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Articles from 21-27 October
Policy impacting Finance
LSE: The challenge facing Italy’s new coalition : On 22 October, Giorgia Meloni was officially sworn in as Italy’s first female prime minister. However, the new Italian government might soon come under pressure to address soaring energy prices and support struggling families and businesses. Corrado Macchiarelli and Mara Monti write that Meloni’s right-wing coalition will face a delicate balancing act between maintaining the support of its electorate and upholding commitments undertaken with Brussels.
Carnegie's Dempsey: Germany’s Continued Illusions About China and Russia : Berlin’s pursuit of economic and political ties with Beijing and Moscow has created dangerous dependencies. A change in strategy would benefit both Germany and the EU.
Project Syndicates's Jim O'Neill: China’s Coming Clash with Economic Reality : As expected, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been given an unprecedented third five-year term. More surprising was the absence of any sign that Xi intends to revise the policies that have done so much economic damage in recent years.
FSB analyses liquidity in core government bond markets : This report, which forms part of the FSB’s work programme to enhance the resilience of non-bank financial intermediation (NBFI), analyses the liquidity, structure, and resilience of core government bond markets.
Banking Union
The EBA sets examination programme priorities for resolution authorities for 2023 : The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the European Resolution Examination Programme (EREP) for 2023, which identifies key topics for resolution attention across the European Union. The EREP is aimed at shaping resolution authorities` work priorities and respective practices.
The EBA sets examination programme priorities for prudential supervisors for 2023 : The ESEP is part of an annual cycle and contributes to enhancing supervisory convergence in the EU by providing common directions and focus areas for supervisors, which helps them shape their prudential supervisory priorities and respective practices.
Capital Markets Union
Council: European long-term investment funds: Provisional agreement reached :One of the key priorities for the Council is now reflected in the text: a redesign of the ELTIF framework which will allow us to channel more financing to SMEs and long-term projects which will help achieve the digital transition.
MEPs struck a deal to revive European long-term investment funds : Parliament’s negotiators agreed with the Council on new rules to facilitate the flow of funds towards the real economy, including green and digital priority areas.
Insurance Europe: Insurers welcome repeal of DMD, but warn on unintended consequences of remaining provisions : Insurance Europe strongly welcomes the repeal of the DMD but recommends transferring its remaining provisions to more recent sector-specific EU legislation, such as the Insurance Distribution Directive.
ISDAs O'Malia: Working for a Positive Outcome on Euro Clearing : The European Commission (EC) is determined to increase the allure of clearing in the EU as it looks to reduce what it sees as an over-reliance on systemically important third-country central counterparties (CCPs).
ICMA publishes the first semi-annual report that provides detailed data on EU and UK bond market trading activity : The report captures more than 80% of all secondary bond market transactions (both corporate bonds and sovereign bonds) reported in the EU and UK over the period January through June 2022. It is therefore relatively representative of the aggregated bond market data as reported under the MiFID II/MiFIR obligation.
BETTER FINANCE’s answers to DG FISMA’s Discussion Note on Value for Money : BETTER FINANCE firmly suggests providing clear definitions for key concepts, as is the present case for value for money. On it hinges the qualification of “evidence”, i.e. whether products deliver or not value for money to the customer.
BETTER FINANCE Applauds and Supports Proposed Ban on Sales Commissions Paid to Retail Distributors of Investment Products : BETTER FINANCE considers the recent proposal to ban “inducements” (commissions) in “retail” investment services to be a very significant milestone in investor protection and firmly urges EU Member States to also support it.
BETTER FINANCE Position Paper on the EU Retail Investment Strategy : The European Federation of investors and Financial Services Users fully supports the clear stated objectives of the European Union’s very welcome “Retail Investor Strategy”.
Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)
EBA publishes Report on the integration of ESG risks in the supervision of investment firms : The Report provides an initial assessment of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and risks for the purposes of the prudential supervision of investment firms under the Investment Firms Directive (IFD).
AccountancyEurope: Sustainable tax systems – environment : This paper highlights key points from tax leaders’ contributions to our Sustainable tax systems project on the environment.
GRI's Coronacion: An evolving sustainability role for investor relations : Amid growing demands for companies to provide robust and verifiable information on their sustainability performance, investor relations (IR) professionals fulfil a crucial role in delivering feedback to management and taking action to address communication gaps.
IPE: Hundreds of climate targets submitted ahead of COP27, says Mark Carney : “We’ve already received over 250 science-based interim targets and there’s an additional 90 targets under review and on track to be confirmed by the start of Sharm El Sheikh,” referring to the climate summit which will be held in Egypt next month.
GFIA welcomes draft changes to OECD-G20 corporate governance principles, but calls for clarifications : There are specific provisions within the draft revisions that lack necessary definition or that seem to favor a much more prescriptive approach.
Fin Tech Regulation
European Commission: Legislative proposal on instant payments : The Commission adopted today a legislative proposal to make instant payments in euro, available to all citizens and businesses holding a bank account in the EU and in EEA countries.
Remarks by Commissioner McGuinness on the Commission's proposal for a regulation on instant payments : "...this is a very simple idea: with a click, money should change hands quickly...."
Finextra: Industry association pushes back on EC instant payments timeline : Industry association Payments Europe has raised concerns about the EC's plan for the mandatory provision of instant credit transfers in euros, arguing that the tight timeframe could "endanger the safety and security" of transactions.
BIS: Project mBridge: Connecting economies through CBDC : The payment system underpinning cross-border financial flows has not kept pace with rapid growth in global economic integration.
Brexit
FT: UK’s Rishi Sunak eases off on taking Brexit axe to EU laws : Plan for ‘delivery unit’ shelved in wake of warning EU legislation review would tie up hundreds of officials
UKandEU's Portes: Trade, Migration and Brexit : Jonathan Portes assesses the extent to which predictions about trade and migration before the Brexit vote have materialised, highlighting that trade has been reduced by additional barriers but the extent to which liberalisation would increase migration flows in the short term was underestimated.
POLITICO: The Brexit cult that blew up Britain : For a small band of libertarians, Liz Truss’ resignation is the final act in an 11-year project to remake Britain.
POLITICO's Fitzroy: Britain’s Tory Party may be on the road to ruin : Broad political consensus is something the Conservatives appear to have lost. Recent trends for other center-right parties across Europe suggest they aren’t alone.