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Articles 12 September 2019 - 18 September 2019

General Policy

BIS' Carstens: The quest for financial integration in Europe and globally : Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the BIS, reviews possible ways to address market fragmentation at the global level and focuses on market integration within the euro area. View Article

FSB's Domanski: Three priorities for international regulatory and supervisory cooperation : The FSB is pivoting from post-crisis policy design to reinforce the resilience of the global financial system. This pivot reflects evolving priorities for international regulatory and supervisory cooperation that were discussed by FSB Secretary General Dietrich Domanski, . View Article

Banking Union

EU financial regulators highlight risks of a no-deal Brexit and search for yield : The latest report on "Risks and Vulnerabilities in the EU Financial System" published by the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) shows that the European Union's banking, insurance, pensions and securities sectors continue to face a range of risks. View Article

ECB announces changes to new targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO III) : The Governing Council of the ECB decided to modify some of the key parameters of the TLTRO III to preserve favourable bank lending conditions, ensure the smooth functioning of the monetary policy transmission mechanism and further support the accommodative stance of monetary policy. View Article

Financial Times: European banks fear no escape from negative rates : European lenders are bracing for deeper cost cuts and consolidation after the European Central Bank extended a punishing five-year stretch of negative interest rates. View Article

European Parliament gives green light to Christine Lagarde : Christine Lagarde obtained Parliament’s approval to be the ECB’s next President. View Article

BIS' Villeroy de Galhau: The role of banking in a sustainable global economy : Governor of the Bank of France François Villeroy de Galhau discusses threats that are contributing to global uncertainty, such as trade tensions coming from the US and Brexit, before addressing two of the shared challenges for the future: digital transformation and green finance.  View Article

VoxEU: Replacing LIBOR : This column examines the US dollar LIBOR transition process, highlighting both the substantial progress and the major obstacles that still lie ahead. Regulators in the US and elsewhere are well aware of the risks of delay and are now pushing hard for LIBOR users – especially financial institutions and markets under their supervision – to prepare for a world without LIBOR. View Article

European Commission: Strong customer authentication requirement of PSD2 comes into force : As from 14 September 2019 the strong customer authentication (SCA) requirement of the revised Directive on payment services (PSD2) comes into force. The SCA requirement makes it easier and safer for consumers to pay for goods and services online and helps fight fraud. View Article

Capital Markets Union

Financial Times: London strengthens grip on currencies market, BIS survey shows : London has strengthened its grip as the global centre for the vast foreign exchange and derivatives markets, pulling away from New York and shrugging off fears that Brexit would dent its dominance. View Article

AFME: Introduction to CSDR settlement discipline : CSDR covers a wide range of requirements across its phased implementation timeline, the last of which is the Settlement Discipline Regime which comes into force in Sep 2020. View Article

EBF response to ESMA consultation cost of Data : EBF shares the view that the costs for market data have increased since the entry into application of MIFID 2.  View Article

EBF response to ESMA call for evidence costs and inducements : EBF members welcome ESMA’s call for evidence on costs and charges and inducements which have been major changes to investor protection requirements and which have required heavy technical development for EU banks. View Article

EFAMA: European assets under management have more than doubled in the last decade : The 11th edition of EFAMA's Asset Management Report provides detailed data on the assets under management in Europe, the location of the asset management activity, the clients of the industry, the evolution of the asset allocation, and the contribution of the industry in terms of employment.  View Article

EIOPA calls for a sound cyber resilience framework : The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks, the fast digital transformation and the increased use of big data and cloud computing make insurers increasingly susceptible to cyber threats.  View Article

Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)

EBF: TEG report on Taxonomy: EBF comments : The EBF response to the TEG report on EU Taxonomy highlights some elements that could further contribute to steering the taxonomy more optimally towards financing of the gradual shift of the economy to a net zero carbon emitting model by 2050.  View Article

ESBG foresees EU taxonomy useful tool to classify assets towards green transition : The biggest advantage of the EU taxonomy is how it provides a clear framework in respect to sectors approached, ESBG said in its response on the European Commission Technical Expert Group on EU Taxonomy.  View Article

Investment & Pensions Europe: Lack of responsible opportunities will hinder ESG investing, survey finds : Almost half (46%) of European professional investors say a lack of responsible investing (RI) opportunities will prevent the sector from becoming mainstream, according to a survey conducted by asset manager NN Investment Partners (NNIP). View Article

IIRC: Integrated thinking is a game changer for sustainable corporate governance : Corporate governance is an instrumental tool to shift towards a sustainable economy. The essential change that will make this shift possible is making sustainability the basis of business decisions at every level. View Article

BusinessEurope: A solid intellectual property system is key for EU business : BusinessEurope proposes a comprehensive strategy on intellectual property with concrete actions to help IP deliver its well-recognised benefits to companies, citizens and society at large.  View Article

ECIIA´s Risk in Focus 2020: Hot topics for internal auditors : Risk in Focus helps Heads of Internal Audit to understand how their peers view today’s risk landscape as they prepare their forthcoming audit plans for 2020. Cyber and data security has firmly established itself as a top-of-mind issue for the majority of audit executives. Climate change and the environment is rising up the internal audit agenda. View Article

