(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 16 - 22 September 2022
Policy impacting Finance
Statement by President Charles Michel upon the passing of Queen Elizabeth II : For many, she was an anchor of stability in a rapidly changing world. She was once called “Elizabeth the Steadfast”. She was indeed a wise leader who never failed to show us the importance of lasting values in this modern world – values like service, commitment, and tradition.
CER's Scazzieri: What Giorgia Meloni would mean for Europe : A government led by Giorgia Meloni would lead to some turbulence between Rome and Brussels – particularly on migration and economic policy. But Italy’s EU and foreign policies – including towards Russia – are unlikely to change much.
EURACTIV: Meloni: ‘My party does not have an anti-European wing’ : Far right-Italian politician Giorgia Meloni, favourite to become Italy’s first female prime minister after the September 25 elections, told EURACTiV’s partner EFE that her party is not anti-EU but instead just wants it to be more efficient. She also hoped for a similar right-wing trajectory in the Spanish 2023 elections.
Hugo Dixon: How Italy could tip into a tailspin : Next month it will be 100 years since Benito Mussolini launched his fascist coup in Italy when his supporters marched on Rome. Later this month the country is almost certain to elect Giorgia Meloni, a former post-fascist and eurosceptic, as its new prime minister. So far, investors haven’t blinked.
Banking Union
Opening speech by Commissioner McGuinness at European Court of Auditors high-level seminar, 'New EU AML-CTF supervision model: expectations : But fundamentally, when we talk about money laundering, we're talking about trust and integrity – or indeed the attack on trust and integrity in our financial system... And as citizens we should be able to trust the financial system...Dirty money destroys trust and corrupts the system.
SRB holds its seventh annual conference – European banks: resolvable and ready for crisis? : The Single Resolution Board (SRB) brings together industry, EU policymakers, key stakeholders and academia to discuss whether European banks are resolvable and ready for crisis, given these uncertain economic times.
Capital Markets Union
SSM's McCaul: Supervising leveraged lending : Speech by Elizabeth McCaul, Member of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at AFME’s 17th Annual European Leveraged Finance Conference
AFME: Strengthening the competitiveness of European financial markets : “ Major legislative proposals are under consideration that may have far-reaching impacts on Europe’s financial system”
AFME: T+1 Settlement in Europe: Potential Benefits and Challenges : The purpose of this paper is to provide some initial reflections on two major questions: should Europe (by which we mean the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland) also move to T+1? And if so, how can this be achieved?
Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)
ESMA: Sustainable Finance - implementation timeline : For SFDR/TR/CSRD/MiFID/IDD/UCITS/AIFMD
UNEP FI: Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance Progress Report demonstrates advance on decarbonisation targets : The UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance launches its second-ever Progress Report, showing significant membership growth matched by credible intermediate decarbonisation targets. On the Alliance’s third anniversary, the membership stands at six times what it was during its formation in 2019. View Article
ECB: How are we aiming to decarbonise our corporate bond holdings? : .. we are taking action: we will decarbonise our corporate bond holdings with the aim of putting them on a path aligned with the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement... we will look at how the companies that issue bonds – known as “issuers” – are working to mitigate their climate impact.
IPE's Serenelli:Environmental groups launch legal action against EU taxonomy : A group of organisations campaigning to protect the environment is legally challenging the EU taxonomy labelling gas as a sustainable economic activity, threatening to bring the European Commission to court.
ECGI's Pollman: The Making and Meaning of ESG : ESG is one of the most notable trends in corporate governance, management, and investment of the past two decades. It is at the center of the largest and most contentious debates in contemporary corporate and securities law. Yet few observers know where the term comes from, who coined it, and what it was originally aimed to mean and achieve.
FERMA: Insuring the transition – more support needed from insurers : The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) today calls on the (re)insurance industry to do more to support its corporate clients in making the transition to carbon neutrality.
EBF et al: Joint letter calling for safeguarding the proper functioning of the EU ETS : The European Banking Federation (EBF) co-signed a joint industry letter to the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, and the European Parliament, calling for the proper functioning of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) to be safeguarded.
Fin Tech Regulation
Finextra: ECB taps CaixaBank and Amazon for digital euro prototypes : The ECB received 54 expressions of interest after it put out a call for partners in April and has now settled on the Spanish lender and US tech giant, alongside Worldline, Nexi and EPI.
State of the Union: New EU cybersecurity rules ensure more secure hardware and software products : The Commission has presented a proposal for a new Cyber Resilience Act to protect consumers and businesses from products with inadequate security features. A first ever EU-wide legislation of its kind, it introduces mandatory cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, throughout their whole lifecycle.
Bloomberg: Crypto Shakeout Engulfs the C-Suite as CEOs Start Stepping Down : Kraken CEO joins peers at Genesis, Alameda in stepping down, Crypto faces regulatory scrutiny after a series of meltdowns
Brexit and the City
City AM: London breezes past European rivals to retain finance hub crown : London has breezed past its Continental rivals to retain the title of Europe’s top financial hub... The capital’s deep highly-skilled talent pool helped drive it to the top of the European rankings in the 32nd edition of Z/Yen’s global financial centres index (GFCI).
NIESR's Marsh: Six Lessons from Black Wednesday for Today’s Central Bankers : Britain’s forced departure from the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System 30 years ago was a landmark in UK and European economic history. The saga of monetary misfortune that culminated on 16 September 1992 contains significant lessons for contemporary policy-makers.
Brexit
FT: Liz Truss looks to settle NI protocol dispute by anniversary of Good Friday deal : After Biden talks in New York, UK and US both voice need to defend progress over 25 years of peace accord.
