FROM THE MEDIA

Reuters: From contagion to sanctions: EU banks and Russia fallout

European banks are bracing for fallout and fresh sanctions after Russia ordered troops into breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, with HSBC warning of market contagion and Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International preparing "crisis plans". "For banks, it is crucial that sanctions are formulated in a sufficiently precise and unambiguous manner," the German banking association said. According to Reuters, for now, banks can only wait. "We are monitoring the situation," a spokesperson from the European Banking Federation (EBF) said. Read more

Bloomberg: EU to hand crypto oversight to new dirty-money watchdog

The European Union is working to give its new anti-money-laundering watchdog oversight of cryptocurrency firms due to concerns that they’re used to process illicit funds, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg. A group of states led by Germany is seeking to make the inclusion of cryptocurrency firms more explicit. Read more

CNBC: UK first tranche of Russia sanctions targets banks 

As reported by CNBC, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the first tranche of sanctions would target Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank, and the Black Sea Bank. He added, “we hold further sanctions at readiness to be deployed alongside the United States and the European Union if the situation escalates still further.” His comments come as EU lawmakers prepare to impose sanctions against Russian politicians, banks and to limit the ability of the Kremlin to access the bloc’s capital, financial markets, and services. Read more

MAIN EVENTS

• The Eurofi High Level Seminar 2022

• Council Working Party on Tax Questions (Direct Taxation)

• Chatham House ‘Nuclear, gas and green finance taxonomies in the EU and UK’ event

• Deutsche Bundesbank ‘Corona consequences and high prices — current challenges of monetary policy in the euro area’ webinar

• CEPS ‘In conversation with Governor Wunsch | Greening of monetary policy and inflation’ event

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

FROM THE EBF MEMBERS

Finance Latvia: People over 55 are the most active in saving

According to data from the bank Luminor, a member of Finance Latvia, almost 40% of customers who make contributions to pension level 3 are over 55 years of age. Anželika Dobrovoļska, Head of Pension Products at Luminor, says it is good that people in their pre-retirement years are thinking about making additional savings, but younger people are still not saving enough. Read more (LV)

CBA: Power engineers and bankers have agreed to cooperate

The Czech Association of Energy Employers (ČSZE) and the Czech Banking Association (CBA) have signed a memorandum of cooperation, which focuses primarily on issues of sustainable development and its financing. The two associations jointly respond to the growing emphasis on the implementation of the principles of ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance), which affect both the financial and energy sector. Read more (KS)

SBA: The Swiss financial center has done its part 

Shady money does not interest the Swiss financial center, whose good reputation and integrity are key factors for the country's banks, writes Jörg Gasser, CEO of the Swiss Bankers' Association (SBA) in an opinion piece. Gasser adds that Switzerland complies with international standards and has strict regulations to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and the anti-money laundering system has been continuously developed and strengthened in recent years in accordance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Read more (FR)

FROM THE INSTITUTIONS

EBA: Annual assessment of banks’ internal approaches for the calculation of capital requirements

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published its Reports on the annual market and credit risk benchmarking exercises. These exercises aim at monitoring the consistency of risk-weighted assets (RWAs) across all EU institutions authorized to use internal approaches for the calculation of capital requirements. Regarding credit risks, a particular focus has been put on analyzing the impact of the pandemic and the compensating public measures on the internal rating-based (IRB) models. Read more

European Court of Auditors: EU single market for investment funds

According to a new report by the European Court of Auditors, the objective of a true single market for investment funds has not been met. The report shows that funds are still not supervised consistently across all Member States, investor protection remains weak, and systemic risks are not adequately monitored. Read more

SRB: Industry Dialogue

The Single Resolution Board (SRB)'s Industry Dialogue event video and presentation is now available. The event covered, among other topics, an update on MREL dashboard, the 2022 MREL policy update, and the SRB permission regime. 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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European Banking Federation