ACCA: Public sector finance professionals seek a more radical future, but challenges lie ahead : The public sector’s image as a place where little or no innovation happens is challenged in a global research report from ACCA, Innovation in public finance. Governments need to shift from the current dominance of incremental innovation to more radical reforms. View Article

Protecting Customers

EIOPA establishes consultative expert group on digital ethics in Insurance : As a follow-up of its recent thematic review on the use of Big Data Analytics (BDA) in motor and health insurance, EIOPA established a Consultative Expert Group to assist the Authority in the development of digital responsibility principles in insurance. View Article

Fin Tech Regulation

Bruegel: Hybrid and cybersecurity threats and the European Union’s financial system : Exploring preparations to increase the resilience of the financial system authors find that the EU finance ministers should advance a broader political discussion on the integration of the EU security architecture applicable to the financial system. View Article

ECB's Cœuré: Digital challenges to the international monetary and financial system : Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, focuses on “stablecoins” – crypto-assets with value-stabilising characteristics. View Article

AFME: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Capital Markets: Considerations for a broad framework for transparency : This white paper has been developed by AFME’s AI Task Force to consider how to approach transparency in AI/ML, which is a key factor in demonstrating and ensuring the safe and effective deployment of trustworthy AI/ML in capital markets. View Article

BIS: Embedded supervision: how to build regulation into blockchain finance : The paper sketches out the basic design for embedded supervision. It then models a distributed ledger-based financial market, and shows under what conditions supervisors can trust the data from a distributed ledger. View Article

Financial Times: Central banks should not issue digital currencies : Rather than rush to compete with the likes of Facebook, Tether and WeChat, or ban them outright, central banks would be better off following the PBoC model of bringing digital payments into the central banking fold and focusing on what they do best: managing stability, writes Izabella Kaminska. View Article

City AM: Banks can’t ignore the disruptors any longer : Inside one of the City of London’s oldest buildings, bankers are discussing the future. Amid trade war turmoil, Brexit uncertainty and climate change concerns, there is one issue above all that dominates the agenda; digitalisation. View Article

Friends' Basic Services

41st Brussels for Brunch Webinar March 2019 : This is the link to the recorded webinar at CISI View Article

42nd Brussels for Brunch Webinar May 2019 : This is the link to the recorded webinar at CISI View Article

154th Brussels for Breakfast – CPD Notes : Organised by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI), hosted by CISI and with co-presenters Sir John Redwood and Brian Polk (PWC).  View Article

Economic Policies Impacting EU Finance

POLITICO: Mario Draghi’s parting gift to the eurozone : The European Central Bank president, who will soon hand over to Christine Lagarde, unveiled a package of long-term measures intended to boost the eurozone's sluggish economy. View Article

Financial Times: Eurozone wakes up to ECB’s fiscal message as economy weakens : Martin Sandbu writes that Mario Draghi has grown more forthright in urging governments to help boost growth. View Article

SUERF: Strengthened EU fiscal framework: fiscal discipline versus economic stabilization : Fiscal sustainability on the one hand and fiscal space, both on the national levels and the EU level, on the other hand have led to a discussion about the design of fiscal rules and the pros and cons of a (central) fiscal capacity. View Article

The Economist: Why Europe’s single market is at risk : In the past decade the trend of economic integration that defined post-war Europe has gone backwards. If it wants to create prosperity and world-beating firms, Europe needs not just to reinvigorate the single market, but also to rediscover that original vision in neglected areas of trade. View Article

Bruegel: EU trade policy amid the China-US clash: caught in the crossfire? : What risks face the EU with regard to China’s strategic aims in trade policy and how can the EU respond? How should the EU move forward with reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in light of differing demands and aims of trading blocs like China and the US? View Article

PIIE: Targeted by the United States, a renewed trade response from the European Union : The incoming European Commission faces a dilemma on the transatlantic trade relationship because of the unpredictable policies of the Trump administration. Anabel González and Nicolas Véron propose a way for the EU to succeed in an increasingly complicated global trade drama. View Article

Basic Enconomic Indicators

Annual inflation stable at 1.0% in the euro area : The euro area annual inflation rate was 1.0% in August 2019, stable compared to July. European Union annual inflation was 1.4% in August 2019, stable compared to July.  View Article

Euro area international trade in goods surplus €24.8 bn : The first estimate for euro area (EA19) exports of goods to the rest of the world in July 2019 was €206.5 billion, anincrease of 6.2% compared with July 2018 (€194.5 bn). View Article

EU27 Politics

POLITICO: New Commission bows to the populists : New power structure shows populist rhetoric has infiltrated EU executive, warns Camino Mortera-Martinez. View Article

Andrew Duff: How the new Commission will treat EU constitutional reform : There is a lot at stake when it comes to the government of Europe. Ursula von der Leyen and her team have a good opportunity to drive its reform in the direction of federal union. View Article

Paul Goldschmidt: European Union : European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen first “100 days” must demonstrate that further European integration is a priority, writes Goldschmidt. View Article

Main results - Eurogroup : Ministers discussed the quality of public finances in the eurozone and looked at the current transparency initiative of the Eurogroup. The Eurogroup in inclusive format worked on all pending issues of the budgetary instrument for convergence and competitiveness. View Article

Presidency press release after the informal meeting of Economic and Financial Affairs ministers : On the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs, the ministers discussed resilience to hybrid threats, stepping up action to combat climate change, energy taxation and also EU fiscal rules. View Article