(This e-mail provides the headers of a selection of the articles published this week. If you would like to upgrade to our Gold service and access all articles - with live links to the underlying news - please click on the button)
Articles from 13-19 May 2022
General Financial Policy
CER podcast: Where will Macron now take France and Europe? : In this week’s CER podcast, we discussed Macron’s re-election as French President - to consider France’s domestic political landscape, Macron’s victory, his vision for French and EU policy this time around, and what the potential stumbling blocks might be.
Interview with Klaas Knot, Chair of the Financial Stability Board:"We are not totally off the hook” : The global financial system weathered the pandemic fairly well, but now there is another unforeseen event: war in Europe, with financial and economic sanctions, restrictions on trade. How will this impact financial stability?
The EFR published its position paper “Ensuring competitiveness of the European financial sector” : The achievement of open strategic autonomy in the area of financial markets requires ensuring that the attractiveness of EU financial markets and the competitiveness of EU financial market participants remains a cornerstone of the EU’s financial strategy.
Vox: Seizures of foreign exchange reserves will not weaken the dollar’s role as dominant reserve currency : This column argues that sanctions will, in fact, reinforce the dollar’s dominance rather than weakening it. Countries which choose to exit the dollar bloc will have restricted ability to reassure foreign investors... impacting a growth strategy that involves participation of centre country capital.
Bruegel's Veron: Now is not the time to confiscate Russia’s central bank reserves : The idea of confiscating the Bank of Russia’s frozen reserves is attractive to some, but at this stage in the Ukraine conflict confiscation would be counterproductive and likely illegal.
Banking Union
SSM's Enria: Of temples and trees: on the road to completing the European banking union : We have identified the urgent need for banks to recover profitability, improve cost efficiency, invest in digitalisation and enhance the sustainability of their business model. Healthy profitability is the first line of defence in the event of shocks...
Capital Markets Union
ESMA publishes Final Reports on CCP resolution regime : The Final Reports also cover Guidelines on the circumstances under which a CCP is deemed to be failing or likely to fail as well as on the methodology to value each contract prior to termination.
ESMA publishes ex-post analysis of derivatives risks in Archegos : In the study, ESMA finds that the build-up of exposures by Archegos, a US family office whose collapse in March 2021 resulted in more than USD 10bn in losses, can be seen in data reported under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
ESMA's Ross: ISDA keynote speech – ESMA’s priorities for transparency : Today I want to share with you some thoughts on the multifaceted conceptof transparency and how appropriately calibrated transparencyrequirements contribute to better market functioning.
EFAMA reply to EC targeted consultation on the functioning of the Money Market Fund Regulation : In essence, we see no need for a fundamental review of the MMFR regime. Its resilience has been proven throughout the March 2020 market correction, with European MMFs continuing to meet redemption requests, despite evident liquidity stresses in the underlying money markets.
ICMA response to the European Commission’s Targeted Consultation on the functioning of the Money Market Fund Regulation : ICMA responded to the European Commission’s Targeted Consultation on the functioning of the Money Market Fund Regulation.
Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)
Parliament: European Green Bond Standard: new measures to reduce green washing : Not only is a new label created but also rules for the green bonds market; Added requirements for companies wishing to issue European green bonds to weed out ‘brown companies’
AFME welcomes EU Parliament’s compromise on EU Green Bonds Standard : “Today’s agreement is a welcome step forward towards establishing an important element of the EU sustainable finance framework. On behalf of our members, AFME contributed with practical industry input for the GBS to support and strengthen the EU green bonds market...
EURACTIV: EU tables €300bn plan to ditch Russian fossil fuels, speed up green transition : The European Commission submitted a €300 billion plan to eliminate Russian energy imports by 2027, although it admitted this would require short-term investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure to replace imports of Russian oil and gas.
Fin Tech Regulation
The Economist: The crypto infrastructure cracks : A vicious sell-off in risky assets jolts stablecoins
Digital Markets Act: EP committee endorses agreement with Council : The Digital Markets Act sets obligations for large online platforms acting as “gatekeepers” and enables the Commission to sanction non-compliant behaviour.
Council approves Data Governance Act : The Data Governance Act (DGA) will set up robust mechanisms to facilitate the reuse of certain categories of protected public-sector data, increase trust in data intermediation services and foster data altruism across the EU.
Commission welcomes political agreement on new rules on cybersecurity of network and information systems : The NIS 2 Directive also strengthens cybersecurity requirements imposed on the companies, addresses security of supply chains and supplier relationships and introduces accountability of top management for non-compliance with the cybersecurity obligations.
ECB's Panetta: Public money for the digital era: towards a digital euro : In the financial realm, old certainties are also beginning to falter. Digital technologies, changing payment habits and the race for payments supremacy are testing the complementarity of public and private money, which has long formed a cornerstone of our monetary system.
CPMI: Extending and aligning payment system operating hours for cross-border payments : This final report – issued as part of the G20 cross-border payments programme – focuses on the operating hours of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems, as systems that are key to enhancing cross-border payments.
Brexit
LSE: Why London should worry about the ECJ’s external judicial politics when pushing for a revision of the Northern Ireland Protocol : Boris Johnson will hold crisis talks in Belfast today in an attempt to resolve differences over the Northern Ireland Protocol. Robert Basedow writes the UK would be wise to carefully evaluate the EU’s red lines before demanding a revision of the Protocol.
FT's Wolf: Boris Johnson must embrace the Brexit he made : The row over Northern Ireland risks a deeper decline in UK trade in response to threats of violence from a tiny minority