Graham Bishop.com

This week in "Brussels"

02 December 2021

Welcome to our Gold Friends weekly e-mail.

Highlights of my week: First fruits of the new German Government? France sees possible deal on fiscal rules. The Commission’s CMU package has been welcomed e.g. by EFAMA as “tweaking a successful framework”. CPMI and IOSCO launched a consultation on central clearing and portability (could this hold any pointers for moving € clearing into the EU?) The Commission’s plans for a Single Access Point for company information may ease investor’s problem of accessing disparate sustainability data. The BDB highlighted the risks to consumers of only allowing fee-based advice and SUERF’s Roldan pointed out the possible perverse results of an excess of consumer power.

Graham Bishop

Articles from 26 November - 2 December

General Financial Policy

EURACTIV: France sees chance of compromise with Germany on EU fiscal rules : I am convinced that we will be able to find an agreement on the necessary reform of the Stability and Growth Pact that guarantees euro zone stability and allows more and greener growth," said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire View Article

ESMA continues to see risk of market corrections amid elevated valuations : The past few months have seen the macroeconomic outlook brightening, and there is realistic scope for a reduction in risk levels if improvements in financial markets prove resilient in the medium-term. View Article

Insurance Europe: More than a third of people not saving for retirement, according to second Pan-European Pension Survey : It is vital to further raise awareness of the need to save for retirement and to improve levels of financial literacy so that individuals can make the most appropriate decisions for their own circumstances. View Article

SUERF's Roldan: Caveat Emptor : The new equilibrium will entail lower volumes of products, less diversity of products being offered, and a higher price and lower volume of financial services being offered to clients with a less sophisticated financial education: rules to protect the weakest segment of the consumer pool may end up damaging them. View Article

Banking Union

MEPs welcome long-awaited proposals on anti-money laundering : In a hearing on Wednesday, MEPs argued that the EU’s upcoming anti-money laundering (AML) package is necessary, while raising questions about its details. View Article

ALFI ISSUES AN OPINION PAPER ON THE EC’S AML PACKAGE : However it underlines that some provisions could have an adverse impact on the efficiency of the anti-money laundering measures in the fund industry. View Article

SRB publishes solvent wind-down guidance : The SRB publishes today guidance on solvent wind-down of derivatives and trading books in resolution, in line with its Expectations for Banks document, published in April 2020. View Article

SRB Chair, Elke König's speech at the ECON Committee : First to the work of the SRB next year – we want to continue to strengthen resolvability of Europe’s major banking groups, but which areas do we intend to focus on? View Article

SSM's Hakkarainen:Reaping the benefits of supervisory technologies : 12 months on from our first Supervision innovators conference seems like a good moment to take stock of what we have achieved, where things stand today, and where we are going next. View Article

Capital Markets Union

Capital Markets Union: Commission proposes new measures to boost Europe's capital markets : Overall, today's proposals will better connect EU companies with investors, improving companies' access to funding, broadening investment opportunities for retail investors, and further integrating EU capital markets. View Article

MEPs assessed the Commission’s plans to boost capital markets in the EU : The Economic and Monetary Committee urged Commissioner McGuinness to push EU countries to complete the Capital Markets Union and the Banking Union. View Article

ICMA publishes preliminary thoughts on EC's CMU package : The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) welcomes the concrete steps that have been taken towards enhancing Europe’s capital markets in the European Commission’s recent Capital Markets Union Package. ICMA outlined its preliminary thoughts on the Package in a publication today. View Article

EBF: CMU - How to foster investors’ participation in EU Capital Markets in a changing environment? : While fostering investors’ participation in financial markets is one of the priorities of the Capital Markets Union, the emergence of new risks requires adjusted rules. Financial education remains key if we want to bring more investors to financial markets in a safe manner. View Article

Invest Europe welcomes the new CMU package, including proposals reviewing the AIFMD and ELTIF : The limited scope of the review is a clear confirmation that the current regulatory structure, which has withstood many crises since its inception, is to a very large extent appropriate. View Article

EFAMA: AIFMD review - how to tweak a successful framework : EFAMA welcomes the European Commission’s review of the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive (AIFMD), setting out targeted improvements to key provisions in the current framework. View Article

Irish Funds Welcomes Commission’s Targeted Approach to AIFMD Review : EU-based investors have €1 trillion of investments in Irish domiciled funds; Irish domiciled funds have €1 trillion invested into assets across the EU; Figures from the Central Bank of Ireland show that today there is €3.5 trillion invested in Irish domiciled funds – an all-time high. View Article

EFAMA: The revised ELTIF – a long-term opportunity for European investors : EFAMA firmly supports the European Commission’s proposal to revise the European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) Regulation. View Article

ALFI: AIFMD AND ELTIF REVIEW: EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S RECOMMENDATIONS : Exchanges with other associations, authorities and regulators will also help to get a clear view on the specific implications of the draft directives and regulation, as well as subsequent compromise proposals and proposed amendments. View Article

EFAMA welcomes proposal on affordable consolidated tape - The association continues to urge action on market data costs : Representing the asset management industry, EFAMA has long called for the establishment of an affordable real-time consolidated tape to support best execution and liquidity risk management in highly fragmented capital markets.? View Article

