This week in "Brussels"
07 December 2017
ECB, NPLs, banking union, ESMA latest Risk Dashboard, Risk Reduction package, MiFIDII/MiFIR implementation, CCPs, financial conglomerates, IFRS 17, UK Corporate Governance Code, AML/CFT, Commission follow-up on the Call for Evidence on financial services and more.
|
|
Jump directly to |
 |
 |
|
|
Articles from 30 November 2017 - 07 December 2017 |
|
|
Banking Union |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Financial Times: UK banks warn over EU rules to ringfence foreign capital
Large UK banks are teaming up with their Swiss and Japanese counterparts to warn that Brussels’ proposals to ringfence foreign capital could force lenders to exit their European businesses. View Article |
BIS: December 2017 BIS Quarterly Review: Paradoxical tightening echoes bond market "conundrum"
Markets shrugged off moves by some major central banks to wind back stimulus over the last quarter: global financial conditions paradoxically eased further amid heightened concerns about overvalued asset prices. View Article |
Accountancy Europe: ECB’s guidance to banks on non-performing loans
Accountancy Europe responded to the ECB guidance to banks on non-performing loans. Accountancy Europe understands that the purpose of the addendum is to foster a more timely provisioning practice for new NPLs from 2018 onwards in order to avoid an increase of NPLs in the future. View Article |
Accountancy Europe response to EC’s provisioning for newly originated loans that turn non-performing
Accountancy Europe responded to EC’s consultation on statutory prudential backstops addressing insufficient provisioning for newly originated loans that turn non-performing. View Article |
LSE: A fourth pillar for Europe’s banking union? The case for a pan-European asset management company in the Eurozone
Helen Louri writes that in addition to the ‘three pillars’ of the banking union the creation of a ‘fourth pillar’ in the shape of a pan-European asset management company could help tackle non-performing loans and generate much needed increases in investment and growth in the Eurozone. View Article |
European Payments Council: 2017 Payment threats and fraud trends report
The 2017 Payment threats and fraud trends report provides an overview of the most important threats in the payments landscape. It further contains an early warning concerning threats related to virtual currencies. View Article |
ECB: Digital transformation of the retail payments ecosystem
Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, spoke about instant payments and discussed the alleged innovation brought by private virtual currency schemes without an identifiable issuer. View Article |
BBC: UK government mulls Bitcoin regulation
Anti-money laundering regulations should be updated to include Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, the UK Treasury has said. The government's aim is part of a broader update to the EU rules which are under negotiation. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Capital Markets Union |
|
|
|
|
|
|
ESMA latest Risk Dashboard sees no change in overall risk levels
ESMA issued the Risk Dashboard No.4 2017, covering risks in the EU’s securities markets for Q3 2017. ESMA’s overall risk assessment remains unchanged from Q2 at high levels. View Article |
AFME: The links between the Risk Reduction package and the development of Europe’s capital markets
AFME published a new report highlighting the significant impact that key elements of the European Commission’s Risk Reduction Measures legislative package could have on Europe’s capital markets and the wider economy. View Article |
Financial Times: Global regulatory body to launch fresh probe into ETFs
According to the FT, the ETF industry will achieve a fourth consecutive year of record-breaking investor inflows in 2017, a ferocious pace of growth that has attracted scrutiny from regulators worldwide. View Article |
Verena Ross Keynote Address at ASIFMA Annual Conference 2017
Ms. Ross focused her remarks on three main areas: the EU regulatory framework and the role of ESMA; the work carried out by ESMA in the context of third country frameworks and how these can be further strengthened; and some of the implications of the EU regulation on Asian firms. View Article |
ESMA publishes key transparency calculations for MiFIDII/MiFIR implementation
ESMA published the MiFID II/MiFIR transitional transparency calculations for equity and bond instruments, which means that TTC for all asset classes, applicable from 3 January 2018, are available to market participants, infrastructures and authorities as required under the new regulatory framework. View Article |
VOX: Empirical evidence on the failure of central clearing counterparties
The findings highlight the need for a CCP to monitor the pool of ultimate investors in cleared contracts. While this may be difficult in case of client clearing, margins can play a screening role, because by asking for higher margins, a CCP can exclude traders that are financially more constrained. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Insurance |
|
|
|
|
|
|
IAIS Consultation on its draft issues paper on index-based insurances
Index-based insurance is increasingly looked at as a means to manage weather and catastrophic events, support food security and enhance access to insurance. The proposed Issues Paper provides background on this product, describes practices and actual examples and identifies related regulatory and supervisory issues and challenges. View Article |
ESAs publish the list of financial conglomerates
The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities – EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – published the 2017 list of identified financial conglomerates. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Asset Management |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Investment & Pensions Europe: EU Parliament approves plan to dilute asset valuation rules
The European Parliament has provisionally approved a transitional regime that will dilute the effect of new rules governing the valuations of financial assets. View Article |
Investment & Pensions Europe: Flexible retirement 'a double-edged sword' for governments: OECD
Flexible retirement is a double-edged sword for governments, according to the OECD. Calls for more flexible retirement rules were resurfacing in the public debate as a response to pressures from population ageing and financial stability concerns, as well as a resistance to higher pension ages, the economic body said. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Corporate Governance/Accounting |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Financial Times: German insurer Munich Re joins backlash on new accounting rules
