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My highlights of the week: Commission President von der Leyen delivered her first State of the Union message – re-iterating her call for completion of banking union and capital markets union (listing some key legislative steps) and promoting the international role of the euro.
In recent months, the Green community has produced many sets of standards - and advice to corporates on how to apply them. Now, key bodies (CDP/GRI/CDSB/SASB/IIRC) have announced a shared vision of what is needed for progress towards comprehensive corporate reporting. Moreover, the ECB has just joined the Steering Committee of the Network for Greening the Financial System. It feels as though “sustainable investing” is really joining up the dots … with the EU leading the way.
Graham Bishop
(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 10-17 September 2020
General Financial Policy
Key takeaways from State of Union speech
State of the Union: Commission President von der Leyen "Charting the course for the year ahead" - key extracts: In her State of the Union address on 16 September 2020, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen presented her vision for a Europe that emerges stronger from the pandemic and leads the way towards a new vitality.
Bruegel:Financing the European Union: New Context, New Responses : Various ideas have been floated – including a digital tax and a financial transactions tax – but the most appropriate new resource would be revenues from the EU emissions trading system, which could provide enough funding to repay the EU's coronavirus borrowing.
Informal Ecofin: Remarks by Commissoner Dombrovskis : The key word for the next years is IMPLEMENTATION...Recovery and Resilience Facility, This is also the moment to complete the Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union.
OECD: More can be done to ensure a green recovery from COVID-19 crisis : Many countries are making “green” recovery measures a central part of stimulus packages to drive sustainable, inclusive, resilient economic growth and improve well-being in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. However some countries are also implementing measures that risk having a negative impact ...
SUERF: After Coronavirus: Deflation or Inflation? Goodhart : There is great uncertainty about the future path of inflation, once the recovery occurs. Before discussing the main alternative viewpoints, it may be helpful to remind oneself that the last 70 years have been extraordinary in comparison to previous centuries.
Banking Union
Bloomberg: The EU Needs Banks to Merge Across Borders : It would not only be a show of unity, but an essential step to boost financial stability across Europe.
Capital Markets Union
EBF: EBF fully supports the EU Commission proposal to amend MiFID II delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 aiming at easing the funding of investment research, in particular on small and mid-cap issuers and on fixed income instruments.
ICMA AMIC responds to EC consultation on investment research : AMIC submitted its response to the EC consultation on investment research. The response explains that partially reviewing unbundling rules will not contribute to reviving SME research to a meaningful extent as a majority of members would practically not be able to make use of the EC's options.
Bloomberg: EU Set to Give Banks 18 Months of Access to U.K. Clearing Giants : Access until June 2022 removes pressing concern for industry; European traders to have access to derivatives clearinghouses
CRE: CII calls for action to avoid future coverage disputes : The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has called on the UK government and insurance industry to take action to avoid future legal disputes. The move came as the High Court delivered its judgment in a test case aimed at resolving coverage disputes related to Covid-19 business interruption losses.
EFAMA calls for the use of KPIs to monitor national progress in household participation in capital markets : This precedes the European Commission's forthcoming new Action Plan on the Capital Markets Union (CMU). It includes ten concrete policy recommendations to help advance the CMU...the introduction of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to monitor progress in household participation in capital markets.
Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)
CDP/GRI/CDSB/SASB/IIRC announce a shared vision of what is needed for progress towards comprehensive corporate reporting : Transparent measurement and disclosure of sustainability performance is now considered to be a fundamental part of effective business management, and essential for preserving trust in business as a force for good.
Network for Greening the Financial System publishes its 2020-2022 work program and announces changes in the governance to include ECB : This new charter will provide the NGFS with solid governance for the years to come. An important result of this review is the extension of the Steering Committee, the executive body of the NGFS, to include the European Central Bank.
Protecting Customers
Insurance Europe: Intra-EU investment: Insurers support improved investment protection and facilitation : Insurance Europe has today published its high-level views in response to a consultation by the European Commission on an intra-EU investment protection and facilitation initiative.
Better Finance: WIRECARD – next steps for the abused investors : After publishing a series of Q&As for duped individual investors and pension savers in light of the outrageous Wirecard AG scandal, BETTER FINANCE's German member organisation, DSW, the leading German shareholder association, issued a press release to inform abused investors about the next steps.
Fin Tech Regulation
AFME: European Capital Markets in the Digital Age : AFME outlines the regulatory framework needed to support banks as they adopt new technologies such as crypto-assets, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, harness the value from data, and address the challenges of cybersecurity and operational resilience.
EBF response: European Commission consultation on Digital Services Act (DSA) : The European Banking Federation has responded to the European Commission’s (EC) consultation on the Digital Services Act, we would like to present the respective key messages prior to the publication of the EC legislative proposal on the Digital Services Act.
EURACTIV: Big euro economies push for strong cryptocurrency rules : The finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain called on the European Commission to include “strong rules” in its upcoming cryptocurrency proposal, in particular for global digital tokens like Facebook’s Libra.
SUERF: Inclusive payments for the post-pandemic world : The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital payments. In some cases, it may be undermining the acceptance and availability of cash. If this trend persists, it carries risks that unbanked and underbanked people will be left – further – behind.
European Payments Council: EPI: towards a new European payment solution? : Some European banks announced the launch of the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to create a unified payment solution for consumers and merchants across Europe. It has the ambition of leveraging the Instant Credit Transfer - the new pan-European standard of payments.
Brexit
Statement of the UK Coordination Group and the leaders of the political groups of the EP : EP political group leaders and UKCG members are deeply concerned and disappointed that the UK Government published an Internal Market Bill that clearly represents a serious and unacceptable breach of international law.
Bloomberg: Biden Warns of Brexit Impact on Chances of U.K.-U.S. Trade Deal : Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement depends on the continued respect for the Northern Ireland peace process, a warning to Boris Johnson as he moves to break international law over Brexit and the province.
FT: Japan trade deal commits UK to stricter state aid curbs than in EU talks : The UK’s new trade deal with Japan commits it to tougher restrictions on state aid than the ones it is currently offering the EU in the Brexit talks, potentially undermining its negotiating position with Brussels.
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