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published today its advice to the European Commission on two pensions too : The advice is an important step towards raising citizens’ awareness of their future retirement income, enhancing the monitoring of national pension systems and ultimately a way forward in closing pension gaps. View Article

EIOPA publishes its Methodological Framework for Stress-Testing IORPs : The rules and guidance provided shall help to make the planning and administration of IORP stress test exercises more efficient, while providing for sufficient room to tailor the analytical tools to the specific objectives of the exercise at hand. View Article

AFME: The importance of private securitisation markets to the real economy & demonstrates high standards of disclosure by marke : The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the European DataWarehouse (EDW) and True Sale International (TSI) have today published the first in a series of regular reports on the private cash securitisation market in the EU and UK. View Article

CPMI IOSCO: Call for comments on access to central clearing and portability : The report considers the potential benefits and challenges of new access models developed by CCPs and discusses good practices to facilitate porting of client positions. CPMI and IOSCO seek industry input on potential issues for follow-up work. View Article

EIOPA sets out a framework for delivering better value for money in a consumer-centric way : EIOPA considers that reliably putting consumer outcomes at the heart of product design, distribution and monitoring processes is critical for tackling value for money issues. View Article

Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)

European Commission: Delay in regulatory technical standards under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation 2019/2088 : Due to the length and technical detail of those 13 regulatory technical standards ...and to facilitate the smooth implementation of the delegated act by product manufacturers, financial advisers and supervisors, we would defer the date of application of the delegated act to 1 January 2023 View Article

EFAMA: The European Single Access Point: a powerful tool for investors to assess the ESG performance of companies : EFAMA sees the European Commission’s proposal for the creation of a European Single Access Point (ESAP) as a crucial step in addressing the limited availability and scattered nature of financial and sustainability-related entity information at EU level. View Article

ISDA: Legal Implications of Voluntary Carbon Credits : The transition to a low carbon economy is estimated to require significant funding globally. The voluntary carbon market continues to play a critical role in that transition by helping to channel funding into projects that reduce carbon emissions or remove carbon from the atmosphere. View Article

ACCA: Robust and resilient public financial management essential to manage present and future risks : The report sought views of 1,500 ACCA members and affiliates globally, asking them how they felt governments responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and how PFM must now evolve to deal with future crises. View Article

IFAC: Mainstreaming Sustainability a Priority for Professional Accountants in Business : By sharing our learnings as a profession, we can continue to elevate our focus and actions on higher value activities to support and empower professional accountants to take on more strategic roles.” View Article

EFRAG and GRI to co-construct biodiversity standard : Project marks a next step in aligning global and European sustainability standards View Article

Finance Watch: Capital requirements: a “silver bullet” against the looming climate-induced financial crises : The world’s leading regulators, supervisors and researchers have long recognised the link between climate change and financial stability. Financial institutions contribute to accelerating climate change by financing greenhouse gas emitting activities. View Article

Protecting Customers

BDB: KPMG study shows: Commission ban would exclude broad sections of the population from investment advice : Commission-based advice ensures that all sections of the population have access to qualified investment advice and can participate in the capital markets. View Article

Commission welcomes political agreement to boost data sharing and support European data spaces : The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached today between the European Parliament and EU Member States on a European Data Governance Act. Trilogue negotiations have now concluded, paving the way for final approval of the legal text by the European Parliament and the Council. View Article

Fin Tech Regulation

EBF contribution to the ongoing debate on a Central Bank Digital Euro #3: How does a digital euro fit the payments landscape? : The digital euro project investigation phase is set to define what a digital euro could actually be and the purposes and use cases it could fulfill. However, it is already clear that a digital euro would impact the European payments landscape. View Article

Project Syndicate: Digital Finance Without Cryptocurrencies : Digital payments and financial transactions hold the promise of greater convenience, stronger competition, and increased savings to society. But when it comes to digital currencies, central banks – and not free-floating cryptocurrencies or stablecoins – should lead the way. View Article

Economic Policies Impacting EU Finance

Commissioner Gentiloni at the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Tax Matters : First, making the recent global achievements on tax fairness operational; Second, continuing our fight for tax fairness, with a number of proposals; Now we need to see a swift adoption of our proposals for a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and a revised Energy Taxation Directive View Article

Brexit

CER insight 'The cost of Brexit: September 2021' by John Springford : In September 2021, UK goods trade was 11.2 per cent, or £8.5 billion, lower than it would have been if the UK had stayed in the EU’s single market and customs union. View Article

Best for Britain: Opposition cooperation in a minority of seats can remove Tories from power : New constituency-level analysis of polling across England reveals cooperation between opposition parties in a minority of English constituencies would be enough to remove the Conservatives from government at the next election. View Article

City AM: US to push back on trade deal with UK over Brexit concerns : Biden’s administration is planning on delaying its deal to remove tariffs on UK metals left over by the Trump administration, due to concerns about potential post-Brexit trade rules affecting Northern Ireland. View Article

Follow us on

About this email