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(Full description) It is designed to keep you "knowledgeable and competent" in accordance with ESMA's Guidelines (details) to implement MiFID II. We update you on EU-level developments in regulation, market structure, economic figures and events that may influence investment products marketed by your firm. This is NOT investment research attempting to forecast security prices.

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We select articles from our database to produce a a "10-minute Read 'n Verify" e-mail of about 1500 (normal maximum 2000) words of content per week. Each article has a link that enables you to drill down into more detail - depending on your corporate subscription level. Moreover, you can browse our website - subject to your subscription - to broaden your understanding of a subject. or set up a personalised alert.

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The Verify test enables you to check your comprehension of our choice of the top three issues this week.

• PCS responds to a disappointing Commission consultation on STS and LCR
• Financial Times: Confusion over Basel bank capital requirements fails us all 
• Annual inflation down to 1.3% in the euro area

At the foot of this e-mail is a link to a multiple choice test and you can use a "100% success" on the three questions to verifiy 10 minutes of CPD to your employer and/or professional qualification body.

Jump directly to articles on:- Banking Union Capital Markets Union Insurance Asset Management Corporate Governance/Accounting Financial Services Policy Political Economic       About this email

Articles from 22 February 2018 - 01 March 2018

Banking Union     BIS: The Basel Committee consults on revisions to the Pillar 3 disclosure framework The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has issued for consultation Pillar 3 disclosure requirements - updated framework. Pillar 3 of the Basel framework seeks to promote market discipline through regulatory disclosure requirements.   View Article ECB: Cross-border banking in the EU since the crisis: what is driving the great retrenchment? This paper examines the drivers of the retrenchment in cross-border banking in the EU since the global financial crisis. Authors identify high non-performing loans as an important impediment to cross-border lending after the crisis, highlighting the spillovers from national banking sector conditions across the EU.   View Article Bank of England: Rethinking financial stability Authors provide an overview of the state of progress of wide-ranging international regulatory reforms, and assess whether they have achieved their objectives and where gaps remain.   View Article Financial Times: Confusion over Basel bank capital requirements fails us all It is 11 years after the start of the financial crisis and a decade since G20 leaders in Washington tasked Basel, as the global regulator, with working out how much capital banks need. All these years later, it is simply not acceptable that some banks see that the devil remains lurking anywhere.  View Article BIS: Andreas Dombret: Now or later? Completing the European Banking Union Dr Andreas Dombret, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, spoke about the European banking union as a subject and the ongoing question: Should we complete it now or later?  View Article BIS: Supervision in a post-Basel III world The BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens outlined three key challenges in the conduct of effective supervision.  View Article ECB determined ABLV Bank was failing or likely to fail The European Central Bank determined that ABLV Bank was failing or likely to fail in accordance with the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation. The ECB also determined ABLV Bank Luxembourg, a subsidiary of the Latvian bank, failing or likely to fail.  View Article The Telegraph: Open Banking to contribute £1bn to UK economy, says report A digital revolution in banking services could contribute more than £1bn annually to the UK economy, research has claimed.   View Article ECB: Innovation and digitalisation in payment services Speech by Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Second Annual Conference on “Fintech and Digital Innovation: Regulation at the European level and beyond”, in which he speaks about challenges in payments industry – those driven by digitalisation and the opportunities  View Article ECB: Reaping the benefits of payment services in a new regulatory environment Speech by Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the European Banking Federation’s Executive Committee, regarding new legislative framework – RTS – which will support innovation and competition in retail payments.  View Article Remarks by vice-president Dombrovskis at the roundtable on cryptocurrencies Commission Vice-President Dombrovskis discussed cryptocurrencies with key authorities, industry representatives and experts. The aim was first and foremost to feed into the upcoming Action Plan on FinTech, and the EU's position for a possible discussion at G20 level.   View Article UK Parliament opens inquiry on the role of digital currencies The UK Treasury Select Committee has commenced an inquiry on the role of digital currencies in the UK, including the opportunities and risks that digital currencies may bring to consumers, businesses, and the Government.  View Article     Capital Markets Union     PCS to provide analysis for market participants in first step to the market’s transition to the new STS Regime Following the passage of the STS Regulation, many issuers have indicated their intention is to issue STS securitisations from 1st January 2019 and, in the case of some, to issue in 2018 securitisations that are capable of being grandfathered under the STS Regulation.  View Article PCS responds to a disappointing Commission consultation on STS and LCR PCS has filed a response to the European Commission’s consultation on possible changes to the Liquidity Coverage Ratio regime. The heart of the Commission’s proposal is the replacement of the current Level 2 securitisation assets with STS securitisations.  View Article Verena Ross, ESMA’s Executive Director, speaks at ECON scrutiny on Short-Selling Regulation The Executive Director of the European Securities and Markets Authority, Verena Ross, appeared before the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee’s meeting and focused on short-selling.  View Article ECON: Evaluation of certain elements of the Short Selling Regulation This briefing has been drawn up to support ECON’s work on the scrutiny of delegated acts, in particular as regards the discussion of 22 February 2018 on the evaluation of certain elements of the Short Selling Regulation No 236/2012.  