Welcome to our Gold Friends weekly e-mail.

Highlights of my week: Summer holidays from today … back on 9^th September! I wish all my readers Happy Holidays – wherever you are allowed to go! To close the summer season, the European Commission extended the Green Deal by announcing the “Fit for 55” package of proposals designed to maintain the EU’s global leadership role. Actual disbursements from the RRF have now been approved. The ECB is going to develop work on the digital Euro but is still keeping its options open on an actual launch. More questioning if the EU is really doing enough on money laundering. Reviews of MiFID, MiFIR and Solvency II continue (How will the EU’s SII review compare with UK post-Brexit changes?). The work on the stability implications of “third-country” CCPs continues apace so I will have more to say in my `Brexit and the City’ videos in due course – the latest one on the ending of the City’s Golden Age has now had 12k views just this week. So the topic is interesting to someone!

Graham Bishop

Articles from 9 - 15 July 2020

 General Financial Policy

 ECOFIN Council gives green light to first recovery disbursements : EU economic and finance ministers today adopted the first batch of Council implementing decisions on the approval of national recovery and resilience plans. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain got the green light for the use of EU recovery and resilience funds to boost their economies and recover from the COVID-19 fallout.  View Article

 SUERF: Euro area portfolio flows in 2020: the impact of the Covid-19 crisis : Since the onset of the pandemic, euro area residents have shifted international portfolio investments. Significant sales of foreign assets were followed by large purchases of foreign securities. At the same time, non-residents have purchased euro area debt securities, especially short-term debt. View Article

 Banking Union

 Accountancy Europe: Money laundering is a real issue: are we doing enough to fight it? : Drug dealers reinvesting their criminal activity’s revenues into a legal business. Tax evaders partially hiding their income. Corrupted civil servants accepting bribery. These are just some of the unlawful activities that generate money laundering (ML). View Article

 CRE: UK businesses urged to work with EU’s new anti-money laundering body :  View Article

Capital Markets Union

 ESMA publishes methodology for assessing third country CCPs systemic importance : The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, today published a methodology for assessing whether a third country central counterparty (TC-CCP) or some of its clearing services are of such substantial systemic importance that the TC-CCP should not be recognised to provide certain clearing services or activities in the European Union. View Article

 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, today launched seven public consultations  : The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, today launched seven public consultations to gather stakeholder feedback on how to implement its central counterparty (CCP) recovery mandates. View Article

AFME calls for action on mandatory buy-in rules : “It is helpful that the Commission has stated its intention to consider amendments to the mandatory buy-in regime, subject to an impact assessment. Given that amendments may now be made at a later date, it does not make sense for the current rules to be implemented and enforced on 1 February 2022... View Article

 AFME welcomes ESMA consultation on MiFIR transparency requirements : We appreciate ESMA’s clarity in stating that its data does not currently reflect the existing market structure. Ahead of the MiFIR review, it is vital to base analysis upon data that provides a clear picture of the EU trading landscape. View Article

 MIFID 2 Review – Market Structure: EBF priorities : The EBF is a true supporter of the EC Capital Markets Union Action Plan and the ambition to further integrate capital markets in the EU. We therefore welcome a review of MiFID II/MiFIR that is aimed at facilitating issuers’ and end-clients’ use of EU capital markets for the purposes of their financing and risk management. View Article

ESMA consults on the review of transparency requirements under MiFIR : The Consultation Paper focuses on technical issues and addresses topics that do not require a prior change of MiFID II/MiFIR.  View Article

Supervisory statement on supervisory practices and expectations in case of breach of the Solvency Capital Requirement : With this supervisory statement EIOPA aims to foster supervisory convergence in the situations where insurance and reinsurance undertakings breach their capital requirement, in particular addressing the recovery plan required. View Article

EIOPA: Consultation on the revision of the Solvency II Guidelines on Contract Boundaries and Valuation of Technical Provisions : As part of the 2020 review of Solvency II, EIOPA identified several divergent practices regarding the implementation and supervision of calculation of technical provisions.  View Article

 EIOPA: Opinion on the use of risk mitigation techniques by insurance undertakings : Since the implementation of Solvency II new risk mitigation techniques such as new reinsurance structures have appeared in the European market and some existing ones started to gain more relevance. View Article

 European Crowdfunding Service Providers for Business(Regulation (EU) 2020/1503) : Concern, shared with national competent authorities, regarding potential issues in relation to the respective dates of application of the ECSPR. View Article

 The International Capital Market Association's Assessment of Market Practice and Regulatory Policy : The Quarterly Assessment is on the orderly wind-down of LIBOR in the bond market.  View Article

Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)

Statement by President von der Leyen on delivering the European Green Deal : Reflecting the whole-of-government approach or the whole-of-society, the whole-of-economy approach.This was the message almost exactly two years ago to the day – it was 16 July – when I put on the table my Political Guidelines, and in there the core part was the European Green Deal.  View Article