Pressure is growing for a delay to controversial new accounting rules (IFRS 17) designed to revolutionise the way insurers report their results, with German insurer Munich Re the latest to call for a postponement. IFRS 17 was unveiled earlier this year and is due to come into force in 2021. View Article |
Deloitte comments on the IASB's proposed amendments to IAS 1 and IAS 8
Deloitte has responded to the IASB's exposure draft ED/2017/6 'Definition of Material (Proposed amendments to IAS 1 and IAS 8)' that was published in September 2017. View Article |
FASB makes decisions on leasing standard simplification
The FASB made decisions to reduce costs and ease the implementation burden of the Leases standard for preparers. View Article |
Accountancy Europe: Member States’ implementation of new EU audit rules
About one and a half years after the implementation deadline, Accountancy Europe presents an updated state of play of this process in 31 European countries, including 28 EU Member States. View Article |
IASB's Lloyd: Content and packaging of financial reporting
Speaking at the US SEC and the PCAOB annual conference, Vice-Chair of the IASB Sue Lloyd discusses the impact on companies of the new IFRS Standards, and how the IASB supports implementation and better communication tools between companies and investors. View Article |
EFRAG: Accounting meets valuation
EFRAG conference brings together leading preparers, valuation experts, users, regulators and academics to discuss the merits, limitations and challenges of fair value in financial reporting. View Article |
IFAC publishes initial views on Monitoring Group consultation paper
The IFAC has published its initial views to the Monitoring Group Consultation Paper on changes to the international audit and ethics standard-setting process. View Article |
ECIIA hosts the first European Forum for Internal Audit, Banking, Regulation and Supervision
“Good governance requires an effective and independent risk management function, including strong compliance and internal audit operations,” said Pentti Hakkarainen, Executive Director of the European Banking Authority, in a keynote speech at the event. View Article |
FRC: A sharper UK Corporate Governance Code to achieve long-term success and trust in business
The FRC publishes proposals for a revised UK Corporate Governance Code to reflect the changing business environment and help UK companies achieve the highest levels of governance. The Code is shorter and sharper and builds on the findings from the FRC’s Culture Report published in 2016. View Article |
FRC: Strategic report guidance to follow government legislation
The Non-Financial Reporting Regulations which implemented the EU Directive on disclosure of non-financial and diversity information became effective on or after 1 January 2017. In August 2017, the FRC published a consultation proposing amendments to the Guidance on the Strategic Report. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Anti-Money Laundering |
|
|
|
|
|
|
FRC: Revisions to International Standards on Auditing (UK)
The FRC has issued a revision of ISA (UK) 250 Section A, which includes a new Appendix providing revised guidance on the auditor's responsibilities in respect of money laundering, terrorist financing and proceeds of crime legislation in the UK. View Article |
The ESAs publish draft technical standards to strengthen group-wide management of money laundering and terrorist financing risks
The Joint Committee of ESAs published its draft RTS specifying how credit and financial institutions should manage ML/TF risks at group level where they have branches or majority-owned subsidiaries based in third countries whose laws do not permit the application of group-wide policies and procedures on AML/CFT. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Financial Services Policy |
|
|
|
|
|
|
European Commission: Financial services: Commission follows up on the Call for Evidence and consults on supervisory reporting
The Commission is following up on its stock-taking exercise of financial regulation with a new report on Call for Evidence on EU financial services. The Call for Evidence was launched in 2015 to assess whether rules adopted since the financial crisis were working as intended. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Political |
|
|
|
|
|
|
POLITICO: Dutch prime minister says more EU integration ‘not the answer’
A “federal Europe” and “more integration” is not the answer to the EU’s problems, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a speech, challenging French President Emmanuel Macron’s vision of a more integrated Europe. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Economic |
|
|
|
|
|
|
European Commission: Completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union- policy package
The package constitutes further important steps for the deepening of Europe's Economic and Monetary Union. Building on the Leaders' Agenda, concrete decisions are expected in the coming months. In the view of the Commission, a roadmap should be agreed upon, which should include the following steps over the next 18 months. View Article |
Main results - Economic and Financial Affairs Council, 05/12/2017
The Council agreed a list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, reviewed work on banking proposals and closed an excessive deficit procedure for the UK. View Article |
Main results of the Eurogroup meeting of 4th December
The Eurogroup met in two formats: the first was a regular meeting of the euro area ministers, while the second part was a meeting of the ministers from 27 EU member states with the aim of preparing the Euro Summit that will be held in December. View Article |
Bruegel: The European Commission should drop its ill-designed idea of a finance minister
Beyond the opposing ideas of Jean-Claude Juncker and Wolfgang Schäuble for future euro-area governance, Guntram Wolff explores how alternatives such as a reformed Eurogroup might yield more effective fiscal policy-making. View Article |
2018 EU budget adopted
The Council and the European Parliament separately approved the deal reached on 18 November 2017 in the conciliation committee on the 2018 budget. The EU budget for 2018 is therefore adopted. View Article |
A renewed EU Industrial Policy Strategy: Council adopts conclusions
The European Council adopted conclusions on a European Industrial Policy Strategy. View Article |
|
|
|
|
|
Graham's tweets |
|
|
© Graham Bishop
Banking Union