斯諾登給世界金融監管出難題

Once upon a time, the antics of US spies in cyber space was of interest only to other spooks and to internet geeks. No longer.

對美國間諜在網絡空間的荒謬行爲感興趣的，曾經只是其他間諜以及互聯網極客。現在不再是這樣了。

Last year Edward Snowden stirred political outrage with revelations that the US National Security Agency was spying on American citizens and European officials. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, has created more furore by accusing the Central Intelligence Agency of snooping on Senate officials.

去年，愛德華•斯諾登(Edward Snowden)爆料稱，美國國家安全局(National Security Agency，簡稱NSA)對美國公民和歐洲官員從事間諜活動，這激起了政界的憤怒。參議院情報委員會(Senate Intelligence Committee)主席黛安•范斯坦(Dianne Feinstein)指控中央情報局(CIA)對參議院官員進行間諜活動，由此掀起更大的怒潮。

But there is another area where the activities of American cyber spooks have created unexpected fallout: in financial exchanges and market data groups. Investors should watch this saga since it may have financial stability implications.

然而美國網絡間諜的活動在另一個領域產生了意想不到的衝擊波：金融交易所和市場數據集團。投資者應關注這個事件，因爲它可能具有金融穩定方面的影響。

The issue revolves around the question of who can see the data generated in relation to complex securities. In decades past, information about issues such as private derivatives deals was patchy because trading records were scattered among numerous institutions and locations.

這個問題的焦點是：誰能看到與複雜證券相關的數據。過去幾十年，有關私人衍生品交易等的信息一直是零碎的，因爲交易記錄分散保存於多個機構和地點。

However, since the financial crisis, regulators have been trying to find ways to collate these data so that they can be easily monitored. That is sensible. After all, the reason nobody spotted the risks in institutions such as insurer AIG before 2008 was that dangerous activities fell between the cracks of reporting systems. So creating a holistic data base is a self-evidently good step as it could help regulators and investors to see where financial risks are building up.

然而，自金融危機爆發以來，監管機構一直在設法統一收集和整理這些數據，以便對其進行監控。這是合理的。畢竟，人們之所以未能在2008年以前發現美國國際集團(AIG)等機構的風險，就是因爲危險活動隱藏在報告制度的裂縫中。因此，創建一個全面的數據庫顯然是不錯的方法，有望幫助監管機構和投資者發現金融風險在何處累積。

“With the current structure of trade repositories, no authority [is] able to examine the entire global network of over-the-counter derivatives data at a detailed level,” a committee linked to the Bank for International Settlements lamented last year in a report, demanding the creation of a “joined up” database.

與國際清算銀行(BIS)關聯的一個委員會去年在一份報告中哀嘆：“在當前的交易數據庫結構下，沒有一個主管部門能在細節層面審視場外衍生品數據的整個全球網絡。”該委員會要求創建“聯合”數據庫。

Indeed, the need for better monitoring seemed so self-evident after the financial crisis that US Congress created an Office of Financial Research, which is supposed to use Big Data and other computing advances to track financial flows in a holistic manner. “The financial crisis revealed serious deficiencies in our understanding of vulnerabilities in the financial system and the financial data needed to measure them,” Richard Berner, OFR head, told Congress last month. “[Our] mission is to fill in those critical gaps in analysis and data.”

的確，在金融危機爆發後，加強監控的必要性看上去如此顯而易見，以至於美國國會設立了金融研究辦公室(Office of Financial Research)，由其利用大數據以及其他運算方面的進步，全方位監測金融流動。“金融危機暴露出，我們在理解金融體系的脆弱性以及衡量此類脆弱性所需的金融數據方面存在嚴重不足，”金融研究辦公室主任理查德•伯納(Richard Berner)上月告訴國會，“（我們的）使命是填補這些分析和數據的嚴重缺口。”

While these efforts might seem laudable, they have encountered a hitch: the US spying scandals are making European politicians and bankers more nervous about giving information to centralised databases.

儘管這些努力或許值得稱道，但它們遇到了麻煩：美國監聽醜聞使得歐洲政治人士以及銀行家對於將信息交予集中數據庫感到更加緊張。

These concerns first started to bubble in the European parliament in the past decade, when it emerged the US government had subpoenaed the Brussels-based Swift banking payment system to force it to hand over confidential information about financial transactions to enable the tracking of terrorists. The NSA scandal has fuelled the anger. In October, members of the European parliament passed a motion demanding that the European Commission restrict US access to the Swift system. Last week MEPs reiterated that appeal.

這種擔憂在過去10年最初在歐洲議會(European parliament)出現，當時有消息稱，美國政府向總部位於布魯塞爾的銀行支付系統Swift發出傳喚，迫使其交出機密的金融交易信息，以便追蹤恐怖分子。NSA醜聞加劇了人們的憤怒情緒。去年10月，歐洲議會議員通過一項動議，要求歐盟委員會(European Commission)限制美國訪問Swift系統。上週，歐洲議會議員重申了這一呼籲。

And, while the commission has not yet acted, the anger is making it harder to promote data-sharing in other areas such as derivatives.

儘管歐盟委員會尚未採取行動，但憤怒情緒加大了推動在衍生品等其他領域共享數據的難度。

The net result, then, is that those databases remain as fragmented as ever. “The financial crisis demonstrated the need for financial supervisors to get a holistic view,” says Kay Swinburne, a British MEP who sits on the chamber’s influential economic and monetary affairs committee. “Sadly [this] may be in jeopardy. The NSA scandal has caused many to reassess the risks of their personal data being shared across borders.”

結果是這些數據庫仍像以往那樣處於割裂狀態。“金融危機說明了金融監督機構獲得全方位視角的必要性，”英籍歐洲議會議員、歐洲議會有影響力的經濟和貨幣事務委員會委員凱•斯溫伯恩(Kay Swinburne)表示，“遺憾的是，（這件事）可能面對變數。NSA醜聞促使很多人對自己的個人數據被跨境分享的風險進行重新評估。”

Could this be fixed? European politicians still hope so, perhaps if the EU and the US sign a data protection agreement as part of a transatlantic trade deal. In the meantime, OFR officials keep chasing their transparency dream in other ways. They are trying, for example, to force banks to use standardised legal entity identifiers, or “tags” that mark financial securities, like bar codes, to make them easy to track).

這種局面能否糾正？歐洲政治人士仍希望答案是肯定的——或許通過歐盟和美國簽訂數據保護協議，作爲跨大西洋貿易協定的一部分。同時，美國金融研究辦公室官員繼續以其他方式追尋透明度夢想。例如，他們正視圖迫使銀行使用標準化的法律實體標識，即像條碼那樣，給金融證券“貼標籤”，使其容易被追蹤。

But do not expect those efforts to bear fruit soon. While the advent of Big Data has created the tantalising vision of a more transparent financial system, the grubby reality of Big Geopolitics has turned this into a mirage. It is an irony not even Mr Snowden could have foreseen.

但不要指望這些措施會很快結出果實。儘管大數據的問世帶來了一個更爲透明的金融體制的誘人前景，但是“大地緣政治”的無情現實令其變成海市蜃樓。這種具有諷刺意味的情形，恐怕連斯諾登也預見不到。