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Articles 12 March 2020 - 19 March 2020

 

General Policy

ESMA recommends action by financial market participants for COVID-19 impact : The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), together with National Competent Authorities (NCAs), is closely monitoring the situation in view of the continuing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on financial markets in the European Union. View Article

Banking Union

EBA statement on actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the EU banking sector : The EBA, along with national competent authorities (CAs) and the ECB is coordinating a joint effort to alleviate the immediate operational burden for banks at this challenging juncture.  View Article

ECB announces easing of conditions for targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO III) : The Governing Council of the ECB decided to modify some of the key parameters of TLTRO III to support the continued access of firms and households to bank credit in the face of disruptions and temporary funding shortages associated with the coronavirus outbreak.  View Article

ECB Banking Supervision provides temporary capital and operational relief in reaction to coronavirus : The European Central Bank announced a number of measures to ensure that its directly supervised banks can continue to fulfil their role in funding the real economy as the economic effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) become apparent. View Article

ECB announces measures to support bank liquidity conditions and money market activity : The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has today decided on additional longer-term refinancing operations (LTROs) to provide immediate liquidity support to banks and to safeguard money market conditions.  View Article

EBF statement in response to ECB and EBA decisions : Wim Mijs, Chief Executive Officer of the European Banking Federation, provided a statement following the announcements by the European Central Bank and the European Banking Authority. View Article

Bank of England: HM Treasury and the Bank of England launch a Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) : HM Treasury and the Bank of England are announcing a Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) to provide additional help to firms to bridge through Covid 19-related disruption to their cash flows.  View Article

Financial Times: Banks lobby regulators to relax post-crisis rules : The global banking industry is demanding regulators relax or delay a raft of post-crisis rules on everything from capital and liquidity to accounting and climate change, which they argue are hampering their ability to respond to the coronavirus crisis.  View Article

Financial Times: Europe’s banks face a test of resilience : More than a decade on from the financial crisis, Europe’s banks are facing a major test of their resilience. Growing fears about the coronavirus pandemic and an oil price war prompted a widespread market sell-off. Companies have spent a decade gorging on cheap debt in an ultra-low interest rate environment. A wave of defaults is now likely, and rising loan impairments will hit banks’ already anaemic earnings. View Article

Joachim Wuermeling - Bloomberg

BIS: Statement: Joachim Wuermeling: The European financial market after Brexit : Prof Joachim Wuermeling, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, addressed banking and supervisory developments related to the coronavirus and three developments that could restrict supervisory capabilities: Brexit, bigtech and a lenient approach to implementing Basel III. View Article

ECB: Working group on euro risk-free rates seeks feedback on swaptions impacted by transition from EONIA to the €STR : The working group on euro risk-free rates has launched a public consultation on whether to issue recommendations to address specific issues for swaption products as a result of the proposed transition from EONIA to the euro short-term rate (€STR). View Article

European Parliament: How has the macro-economic imbalances procedure worked in practice to improve the resilience of the euro area? : This paper shows how the macroeconomic imbalances procedure (MIP) could be streamlined and its underlying conceptual framework clarified. Implementation of the country-specific recommendations is low; their internal consistency is sometimes missing; despite past reforms, the MIP remains largely a country-by-country approach running the risk of aggravating the deflationary bias in the euro area. View Article

BIS: Bank boards - a review of post-crisis regulatory approaches : This paper surveys 19 jurisdictions and reviews their post-crisis F&P assessment criteria for bank directors, and the related guidance on board composition and structure. View Article

EPC: The EPC launches the public consultation on the 2020 change requests for the SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit scheme rulebook : The public consultation documents detail the change requests from stakeholder representatives, banking communities and EPC working and support groups and include the recommendation from the EPC working group in charge of change-management cycles for each change request.  View Article

Capital Markets Union

EFAMA reply to ESMA CP on review report of MiFIR transparency regime for equity, ETFs and other related instruments : European Fund and Asset Management Association replies to ESMA’s consultation paper on MiFID II/ MiFIR review report on the transparency regime for equity and equity-like instruments, the DVC and the trading obligations for shares. View Article

