packages. I put my own and my partners’ capital at risk for the 20 years I operated in the markets and profited handsomely. But I never was provided with capital that was safeguarded by government guarantees.