EBF MORNING BRIEF Wednesday 16 September 2020 Good morning. Here are 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 The Banker: European banks grapple with digital transformation Covid-19 has accelerated retail and business banking customers’ adoption of digital financial services, driving banks to speed up their transformation programmes across their geographical footprint in Europe, writes The Banker magazine. Read more The Economist: Many European countries still have too many banks European banks have a 6.7% return on capital on average, the lowest of any region, according to the Banker, a trade publication. American banks average 14.4%. Greater scale would also help them make the big investments in technology platforms and data analysis required to keep up with digitisation, The Economist reports. Read more Sifted: Klarna becomes Europe’s most valuable fintech at $11bln Swedish startup Klarna has raised a fresh funding round of $650m at a post-money valuation of $10.65bn, making it by far the most valuable fintech in Europe according to Sifted, a FT new-media website for entrepreneurs.The buy-now-pay-later company, which is making a big push into the US market ahead of a probable IPO, was last valued a $5.5bn in August 2019. Read more EFC: European banks contemplate massive job cuts As banks with existing layoff plans put them back into action, new banks are starting to eye the possibility of making substantial cuts of their own, writes eFinancialCareers. The Europeans are at the front of the queue. Deutsche Bank and HSBC are already cutting around 20% and 15% of their staff in total. Now the Swiss banks and Commerzbank are contemplating doing the same. Read more |
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MAIN EVENTS today SOTEU: Presentation of the State of the European Union by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen Live streaming EBF Data Economy High-Level Working Group online meeting |
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EBF High-Level Public Dialogue EUROPEAN BANKING BEYOND THE PANDEMIC Thursday 1 October, 15:00 CET / ONLINE | As the pandemic hit the economy, businesses and households across the EU benefited from a resilient European banking ecosystem. A ‘new normal’ in European banking is taking shape, this time with banks as part of the solution. Yet, the industry is encumbered with many of the pre-existing challenges: low returns, high cost of capital, negative interest rates, the prospect of even tighter capital requirements and a fragmented EU financial services market keep Europe’s banking sector from being an attractive place for global investors and from competing globally with big-tech challengers. How does the ‘new normal’ differ from the ‘old normal’? The EBF High-Level Public Dialogue seeks to outline how European banking will look like beyond the pandemic by bringing together leading industry representatives with top supervisors and regulators. For more information and registration click HERE |
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FROM THE EBF MEMBERS HUB: Banks in Croatia maintain lending activity despite the pandemic According to the Croatian Banking Association (HUB) Review 3/2020, after the beginning of the crisis in March 2020, banks maintained lending activity at approximately pre-crisis level, and in some market segments, such as housing loans to households, credit growth accelerated. Read more (HR) ABI Monthly Report - September 2020 In August, loans to households and non-financial corporations were up by +3.9% (the increase was 1.6% in May) reports the ABI (Italian Banking Association) Monthly Report - September 2020. This result is derived from estimates based on data published by the Bank of Italy relating to loans to households and non-financial corporations. Read more (IT) Bankenverband: Hans-Walter Peters interview with Handelsblatt In an interview with the Handelsblatt, the president of the German Banking Association (Bankenverband), Hans-Walter Peters emphasised the role of banks in coping with the economic consequences of the Corona crisis. He believes that the industry is well prepared for possible company insolvencies: "The banks are very robustly positioned with much higher capital ratios than a decade ago. Read more (DE) NVB: Government and banks work closely to strengthen the economy Government and banks are working closely together to help businesses and consumers through the corona crisis in the best possible way. It is a good thing that the government is continuing the support measures and applying its own budgetary rules flexibly on a temporary basis. In addition, the Dutch Banking Association (NVB) is supporting the commitment in next year's budget to additional investments to strengthen the economy. Read more (NL) |
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FROM THE INSTITUTIONS ECB's Panetta speech: Healing after the pandemic Europe has successfully responded to a major challenge but is not out of the woods yet, says Executive Board member Fabio Panetta at The Economist’s Roundtable with the Government of Greece. We must be vigilant and carefully assess incoming information including exchange rate developments. Read more EFRAG's endorsement advice on interest rate benchmark reform The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has submitted its Endorsement Advice Letter to the European Commission in regard to IASB Amendments to the Interest Rate Benchmark Reform Phase 2. The amendments refer to IFRS 9, IAS 39, IFRS 7, IFRS 4 and IFRS 16. ERFAG have assessed that the amendments meet all the technical endorsement criteria. It, therefore, recommends endorsement. The Amendments become effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2021. Read more BIS Quarterly Review, September 2020 The September BIS Quarterly Review looks at the financial market's recovery from March's acute stress, noting that the upturn has been uneven and corporate balance sheets remain fragile. It also analyses how lower interest rates affect stock prices and explores why equity investors have been negative towards banks even though they entered the pandemic well positioned to absorb losses thanks to post-2008 regulatory reforms. Read more |
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FROM THE EUROPEAN BANKING FEDERATION Recovery package: EBF response to EC consultation on research The European Banking Federation has responded to the European Commission consultation on Research amending delegated directive (EU) 2017/593. Read more AI inception impact assessment consultation: EBF response The European Banking Federation (EBF) submitted its response on the European Commission’s Consultation on its Inception Impact Assessment (IIA) on a Proposal for a legal act of the European Parliament and the Council laying down requirements for Artificial Intelligence (AI). 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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