📰 EBF Morning Brief - Thursday 24 February: EU hits 3 Russian banks in sanctions’ package

FROM THE MEDIA

POLITICO: EU hits 3 Russian banks in sanctions’ package

The EU will sanction three Russian banks as part of its response to Russia's decision to send troops into Ukraine, POLITICO reports. The three banks are Rossiya Bank, Promsvyazbank, and VEB. The penalties will bar each organization from doing business with companies in the EU while limiting their access to European capital markets. According to one EU official, “the logic is to deprive the Russian state and government bodies access to European capital markets,” and that “the idea is to cut this access also to the central bank.” Read more

Bloomberg: ESG debt valuations feeding Capital Markets risk

Firms are booking the value of so-called sustainability-linked bonds and loans in inconsistent ways, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has found. The development has the potential to “negatively affect the decision-making of financial market participants and thus the efficient functioning of capital markets,” ESMA told Bloomberg. Read more

Finextra: EU Taxonomy - A gamechanger for Sustainable Finance

As reported by Finextra, financial institutions will have an obligation to disclose the environmental objectives of their investments and the proportion of underlying sustainable funds that align with the European Union (EU) taxonomy. Financial institutions have to focus on new guidelines, frameworks, and methodologies to assess and engage with stakeholders, bringing in more transparency in the world of finance. Read more

MAIN EVENTS

The Eurofi High Level Seminar 2022

EESC ‘Shaping Europe together’ conference

Council Working Party on Combating Fraud

European Banking Authority public hearing on draft guidelines on the use of remote customer onboarding solutions

EBI Global Annual Conference 2022

Deutsche Bundesbank ’20 years of euro cash’ webinar

CEPOL ‘Cybercrime as a service’ webinar

For a full-year overview of key financial regulation events: click here

FROM THE EBF MEMBERS

BdB: ECB climate stress test points the way ahead for banks

The Association of German Banks (BdB) gave a first outlook on the European Central Bank (ECB)'s upcoming climate stress test, whose results are expected in early July 2022. "For the first time, the European banking supervisory authority is specifically testing the significance of climate risks, especially for banks' risk management. This is good and the right thing to do," said Torsten Jäger, Head of Sustainability at the BdB. Read more (DE)

Finance Norway: Medicine against the change of competence?

Finance Norway published a report on how wage formation takes place in the financial industry, explaining and documenting why wage growth has been higher than the front-line framework. A factor contributing to this is the higher level of competence. Read more (NO)

AEB: Appointment of the AEB president

Following José María Roldán Alegre's decision not to opt for a third term as President of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), the first five banks represented in its General Council have agreed, in accordance with its bylaws, to present the candidacy of Alejandra Kindelán to the General Assembly of the Association held in April 2022. Read more (ES)

FROM THE INSTITUTIONS

ECB: Towards a stronger AML/CTF framework in the EU

Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) spoke on the proposed regulation establishing the AML/CFT Authority, AML Regulation, the sixth AML Directive, and the Funds and Crypto-assets Transfers Regulation. "It is important for the ECB to factor the outcomes of AML/CFT supervision into its prudential supervisory processes," he said. Read more

ESMA: Call for evidence on climate risk stress testing for CCPs

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched a call for evidence on the methodology to assess climate risk with a new stress testing framework for Central Counterparties (CCPs). To support the EU's efforts in improving the financial sector’s resilience and contribution to sustainability, ESMA has started developing a climate risk stress testing framework tailored to the specificities of CCPs. Read more

ECB: Corporate sustainability due diligence

The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behavior throughout global value chains. Under this proposal, companies will be required to identify and, where necessary, prevent, end or mitigate adverse impacts of their activities on human rights, such as child labor and exploitation of workers, and on the environment. Read more

FROM THE EBF

Joint Conclusions from the EBF, EACB, EAPB and ESBG workshop

On 18 February 2022, the four European banking associations (EACB, EAPB, EBF, and ESBG) cohosted the “Access to better technology for (Supervisory) Reporting” workshop that brought together the entire European banking industry, the European Banking Authority (EBA), and the international RegTech community to exchange views and learn from each other on how RegTech solutions could help banks reduce their reporting costs and what are the hurdles to clear along the way. Read more

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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