EBF WEEKLY + FINANCIAL REGULATION AGENDA
for the week starting Monday 7 June 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

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The UK has taken on Presidency of the G7

On 11-13 June leaders from some of the world’s most influential countries will gather together to attend the G7 Summit. The UK is hosting this year’s event, with representatives from around the world making their way to Cornwall for the meeting. According to the G7 UK website, the goal of the summit is to “help the world fight, and then build back better from coronavirus and create a greener, more prosperous future”. G7 priorities include spreading wealth to all nations through new technologies, international trading, green recovery and lasting jobs. Creating a better global health system ready for any future pandemics and tackling climate change to move to net zero and support other countries to do this too are among the issues likely to be discussed at the Summit. Read more

FINANCIAL REGULATION AGENDA for next week

Monday 7 June:

• European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, France

• CEPOL ‘Combating Card Fraud’ course

• Bundesbank ‘Central bank communication’ course

• IADI ‘5th Americas Deposit Insurance Forum’ 

• Council Working Party on the United Kingdom meeting

• Insurance Europe Resilience Week ‘Climate resilience’ event

• EBF CEO Roundtable online meeting

FROM THE MEDIA

FT: How the UK and EU are quietly diverging when it comes to financial services

Financial services regulation is a sovereign issue and the split was an opportunity to recast unsatisfactory laws forged in the messy compromises of EU rulemaking, the Financial Times (FT) writes. Policymakers on both sides of the Channel can rifle through the rule books they once jointly wrote, and amend the ones they never really liked. The EU’s Mifid II rules as well as the resumption of trading Swiss shares in London, tighter bank capital rules, and a new prudential regime for investment firms to better reflect their risks are just the start. Read more (€)

PYMNTS.com: European Union unveils digital ID wallet plan

The European Union (EU) reveals plans for a digital identification wallet that the 450 million residents of the 27-nation bloc can access public services and store important identification documentation, PYMNTS.com reports. “The European digital identity will enable us to do in any Member State as we do at home without any extra cost and fewer hurdles. Be that renting a flat or opening a bank account outside of our home country,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s (EC) executive vice president for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, said in a Thursday (June 3) press release. Read more

Euractiv: Europe’s debt disciple raises the alarm

'Borrowing in times of crisis to stabilise the economy makes sense, as long as the question of repayment is not forgotten', Wolfgang Schäuble, Bundestag president and former German finance minister says. The fear of Schäuble, and a growing number of economists, is that the massive stimulus measures designed to pump cash into our economies without providing new goods and services to buy will drive up prices and cause inflation. Read more 

FROM EBF MEMBERS

BdB: Krautscheid on the proposal for a Digital Identity Framework

The European Commission today published its proposal for a Digital Identity Framework. Its aim is to allow all Europeans to use trusted digital identities for both public and private offers. 'This proposal must be used to create a uniform and technology-neutral legal framework for public and private solutions. Too many business processes in companies and administrations still suffer from media discontinuity because digital identity data cannot or may not be used. Identity data that already exists, for example, at banks could be used to drive the process forward. On top of which, being able to verify a person’s digital identity will also be important for the introduction of a digital euro', Andreas Krautscheid, Chief Executive of the Association of German Banks (BdB) says. Read more

Svenska Bankföreningen: Climate Roadmap

The banking sector plays an important role in contributing to Sweden's goal of zero emissions by 2045. Climate aspects will be integrated into the banks' core business and facilitate the industry's climate transition, as stated in the Climate Roadmap, a framework published by banks and the Banking Association. 'With the measures presented in the roadmap, we want to ensure that financing issues do not constitute an obstacle, but facilitate the business sector's climate transition', says Hans Lindberg, CEO of the Swedish Bankers' Association (Svenska Bankföreningen). Read more (SV)

Finance Denmark: Now all Europeans must have a digital identity

The EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager presented a proposal to develop an electronic identity solution that can be used across Europe. Similar to the Danish NemID, the proposal will be a natural development that could benefit citizens across Europe. A future European eID solution must take into account the already existing national solutions that several countries have developed. "That is why we want to work towards a solution that can work with existing and future eID solutions, rather than developing a completely new pan-European solution," says Michael Busk-Jepsen, Director of Digitalisation at Finans Danmark. Read more (DK)

FROM THE INSTITUTIONS

EBA: 2020 Annual Report

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published its 2020 Annual Report, which provides a detailed account of all the work the Authority achieved in the past year and anticipates the key areas of focus in the coming year. It presents the ad-hoc activities the EBA undertook to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the EU banking sector. In particular, the EBA put in place prudential and supervisory measures to support bank lending by publishing Guidelines on legislative and non-legislative moratoria on loan repayments, as well as Guidelines on reporting and disclosure of exposures subject to measures applied in response to the COVID-19 crisis. In 2020, the EBA also focused on new and upcoming areas such as anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT), sustainable finance, and digital innovation. Read more

ESMA: Prolonged period of risk from market corrections

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its first Risk Dashboard (RD) for 2021 covering the first quarter of the year. The RD highlights that the main risk for EU financial markets remains that posed by a sudden risk reassessment, amid the general decoupling of securities prices from economic fundamentals, and is maintains its risk assessment at a very high level. Read more

ECB: The embrace of the horizon: Forcefully moving with the changing tide for climate action in financial sector policies

Central banks are showing their resolve within their mandates to integrate the effects of climate change in the exercise of their tasks, says Executive Board member Frank Elderson in his speech at The Green Swan Conference. He highlighted that the FSB will report to the G20 on ways to promote consistent, high-quality climate disclosures, as well as data requirements and gaps that are crucial for assessing the financial stability risks posed by climate change. Besides, he outlined the work of the Network for Greening the Financial System. Read more

FROM THE EUROPEAN BANKING FEDERATION this week

EBA consultation on draft technical standards on Pillar 3 disclosures of ESG risks: EBF response

The European Banking Federation (EBF) responded to the European Banking Authority (EBA)'s consultation on draft technical standards on Pillar 3 disclosures of ESG risks by highlighting 5 key points. Read more

European Commission Delegated Act on the Taxonomy Article 8: EBF response

The European Banking Federation (EBF) published a response to the European Commission Delegated Act (DA) on the Taxonomy Article 8. EBF is proposing an alternative approach that will achieve the same objectives as the proposed DA, but provides for a better and fairer comparison of GAR, while providing full transparency to the market based on data availability and feasibility. Read more

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

European Banking Federation