FROM THE MEDIA

FT: Why Europe’s banks want to end US dominance in payments

With politicians convinced that a European payments system is a question of sovereignty, some of the currency area’s largest lenders have teamed up to launch a new attack on their dominant US rivals. Key backers are optimistic that the idea, the European Payments Initiative, can succeed. While in 2011 “there was no political support at all”, Wolf Kunisch, Head of strategy at Paris-based payments processor Worldline, told the Financial Times (FT), now “the European Commission and the European Central Bank understand that to have European sovereignty you also need to have European payment systems in place”. Read more (€)

CNBC: European banks are in a much better position now than when the pandemic first hit, Goldman says

European banks are in better shape now than at the start of the pandemic for two reasons, a Goldman Sachs analyst told CNBC on Wednesday. “The non-performing loan ratios are down year-on-year, so compared to a year ago the portion of your book that is not performing has actually decreased,” Jernej Omahen, head of European Financial Institutions research at Goldman Sachs, said. Read more

VOX/CEPR: The disciplining effect of supervisory scrutiny in the EU-wide stress test

Since the financial crisis, stress tests have become an important supervisory and financial stability tool. Relying on confidential data from the European Central Bank (ECB), this column presents novel evidence that supervisory scrutiny associated with stress testing has a disciplining effect on bank risk. According to VOX/CEPR, banks that participated in the 2016 EU-wide stress test subsequently reduced their credit risk relative to banks that were not part of this exercise. This disciplining effect is stronger for banks subject to more intrusive supervisory scrutiny during the stress test. Read more

MAIN EVENTS

For a full-year overview of key financial regulation events: click here

EBF BLUEPRINT
 

EBF presents recommendations for a fairer
and more efficient EU tax framework

The improvement of the current EU Tax system will lead to increased legal certainty and the harmonized application of VAT rules across EU.

The EBF Tax blueprint sets out recommendations for a VAT system that is suited to the demands of the EU single market. Read more

FROM THE EBF MEMBERS

FROM THE INSTITUTIONS

European Commission: Taxonomy criteria

The European Commission has formally adopted the delegated regulation supplementing Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council by establishing the technical screening criteria for determining the conditions under which an economic activity qualifies as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation or climate change adaptation and for determining whether that economic activity causes no significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives. Read more

ECON: Report on the exchange of tax Information

The European Parliament’s Committee on the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) has published the consolidated report on the implementation of the EU requirements for exchange of tax information: progress, lessons learnt and obstacles to overcome. Read more
 

BIS: The state of the global economy

According to Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlement (BIS), the global economy has rebounded strongly after Covid-19, but the recovery is uneven and incomplete. 'Ensure that the recovery is built on a solid foundation of business investment and productivity growth, not just stimulus and consumption', he concludes his speech at the BNP Paribas 2021 Global Official Institutions Conference. Read more

ABOUT THE EUROPEAN BANKING FEDERATION
 

If you do not want to receive the EBF Morning Brief click here.

For questions or suggestions contact f.indaco@ebf.eu


European Banking Federation