 Bruegel: Fit for 55 marks Europe’s climate moment of truth : With Fit for 55, Europe is the global first mover in turning a long-term net-zero goal into real-world policies, marking the entry of climate policy into the daily life of all citizens and businesses. View Article

 CEPS: Fit for 55 – is the European Green Deal really leaving no-one behind? : This week the European Commission will publish ‘Fit for 55’ – the package intended to set the EU on the path to a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction of 55% by 2030 and, ultimately, climate neutrality by 2050. The package will contain more than a dozen legislative proposals, both for new and existing laws.  View Article

TCFD: Statement of Michael R. Bloomberg on the G20’s Support of TCFD Framework : The G20’s announcement supporting global implementation of the TCFD framework recognizes the importance of a coordinated approach to climate risk disclosure and adds new momentum to the effort to address the economic risks of climate change. View Article

 Accountancy Europe: New Roadmap enhances EU Sustainable Finance Strategy : Accountancy Europe welcomes the European Commission’s (EC) renewed strategy for financing the transition to a sustainable economy.  View Article

European Commission: Draft proposal for a social taxonomy : The draft report will argue that in the face of a pandemic, unanswered social questions around a sustainable transition, continuing human rights abuses and continuously rising costs for housing, the time is right to identify economic activities that contribute to advancing social objectives View Article

European Commission: Public Consultation Report on Taxonomy extension options linked to environmental objectives : This draft proposal will be focussed on support for the environmental transition needed in the whole economy – it proposes further clarity on both: activities that are significantly harmful to environmental sustainability, and those that have no significant impact on it. View Article

 CFA: Regulators at the Financial Regulatory Symposium 2021 discuss the impact of COVID-19 on ESG & sustainability and business conduct in th : Regulators – from the EU, US, Australia and Latin America – practitioners and other stakeholders exchanged views on implementing lessons learned from the past to maintain trust, creating financial awareness amongst investors, and increasing investor protection on the road to economic recovery. View Article

ALFI COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT DIRECTIVE (CSRD) :  View Article

GRI welcomes role as ‘co-constructor’ of new EU sustainability reporting standards : Statement of Cooperation signed by GRI and EFRAG. The announcement of a Statement of Cooperation between GRI and EFRAG Project task Force sees both organizations agree to share technical expertise to co-construct new EU sustainability reporting standards and contribute to further global convergence. View Article

 EFRAG: Good-reporting-practices-on-sustainability-related-risks-opportun : ?On 25 May 2021, the the European Lab Project Task Force on the reporting of non-financial risks and opportunities and the linkage to the business model (PTF-RNFRO) organised a webinar to present its draft report and key findings. View Article

BIS: Stress-testing banks for climate change – a comparison of practices : The use of stress tests is an important step forward in dealing with climate risks as these tests are useful for sizing, even if only approximately, potential impacts of climate risks. View Article

Fin Tech Regulation

 ECB: Preparing for the euro’s digital future: Blog post by Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB...We are entering the age of digital money. Much like commodity or representative money in the past, digital money is emerging in response to changes in society and technology.  View Article

Economic Policies Impacting EU Finance

 Eurogroup: Meeting with US Treasury Secretary Yellen and more : Economic and financial policies, Banking union, Euro area fiscal stance, The euro as a digital currency: stock-taking View Article

 Brexit and the City

 Federal Trust - Graham Bishop: Brexit has ended the Golden Age of the City of London : The Chancellor's Mansion House speech acknowledges the importance of financial services for the British economy. But it gives little hope that the British government will be able to prevent the decline of the sector as a consequence of Brexit.  View Article

 IRSG Report – The UK regime for overseas firms : The UK’s regulatory regime is globally leading and one of the most open to international firms in the world. This openness has been a feature of the UK’s regime for a number of decades and has contributed to the UK’s success as a global financial centre. View Article

 FCA commits to being a more innovative, assertive and adaptive regulator : The FCA today makes a commitment to be a more, innovative, adaptive and assertive regulator. The commitment reflects the FCA’s Business Plan for 2021/22, the first annual plan since Nikhil Rathi joined the FCA as Chief Executive in October 2020. View Article

This is MONEY: Would attracting tech star firms to float in the UK boost your investments? What the plan to cut IPO red tape could mean for : The FCA is looking to implement changes to London's listing rules to lure tech companies; Among the proposals are allowing companies with dual class shares to list on the stock exchange's premium segment; The regulator is also looking at slashing the amount of shares in public hands  View Article

 CRE: UK regulators make first move on financial services D&I rules : Financial services firms in the UK could be subject to mandatory reporting of diversity and inclusion (D&I) data, with regulators kick-starting the process towards more rules after “slow” progress from within the industry. View Article

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