EBF WEEKLY + FINANCIAL REGULATION AGENDA for the week starting Monday 19 April 2021 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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What to expect from next weekâs ECB monetary policy meeting? |
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The ECB meeting on Thursday next week will see President Christine Lagarde facing questions on the recent Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP). "The eurozone economy is still standing on the two crutches of monetary and fiscal stimulus and these cannot be taken away until it makes a full recovery," Lagarde said on Wednesday at a Reuters Newsmaker event. "You cannot remove either crutch, the fiscal or the monetary until the patient can actually walk fine, and to do that means support well into the recovery" continued the ECB President. The European Central Bank's monetary policy must remain accommodative in coming years but the combination of fiscal and monetary instruments should evolve. The battle about PEPPâs future appears to be set for September. Read more |
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FINANCIAL REGULATION AGENDA for next week Monday 19 April: Tuesday 20 April : Wednesday 21 April : European Commission: College of Commissioners EBF Governance Task Force virtual meeting Thursday 22 April: Friday 23 April For a full-year overview of key financial regulation events: click here |
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FROM THE MEDIA this week Reuters: Greece secures EU okay to extend 'Hercules' bad loan scheme Greece last Friday secured approval from EU competition regulators to extend its âHerculesâ bad loan reduction scheme to help banks shed a mountain of impaired credit burdening their balance sheets. Read more FT: Banking regulators start climate stress tests Over the past decade, financial regulators have used stress tests to measure banksâ exposure to anything from losses on derivatives to fat-finger trades and cyber crime. Now, they have a more complex target in sight: assessing banksâ vulnerability to the effects of climate change, FT reports. Read more (âŹ) OMFIF: ECB must future-proof monetary policy In the second half of 2021, the European Central Bank will conclude its first strategy review since 2003. The ECB needs to future-proof itself and ensure its monetary policy framework can deliver for the currency union over the coming decades, writes Hani Kablawi. Although much of the euro area is facing its third wave of Covid-19, the commencement of vaccination programmes worldwide offers a way out. Nonetheless, even if life can approach something close to ânormalâ by the end of the year, in a monetary policy context, it is hardly the kind of normality which makes life easy for the ECB. Read more Bloomberg: Europe is heading toward a new financial crisis Completing the EUâs banking union might be the only way to avoid the dreaded âdoom loopâ, writes Bloomberg's editorial team. Europe faces a predicament. Even as it struggles to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, itâs setting itself up for another crisis â this one financial. To ensure the viability of the common currency at the heart of the European project, the EUâs leaders will have to cooperate in ways theyâve so far resisted. Read more S&P Global: UniCredit's CEE business well-insulated from devastating COVID-19 third wave For UniCredit SpA, central and Eastern Europe has been a key growth market in recent years. But countries in the region, particularly Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, have been in the grip of a particularly devastating third wave of COVID-19 infections so far in 2021, resulting in new lockdowns, S&P Global Market Intelligence reports. Read more |
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FROM EBF MEMBERS this week APB: Banking sector's profitability decreased by 77% in 2020 According to the latest report of the Association of Portuguese Banks (APB) 'Banking Sector Indicators Overview', in 2020, the Portuguese banking sectorâs profitability was severely penalized by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with net income decreasing by 77% year-on-year to 435 million euros. This result is mainly explained by the increase in impairments, which totalled 2.9 billion euros (74% higher than in 2019). Read more CBA: The percentage of positive tests in banks fell by half in a month Monetary institutions, covered by the Czech Banking Association (CBA), report a declining trend in positive antigen tests. " I am glad that the incidence of positive tests in relation to the total number of successful antigen tests performed in the month of testing in banks has dropped to less than half, " informs Monika ZahĂĄlkovĂĄ, CBA's executive director. Read more (CE) Swedish Bankers' Association: Swedish banks strong in international comparison Swedish banks are standing strong and have weathered the pandemic period better than banks from other countries. This is shown by statistics from the European Banking Authority, the Swedish Bankers' Association writes in its latest post. Read more (SE) AEB: Sustainability is not just a regulatory issue The European Union has committed to a sustainable future with more conviction than any other region in the world. This commitment has been leveraged by the instrument that Europe is best known for regulation. A legal and regulatory framework designed so that companies and financial institutions can complement the investment effort that the public sector must make to achieve the environmental objectives set out in the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Juan Carlos Delrieu, Director of Strategy and Sustainability of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB) writes in his latest post. Read more (ES) Swiss Bankers' Association: "Commercial Employees 2022" reform project: implementation continues Over the past few months, those responsible for young people have been kept informed about the progress of the reform in all language regions of the country. The Swiss Bankers' Association (SBA) has been using social media to communicate regularly about the events organised to this end. The SBA is working in constant dialogue with trainers in the banking industry to prepare for the implementation of the reform in companies. Read more (FR) |
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FROM THE INSTITUTIONS this week EBA published final draft technical standards specifying the methods of prudential consolidation EBA published its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) specifying the conditions according to which consolidation shall be carried out in line with Article 18 of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The aim of these draft RTS is to ensure that the appropriate method of prudential consolidation is applied for the calculation of the CRR requirements on a consolidated basis. Compared to the Consultation Paper, the final draft RTS has been revised also to reflect the amendments introduced as part of the Risk Reduction Measures Package adopted by the European legislators. Read more ECB Annual Report 2020: Opening remarks of the ECB Luis de Guindos ECB published the opening remarks of Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, at the ECON Committee of the European Parliament, in which he presented the ECB Annual Report 2020. He discussed the economic outlook and the ECBâs decisions, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the European financial sector. Read more ESMA updates its LEI Statement ESMA published an updated statement on the implementation of LEI requirements for third-country issuers under the SFTR reporting regime. Read more State aid: Commission approves prolongation of market conform asset protection scheme for banks in Greece The European Commission has approved the prolongation of an existing Greek scheme aiming at supporting the reduction of non-performing loans of Greek banks on the basis that it remains free of any State aid. The existing asset protection scheme (known by the name of âHercules'), was approved by the Commission in October 2019, for an initial duration of 18 months. Greece notified the Commission of its plan to prolong the scheme for another 18 months, until October 2022. Read more Hellenic Ministry of Finance press release Council of the European Union recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area The Council of the European Union has published its recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area. It calls for: 1) a policy stance that supports the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis; 2) the adoption of policy measures that are tailored to country-specific circumstances and timely, temporary and targeted; 3) fiscal policies that aim to achieve prudent medium-term fiscal positions and to ensure debt sustainability, while enhancing investment. Read more |
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FROM THE EUROPEAN BANKING FEDERATION this week EBF contributes to the ECB paper 'The use of DLT in post-trade processes' In the current fast-changing environment, the adoption of solutions based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) could bring both opportunities and challenges for the financial ecosystem and its stakeholders. EBF Senior Policy Adviser, Digital Innovation, Julian Schmucker is among the contributors to the ECB publication 'The use of DLT in post-trade processes'. Read more Commissionâs Inception Impact Assessment on Instant Payments: EBF response The EBF has responded to the European Commissionâs Have-Your-Say consultation âInception Impact Assessmentâ on instant payments. We highlight our support for efforts to increase the uptake of SCT Inst and the view that SCT Inst could facilitate stronger and more integrated homegrown pan-European payment solutions. 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 mediacentre@ebf.eu European Banking Federation Avenue des Arts 56, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium |
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