ISDA - EMIR Refit: FCs Reporting on behalf of both itself and NFC- clients: Operational considerations : This document captures some of these operational considerations and potential steps FCs and NFCs may need to take (as identified by the ISDA Data and Reporting EMEA Working Group) in order to adhere to this EMIR Refit requirement. View Article

ESMA requires net short position holders to report positions of 0.1% and above : ESMA issued a decision temporarily requiring the holders of net short positions in shares traded on EU regulated market to notify the relevant NCA if the position reaches or exceeds 0.1% of the issued share capital after the entry into force of the decision. View Article

ICMA together with ISLA writes to ESMA to request a delay to the implementation of reporting under SFTR : ICMA and ISLA have sent a joint letter to ESMA to ask for a delay to the SFTR reporting go-live date, due on 11 April 2020. View Article

CFA Institute: Declining listings in the public markets and implications for retirement savers : With listings in public markets waning and private markets becoming bigger and more critical to economic activity, CFA Institute has released its second report in a series exploring the evolving role of public and private equity markets. View Article

IASB decides on new effective date for IFRS 17 of 1 January 2023 : The IASB has completed its discussions on the amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts that were proposed for public consultation in June 2019. It has decided that the effective date of the Standard will be deferred to annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023.  View Article

EIOPA statement on actions to mitigate the impact of Coronavirus/COVID-19 on the EU insurance sector : It is increasingly clear that the outbreak is having significant consequences for the global economy, including financial services. Insurers are likely to face progressively difficult conditions in the immediate future, both in terms of navigating challenging market conditions and in maintaining operations, while taking steps to protect employees and customers. View Article

Insurance Europe: EIOPA ICT security&governance guidelines should be principle-based, aligned with wider EU financial services initiative : Insurance Europe has published its response to a consultation by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) on its draft guidelines on information and communication technology (ICT) security and governance.  View Article

Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)

European Commission: New Circular Economy Action Plan : The Commission adopted a new Circular Economy Action Plan - one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal. The new Action Plan aims to make the economy fit for a green future, strengthen competitiveness while protecting the environment and give new rights to consumers. View Article

FRC guidance for auditors arising from the coronavirus pandemic : Uncertainty about the immediate outlook for many companies has increased sharply. This has consequences for companies proposing to report results in the coming months, and for their auditors.  View Article

IAASB consults on extended external reporting assurance : In response to organizations that are increasingly reporting about their broader performance or impact either voluntarily or as required by law or regulation, and to a growing demand for assurance engagements on such reporting, the IAASB has developed for feedback its non-authoritative EER Guidance. View Article

Chartered Governance Institute and IIRC release guide to integrated reporting : The Chartered Governance Institute and the IIRC have released an essential practitioner’s guide to integrated reporting for Chartered Secretaries and Chartered Governance Professionals. View Article

ECA looks into the EU’s fight against disinformation : The ECA has launched an audit to examine the Union’s efforts to fight the spread of verifiably false or misleading information for the purposes of economic gain or intentionally deceiving the public, which may cause public harm. View Article

Fin Tech Regulation

The AMF publishes an in-depth legal analysis of the application of financial regulations to security tokens : The Autorité des Marchés Financiers has examined the legal obstacles to the development of security tokens. View Article

Friends' Standard Services

Reflections on the Great Financial Panic – are there parallels we can learn from? : Graham Bishop's sobering analysis of the latest financial developments and how the situation is likely to evolve. View Article

51st Brussels for Brunch webinar - March 2020 : Video of the 51st Brussels 4 Brunch. View Article

Economic Policies Impacting EU Finance

 

Christine Lagarde - La Tribune

 

ECB announces €750 billion Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) : The Governing Council decided to launch a new temporary asset purchase programme of private and public sector securities of €750 billion to counter the serious risks for the euro area posed by the outbreak and escalating diffusion of the coronavirus, COVID-19, among other important measures. View Article

COVID-19: Commission sets out European coordinated response to counter the economic impact of the Coronavirus : The Commission presented an immediate response to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, centred on a European coordinated response. View Article

Council of the EU: Statement on COVID-19 economic policy response : Council of the EU and European Council will make use of all instruments necessary to limit the socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. They have therefore put together a first set of national and European measures while setting a framework for further actions to respond to developments and to support the economic recovery. View Article

