Welcome to our Gold Friends weekly e-mail.
The stream of news is already slowing ahead of the Easter holidays, and we will take a break next week – publishing again on 28th April.
Highlights of my week: The Commission is consulting on the Money Market Funds Directive - to fulfil the requirement to report on it. The Council agreed its position on EU Green Bonds while ECON requested a study to prevent `greenwashing’. Commissioner McGuiness and ESMA Chair Ross launched the `EU Digital Finance Platform’ – underling the increasing drive to understand the regulatory implications of fin tech as highlighted by the IMF. ECB’s Panetta said CBDC’s are much more than an intellectual game whilst the European Parliament is looking at the benefits of EU legislation.
Graham Bishop
Articles from 8-14 April 2022
General Financial Policy
Future of Europe: Conference nears finalisation of policy recommendations : The final Conference Plenary session is scheduled for 29-30 April in Strasbourg, where proposals are expected to be approved by the Plenary on a consensual basis, with a final say of the citizens component. View Article
JOINT COMMITTEE REPORT ON RISKS AND VULNERABILITIES IN THE EU FINANCIAL SYSTEM MARCH 2022 : This makes financial markets vulnerable to a deteriorating market sentiment, particularly if financial conditions should tighten unexpectedly due to inflationary pressures. View Article
Banking Union
EBA issues an opinion on the European Commission’s proposed amendments to the EBA final draft technical standards for own funds and eligible liabilities: In the Opinion the EBA expresses its disagreement with two substantive changes proposed by the Commission and agrees with the other amendments, which are considered non-substantive. View Article
Capital Markets Union
European Commission: Targeted consultation on the functioning of the Money Market Fund Regulation : The Money Market Fund Regulation (EU Regulation 2017/1131 - MMFR) requires the Commission to submit a report to the co-legislators assessing the adequacy of this Regulation from a prudential and economic point of view. View Article
EBA publishes final draft technical standards on the risk retention requirements for securitisations : These RTS aim to provide clarity on the risk retention requirements ensuring a better alignment of interests and reducing the risk of moral hazard, thus contributing further to the development of a sound, safe and robust securitisation market in the EU. View Article
ESMA: Guidelines On certain aspects of the MiFID II appropriateness and execution-only requirements : ESMA expects these guidelines to promote greater convergence in the application of, and supervisory approaches to, the MiFID II appropriateness and execution-only requirements. View Article
EIOPA consults on draft Guidelines on integrating the customer’s sustainability preferences in the suitability assessment under the IDD : Restricting the potential for the mis-selling of insurance products with regard to the sustainability preferences of consumers; and promoting a more convergent approach by NCAs in the supervision of insurance undertakings and insurance intermediaries. View Article
EIOPA calls for changes to stress test disclosure regime : EIOPA believes that a consistent and disciplined communication of individual stress test results would enhance market discipline, increase participants’ commitment and contribute to a level playing field among insurers and across the financial sector, resulting in a healthier insurance industry. View Article
ECON: Initial Appraisal of a European Commission Impact Assessment: Solvency II review : This briefing provides an initial analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the EuropeanCommission's impact assessment (IA) accompanying the above-mentioned proposals, submittedon 22 September 2021 and referred to the European Parliament's Committee on Economic andMonetary Affairs (ECON).View Article
ISDA’s 2021 Definitions Hit Key Adoption Landmark : ISDA and post-trade services provider OSTTRA have announced that the interest rate derivatives market has overwhelmingly transitioned to the 2021 ISDA Interest Rate Derivatives Definitions, hitting a key adoption landmark six months after implementation. View Article
Better Finance: Is the Trade Body of European Asset Managers Putting its Interests over End Investors? : Asset managers (“other people’s money”) are not investors. Rather, they manage assets for investors, those who bear the risks and reap the rewards (net of fees) of investing. And end investors are mostly “retail” ones: EU citizens. View Article
BDB: European Single Access Point : We are generally in favour of standardised, uniform and database-based reporting which is readable for both humans and machines. View Article
Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)
Sustainable finance: Council agrees its position on European Green Bonds : This regulation lays down uniform requirements for issuers of bonds that wish to use the designation ‘European Green Bond’ or ‘EuGB’ for their environmentally sustainable bonds made available to investors in the Union View Article
STUDY Requested by the ECON committee: Green Bonds : An assessment of the proposed EU Green Bond Standard and its potential to prevent greenwashing View Article