View Article ICAS: Four fundamentals of MiFID II Matthew O'Keeffe outlines four key features of MiFID II that came into force in January 2018 and could well be the biggest change in the capital markets since Big Bang in 1986.  View Article Financial Times: Brokers and managers grapple with MiFID ‘inducement’ rule Regulations restrict research disclosure to those who pay for it.  View Article Financial Times: MiFID II and the return of the ‘star’ analysts Sweeping changes to the way investors pay for research have brought predictions that UK analyst numbers will halve, while many European asset managers have already cut their research budgets.  View Article Financial Times: Fidelity International to absorb research costs in volte-face Fidelity International has backtracked on its decision to pass on the cost of investment research under MiFID II to clients after coming under pressure to pay the charge from its own pocket.  View Article VOX: The feasibility of sovereign bond-backed securities for the euro area The column highlights how a market for sovereign bond-backed securities could help to enhance financial stability by providing automatic stabilisation.   View Article     Insurance     EIOPA recommends further simplifications to the calculation of insurers’ capital requirements The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority submitted its second and final set of Advice to the European Commission. Previously, EIOPA submitted a first set of Advice to the European Commission in October 2017.   View Article IAIS Releases 2017 Global Insurance Market Report The report shows that throughout 2017, the (re)insurance sector remained stable with clear signs of growth, as evidenced by high capital levels, positive profitability, and a persistent inflow of additional reinsurance capital.  View Article Insurance Europe: Response provided to EIOPA call for input on reporting and disclosure ITS Insurance Europe has responded to the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority’s call for input on the inclusion of new data validations and corrections to the reporting/disclosure Implementing Technical Standard and harmonisation of the European XBRL Filing Rules.  View Article     Asset Management     EFAMA: An exceptional year for the European fund industry, with net assets of UCITS and AIF surpassing the EUR 15 trillion mark The European Fund and Asset Management Association has published its latest Investment Funds Industry Fact Sheet, which provides net sales of UCITS and non-UCITS for December 2017 and the entire year of 2017, as well as net assets data at end 2017.  View Article AIMA responds to European Commission fitness check on supervisory reporting On 27 February 2018, AIMA responded to the European Commission’s Consultation Document ‘Fitness Check on Supervisory Reporting.’ AIMA submitted a high-level response, raising three key areas of concern on behalf of members, for the Commission to consider as part of the Fitness Check.  View Article Investment & Pensions Europe: ECB adopts ‘streamlined’ pension fund data reporting regulation The European Central Bank has “streamlined” its proposed regulation on statistical reporting requirements for pension funds in response to feedback.  View Article Bank of England: Growing pension deficits and the expenditure decisions of UK companies Authors investigate the effects of deficits and deficit recovery plans on UK companies’ dividends, investment, wages and cash holdings. Identification is based on the close relationship between low long-term interest rates and pension deficits; and the external regulation of pension schemes by The Pensions Regulator  View Article Financial Times: Blockchain ‘could save asset managers $2.7bn a year’ Blockchain could save asset managers $2.7bn a year if the investment industry shunned the laborious manual practices involved in buying and selling funds in favour of using online ledger technology, according to research published.  View Article AIMA: HLEG on Sustainable Finance’s recommendations for asset managers The High Level Expert Group on sustainable finance has issued its final report setting out a broad set of ESG-related recommendations to the Commission in relation to many financial services stakeholders, including, but not limited to, asset managers and institutional investors.  View Article Investment & Pensions Europe: ‘Green’ asset classification system gets go-ahead from EU finance ministers EU finance ministers have agreed that a system that classifies what assets are “green” is the basis for the further action on the bloc’s sustainable finance strategy, according to European Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis.  View Article     Corporate Governance/Accounting     Accountancy Europe response to the Commission consultation on building a proportionate regulatory environment to support SME listing Accountancy Europe, the ECG and the EGIAN responded collectively to European Commission’s consultation on building a proportionate regulatory environment to support SME listing.  View Article CFA Institute: Paper on the revenue recognition requirements Authors examine the top 10 questions investors should consider as they review year-end 2017 results and consider first quarter 2018 reporting as it relates to the adoption of the new accounting standard.  View Article ACCA: Appropriate risk management is crucial for effective strategic leadership Organisations cannot exploit strategic opportunities nor can they protect themselves from potential losses or failures, without a clear steer from the top on appropriate risk taking, says ACCA.  View Article     Financial Services Policy     Steven Maijoor speech at the Second Annual Fintech And Digital Innovation Conference ESMA's Maijoor addressed three key areas of FinTech: the structural features of FinTech, monitoring FinTech by looking at economic function and challenges and opportunities for regulators.   View Article ESAs review: Insurance Europe supports EIOPA as strong stand-alone authority Insurance Europe has published a position paper on the European Commission’s position regarding the review of the ESAs. The paper welcomes the Commission’s recognition of the need to maintain the EIOPA as a stand-alone authority responsible for both prudential and conduct of business supervision.  View Article     Political     POLITICO: Blueprint for a democratic renewal of the eurozone Strengthening the monetary union requires a significant leap in governance, write a group of MEPs, economists and former EU officers.  View Article     Economic     Annual inflation down to 1.3% in the euro area Euro area annual inflation rate was 1.3% in January 2018, down from 1.4% in December 2017. In January 2017, the rate was 1.8%. European Union annual inflation was 1.6% in January 2018, down from 1.7% in December 2017. A year earlier the rate was 1.7%.  View Article

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