The Enforcement Ledger: Basel Closes a Loophole, Moscow and Brasilia Swing the Axe, the Fed Closes a File

Basel: no more shrinking the balance sheet on December 31

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has finalized amendments to address 'window-dressing' in the framework for global systemically important banks: the practice of temporarily reducing a bank's perceived systemic footprint around reference dates. By January 1, 2030, banks must report and disclose the indicators used to calculate G-SIB scores based on average values over the reporting year, rather than year-end values. m:…1956

The Committee also raised the G-SIB reporting and disclosure threshold from EUR 200 billion to EUR 350 billion in leverage ratio exposure, effective from 2027, and is consulting on the broader G-SIB assessment methodology with comments due by January 14, 2027. The message to the largest banks is that the score will now reflect what they look like across the year, not what they can compress into a year-end snapshot — and reporting teams should start rebuilding their data pipelines now, because average-value reporting demands a different systems architecture than point-in-time reporting. m:…1956

Moscow: a CEO's 120-trade scheme, named

The Bank of Russia established facts of market manipulation on Moscow Exchange by Vadim Albertovich Solomakhin, the CEO and beneficial owner of professional securities market participant LLC Kinetic Capital. Using a scheme of offsetting transactions between his personal and the company's trading accounts, Solomakhin conducted over 120 transactions; as a result, the company incurred losses and he gained a corresponding profit. m:…3011

The manipulation involved shares of Sberbank, PJSC Sovcombank, and Surgutneftegas PJSC, along with federal government bonds OFZ-PD 26230 and OFZ-PD 26243. The Bank of Russia sent Solomakhin a binding order to cease and desist, ordered professional market participants and trading organizers to suspend transactions in his brokerage accounts, and forwarded information about the violations to law enforcement agencies. For executives anywhere, the case is a reminder that related-party trading between personal and client accounts is the oldest red flag in the book, and regulators still prosecute it personally. m:…3011

Brasilia and Kansas: liquidation versus graduation

The Central Bank of Brazil decreed the extrajudicial liquidation of Credipaiva, a small independent credit union in the S5 prudential segment, on October 16, 2026, citing serious violations of the rules governing the institution's activities and non-compliance with the central bank's determinations. The cooperative held approximately 0.000083% of the National Financial System's assets in December 2025, and the assets of its former administrators were rendered unavailable under the law. m:…9463

At the other end of the ledger, the Federal Reserve Board terminated three enforcement actions against Gardner Bancshares, Inc. and Small Business Bank of Lenexa, Kansas, on October 13, 2026: two cease-and-desist orders dating to September 2023 and November 2024, plus a prompt corrective action from June 2026. A termination is the regulatory equivalent of graduation: the problems were identified, the remediation was accepted, and the file is closed. m:…0769

What the week signals

Put these together and the global supervisory posture is legible: tighten the rules that the largest banks game, punish named individuals who manipulate markets, remove small institutions that will not comply, and reward community banks that do the remediation work. Supervision is getting more granular at the top and less forgiving at the bottom. m:…1956 m:…3011

For bankers, the practical read is about personal and process liability. Average-value G-SIB reporting turns year-end optics into year-round discipline; the Solomakhin case turns related-party trading into personal jeopardy; the Credipaiva liquidation turns ignored determinations into frozen assets. This suggests compliance budgets should tilt toward surveillance and reporting infrastructure rather than year-end window management — because the window is being bricked up. m:…1956 m:…9463 m:…3011