Main results - Eurogroup : The Eurogroup held an in-depth discussion, together with non-euro area members, and adopted a statement on how to respond to the extraordinary human and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus. View Article

UNCTAD: The coronavirus shock: a story of another global crisis foretold and what policymakers should be doing about it : The so-called “Covid-19” shock will trigger a recession in some countries and a deceleration of global annual growth to below 2.5%. The resulting hit to global income will be around the trillion-dollar mark; the bigger question is could it be worse? View Article

Financial Times: Eurozone stability is under threat again : Without a co-ordinated response, national stimulus policies will end up increasing imbalances, warns Wolfgang Münchau. View Article

Financial Times: Italy’s struggle with coronavirus threatens all of the eurozone : Emergency measures are essential but carry risks for the multitude of small, family-run businesses, writes Tony Barber. View Article

Paul Goldschmidt: Covid19: Globalization in question? : The “Coronavirus” - unlike the “Subprime” in 2008 - is the trigger of a much wider crisis!, warns Goldschmidt. View Article

Jacques Delors Centre: Corona: A European safety net for the fiscal response : Europe is at the cusp of an unprecedented economic situation: a standstill of many if not most European economies, potentially for a long period of time. In order to avoid permanent scars from the economic impact of the Coronavirus in Europe, a determined fiscal response will be necessary. View Article

Bruegel: An effective economic response to the Coronavirus in Europe : 'Whatever it takes' needs to be the motto to preserve lives and reduce the impact on the economy of the epidemic, write Maria Demertzis, André Sapir, Simone Tagliapietra and Guntram B. Wolff. View Article

Basic Enconomic Indicators

Annual inflation down to 1.2% in the euro area : The euro area annual inflation rate was 1.2% in February 2020, down from 1.4% in January. A year earlier, the rate was 1.5%. European Union annual inflation was 1.6% in February 2020, down from 1.7% in January. View Article

Euro area international trade in goods surplus €1.3 bn : The first estimate for euro area (EA19) exports of goods to the rest of the world in January 2020 was €184.0 billion, an increase of 0.2% compared with January 2019 (€183.7 bn). I View Article

 

Graham Bishop retweeted
	Bloomberg @business
Boris Johnson dismissed calls to postpone Brexit, even as the coronavirus crisis delays trade talks and gradually monopolizes government time and resources trib.al/X6kryK9
Graham Bishop retweeted
	Bloomberg Brexit @Brexit
The ECB launches an emergency bond-buying program worth 750 billion euros in the latest attempt to calm coronavirus-hit markets trib.al/1FrRgyu
Graham Bishop retweeted
	FT Brussels @ftbrussels
Brexit transition deadline in doubt as talks called off on.ft.com/3a24zm8
Graham Bishop retweeted
	Bloomberg @business
Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called on European Union nations to issue “coronavirus bonds” to fund their response trib.al/w0MzvXs
	Graham Bishop @GrahamBishopcom
Looking at the market reactions to the weekend central bank moves, one can only be deeply disturbed... I've analysed the latest data from markets & looked into other #financialpanic crisis to see if there are parallels we can learn from #coronavirusimpact ow.ly/5Tju50yNIsz
	Graham Bishop @GrahamBishopcom
Read Graham Bishop's sobering analysis of the latest financial developments linked to coronavirus pandemic and how the situation is likely to evolve (Free article) #coronavirusimpact #financialpanic ow.ly/1KeZ50yNIkb pic.twitter.com/WXfgrbEJxW
Graham Bishop retweeted
	City A.M. @CityAM
EU rejects UK’s call for quick agreement on financial services equivalence dlvr.it/RRz4s1 pic.twitter.com/AlZVyPdk9l
Graham Bishop retweeted
	FT Brussels @ftbrussels
EU launches pandemic fiscal firefight on.ft.com/2U88sPU
Graham Bishop retweeted
	Steve Peers @StevePeers
Now online (apparently leaked) - full text of the EU proposal for the draft future relationship treaty with the UK: drive.google.com/file/d/1_Q7mEE…
Graham Bishop retweeted
	Bloomberg @business
BREAKING: EU ready to trigger crisis clause allowing fiscal stimulus trib.al/npR7169 pic.twitter.com/YYou1jXpeb