EBF MORNING BRIEF Thursday 9 July 2020 Good morning. Here the top news stories and events in European banking, financial regulation and EU policy, brought to you by the European Banking Federation. Recommend the EBF newsletters to a colleague. Click here to sign up! |
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FROM THE MEDIA Bloomberg: Dutch Banks start joint company to fight dirty money The Dutch banks agreed to create a firm that will monitor their transactions jointly in a new initiative to spot financial crime that the individual lenders may miss, writes Bloomberg. The three largest banks in the Netherlands signed a pact on Wednesday to establish Transaction Monitoring Netherlands, according to the Dutch Banking Association. Read more Reuters Reuters: EU says it is assessing UK's financial market access Britain’s future access to the European Union financial market must take into account how far it will diverge from the bloc’s rules, a European Commission official said according to Reuters. Read more S&P Global: Challenges of a pan-European payments initiative A group of 16 European banks plan to launch a payments system that could rival Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. in the EU. Although a challenge to the hegemony of the two U.S. payments giants is long overdue, writes S&P Global. Read more Financial News: ECB fines against Crédit Agricole annulled by court Europe’s second highest court has annulled fines imposed by the European Central Bank on Crédit Agricole, reports Financial News. The fines were initially imposed due to having classified capital instruments as Common Equity Tier 1 (‘CET 1’) without first obtaining the approval of regulators. Read more |
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EBF MEMBERS IN THE NEWS UK: Is there a link between payment deferrals and mortgage lending? Could taking a mortgage payment deferral have an impact on a customer’s ability to borrow in the future? Jackie Bennett, UK Finance Senior adviser, discusses whether or not there is any link between credit files, payment deferrals and mortgage lending. Read more Spain: Digital and Sustainability accelerate banks' transformation The president of the AEB, José María Roldán, considers that "the greatest risk for banks in relation to climate change is to underestimate its importance and complexity". This is what he said during the webinar 'Flattening the climate risk curve', organized by IFC and Felaban. Read more (ES) Belgium: Banks to extend mortgage loan deferral until the end of 2020 Individuals and businesses that have applied for and obtained a deferral of payments for their mortgage or business loan until October 31, 2020 at the latest, may benefit from a further deferral until the end of this year Febelfin reports. All they need to do is still meet all the conditions at the time they apply for an extension. They must be able to demonstrate that they are still suffering financially from the consequences of the coronavirus crisis. Read more (FR) |
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Encouraging and rewarding sustainability The EBF report on accelerating sustainable finance in the banking sector At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25), EBF presented the Encouraging and rewarding sustainability report. The report outlines a number of concrete proposals to stimulate and contribute to the debate of the European institutions, regulators and banks on how to scale up sustainable activities, mobilise and redirect private financial flows to support such activities, develop new instruments and increase the number of eligible projects and help capital markets developments. |
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FROM THE INSTITUTIONS Parliament approves candidate for post of EU banking watchdog boss The plenary on Wednesday approved the nomination of François-Louis Michaud for the post of Executive Director of the European Banking Authority. Mr Michaud, whose candidacy had been put forward by the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) supervisory board, was approved by 343 votes to 296, with 56 abstentions. He was the second candidate put forward this year for the post after the first person proposed, Gerry Cross, was turned down by the House last January. Read more Angela Merkel presents German Presidency priorities to the Parliament MEPs discussed with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen the strategy and goals of the German Presidency in the coming six months. Under the motto “Together for Europe’s recovery”, the German presidency is determined to tackle the huge challenge posed by the pandemic, Mrs Merkel said. She highlighted five areas that Europe needs to work on if it wants to emerge unified and strong from the current crisis: fundamental rights, solidarity and cohesion, climate change, digitisation and Europe’s role in the world. Read more ECB: Guideline on definition of default for banks directly supervised The European Central Bank published a guideline on the definition of the so-called "materiality threshold" for banks that are directly supervised by national supervisors, following a public consultation. The materiality threshold refers to the point at which a bank decides a debtor is in default on its loan. The new definition specifies how national supervisors should exercise their discretion in this regard. Read more EC: Survey on cross-border opening and switching of bank accounts The European Commission is conducting a study on tools designed to facilitate switching and cross-border opening of payment accounts on the EU payment accounts market. In this context, the European Commission is interested in analysing the supply and demand for cross-border opening and switching of bank accounts across Europe. The survey is open until 19 July. Read more |
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The European Banking Federation and fTLD Registry Services (fTLD) are partnering to educate the European banking sector about the cybersecurity role .BANK plays in protecting banks against Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams, phishing and spoofing attacks that lead to breaches, identity theft and financial fraud. fTLD administers the .BANK domain and the EBF has served on its Advisory Council since 2013. To learn more about the security benefits of .BANK, visit https://www.register.bank/ebf/ or contact fTLD at EBF@fTLD.com. |
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ABOUT THE EUROPEAN BANKING FEDERATION The European Banking Federation is the voice of the European banking sector, bringing together national banking associations. The EBF is committed to a thriving European economy that is underpinned by a stable, secure and inclusive financial ecosystem, and to a flourishing society where financing is available to fund the dreams of citizens, businesses and innovators everywhere. |
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This newsletter is published by the EBF Mediacentre. For questions or suggestions contact mediacentre@ebf.eu Recommend the EBF newsletters to a colleague. Click here to sign up! European Banking Federation Avenue des Arts 56, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium |
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