IPE: EC follows through with derivatives exclusion in final SFDR RTS : The European Commission is putting a blanket ban on the reporting of derivatives as visible elements of sustainable investment products from next year under recently adopted rules. View Article
AccountancyEurope: ESG Governance Recommendations for Audit Committees : New EU legislation is extending the mandate of boards and audit committees to include Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) matters. View Article
EuropeanIssuers contributes to Consultation on Upgrading Digital Company Law : Overall, EuropeanIssuers considers that there is no further need to harmonise information requirements for limited liability companies at EU level, as the current framework already extensively foresees provisions which are also easily accessible via the BRIS system. View Article
UNEP FI: Escalating energy security crisis underscores imperative for accelerated net-zero transition : A statement from the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance: View Article
Protecting Customers
Finance Watch: With inflation, unregulated financial products will harm the vulnerable even more. Unless… : There are a number of EU retail financial services files either currently under review or in the pipeline of being reviewed in 2022. It is key that these reviews ensure that consumers, and in particular the vulnerable, are adequately protected. View Article
Fin Tech Regulation
Commissioner McGuinness at the launch of the EU Digital Finance Platform : The new EU Digital Finance Platform, that we are officially launching today will play a part in continuing our work on digital innovation. View Article
ESMA's Ross: Launch of the EU Digital Finance Platform : Today we have launched an important joint initiative between the EC, ESAs and nationalcompetent authorities. As proposed by the EU Digital Finance Strategy, the Digital FinancePlatform will support financial innovation and embrace digital technologies, for the good of oureconomy and EU citizens. View Article
BIS: Central bank digital currencies: a new tool in the financial inclusion toolkit? : Central banks are considering how retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) may help support financial inclusion. View Article
ECB's Panetta: More than an intellectual game: exploring the monetary policy and financial stability implications of central bank digital cu : Research about CBDCs is much more than just a game. Issuing CBDCs is likely to become a necessity to preserve access to public money in an increasingly digital economy. View Article
IMF blog: Fast-Moving FinTech Poses Challenge for Regulators : Emerging firms are quickly making inroads into critical financial services, and often taking on more risk than traditional banks. View Article
European Parliament: Cryptocurrency dangers and the benefits of EU legislation : The use of crypto-assets and the technology behind them has provdn to be both immensely promising and problematic. The EU wants to help boost the development of these technologies and their use in the EU, while protecting users. View Article
Vox: Central bank digital currencies, community currencies, and the reinvention of money : Some countries have issued their own central bank digital currencies, and many European economists favour such a currency too. This column shows that when properly designed, central bank digital currencies can help stabilise the financial and monetary system. View Article
IRSG: The future of international data transfers : As the pace of technological innovation accelerates and the sharing of data across borders is more prevalent, the collection, creation, use, transfer, and protection of data is increasingly subject to legal, regulatory, political, and societal scrutiny. View Article
Economic Policies Impacting EU Finance
Jersey Government: Tax policy reflections on OECD Pillars 1 and 2 : The Government of Jersey has issued a policy paper which aims to inform international stakeholders of our serious study of the issues presented by Pillars One and Two View Article
Brexit and the City
City AM: City firms launch recruitment drive despite Brexit warnings : City firms are scrambling to snap up the best talent in the financial services industry, suggesting the London View Article
Brexit
City AM: Made in Britain: As Brexit and Covid dismantle supply chains, UK manufacturing on verge of a renaissance amid ‘reshoring’ boom : As the government admitted last week that there are ‘significant challenges’ to UK stock levels because of Brexit and Covid, is reshoring then perhaps the answer? View Article
UK TPO: The new trading arrangements with the EU: UK-EU trade in goods in 2021 : In this episode, we consider the full year of data now available for EU-UK trade in goods in 2021 and assess the impact of the Agreement. View Article
City AM: Brexit onslaught deepens as a third of all UK exporters to EU simply vanish due to red tape knockout: ‘Really worrying numbers’ : The number of UK businesses exporting goods to the EU fell 33 per cent to 18,357 in 2021, from 27,321 in 2020, according to new data from HMRC. View Article
EU/UK Forum: Ivan Rogers in conversation with FT's Peter Foster : View Article
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