EBF WEEKLY + FINANCIAL REGULATION AGENDA for the week starting Monday 8 April 2024 An overview of the main financial regulation and banking stories this week and a look ahead to key events for the upcoming week, 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: ECB officials saw case for rate cut strengthening in March European Central Bank (ECB) officials saw enough evidence last month to conclude that the time for interest-rate cuts has almost arrived, an account of their latest policy meeting showed. Policymakers convening in Frankfurt said inflation was making “encouraging” progress toward their 2% target — though they weren’t yet ready to sound the all clear, according to the account of the March 6-7 gathering, published Thursday. Read more Finextra: Central banks explore tokenisation of cross-border payments A collection of seven central banks are working with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to explore tokenisation of cross-border payments. The central banks plan to join forces with the private sector for Project Agorá, exploring how tokenisation of wholesale central bank money and commercial bank deposits on programmable platforms can improve the monetary system. Read more S&P Global Market Intelligence: Italian, Spanish and Turkish banks among best share performers in Q1 2024 Several Italian, Spanish and Turkish banks were among the best-performing European bank stocks in the first quarter, S&P Global Market Intelligence reports. Italy's UniCredit SpAbooked share price growth of 40.5% on the back of a record 2023 profit and has pledged bumper shareholder returns. Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, CaixaBank SAand Banco de Sabadell SAwere also among the best performers, recording share price returns ranging from 26.9% to 31%. Read more |
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FINANCIAL REGULATION AGENDA for next week Monday 8 April Council Working Party on the Environment European Parliament Committee on Budgets Tuesday 9 April Council Working Party on Tax Questions (Direct Taxation) Council Working Party on the Environment Wednesday 10 April Council Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues Council Working Party on the Environment Thursday 11 April Council Working Party on the Environment Friday 12 April |
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FROM EBF MEMBERS UK Finance: Neds and financial resilience: making you stronger As they’re not company employees, non-executive directors (NEDs) can be invaluable when evaluating decisions and engaging in planning, policymaking and other strategic tasks, notes UK Finance. Financial resilience is a core concern for any business, especially in volatile times. NEDs can make significant contributions to a company and improve its resilience thanks to their unique perspectives and individual skills. Read more CBA: Retail sales slowed to 1.6% in February Retail sales in February did not repeat January's positive surprise, when their year-on-year growth reached 1.6%, falling short of analysts' expectations of 2.3%, the Czech Banking Association (CBA) reports. The positive news, however, is that the January figures were revised further upwards from 2.4 to 3.2%. The mentioned values are adjusted for the effects of the number of working days, without this adjustment, real sales increased by a strong 6.1% year-on-year, which is largely due to the transition year. Read more (CZ) Finance Latvia: ESG survey for uniform data processing in the Baltics Finance Latvia, the baltic banking associations and financial service providers have developed a unified international environmental, social and governance (ESG) questionnaire, which will allow to standardize and simplify the process of collecting data on the sustainability indicators of companies in the Baltic States. Read more (LAT) |
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FROM THE INSTITUTIONS ECB: Euro area bank interest rate statistics: February 2024 The European Central Bank (ECB) published the Euro area bank interest rate statistics for February 2024. The findings show that the composite cost-of-borrowing indicator for new loans to corporations decreased to 5.12%, driven by interest rate effect. Read more EBA: EU banks are robust, but signs of credit quality deterioration are becoming apparent The European Banking Authority (EBA) published its Q4 2023 quarterly Risk Dashboard (RDB), which discloses aggregated statistical information for the largest EU/EEA institutions. EU/EEA’s banks capitalisation stands at record levels, liquidity has improved, while return on equity (RoE) stood at 10.3%. Yet, early signs of credit quality deterioration have become more apparent. The publication also includes information on minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). Read more ESMA: Outcome of first year of the DLT Pilot Regime The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a letter to the European Commission, the Parliament, and the Council (ECOFIN) providing an interim update on the DLT Pilot Regime. The letter provides an update on the status of applications received by national competent authorities (NCAs) to date, as well as a list of challenges and opportunities identified in the first year of application. Read more |
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FROM THE EBF New EBF Vacancies! Work with us! Visit our Vacancies page to learn more about the opening positions at the EBF. Read more |
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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 from across Europe. The federation 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. Website: www.ebf.eu |
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This newsletter is published by the EBF Mediacentre. For questions or suggestions contact v.barbieri@ebf.eu European Banking Federation Avenue des Arts 56, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium |
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