Swift and forceful action from central banks and governments has limited the economic damage from the Covid-19 pandemic, and as policymakers look ahead to the next phase of the recovery they must prepare for different but no less formidable challenges, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in its Annual Economic Report 2021.  In its flagship economic publication, the BIS describes the global recovery so far as incomplete and uneven, with some countries and sectors bouncing back quickly and others lagging. The uneven recovery could generate headwinds for emerging market economies (EMEs) in particular, due to tighter financial conditions as advanced economies transition more quickly. Continue reading…

The SOMI Foundation submits the largest European collective data request recently to three tech giants: TikTok, Zoom and Palantir. According to the GDPR, companies are obliged to comply with the request for stored personal data. SOMI requests the personal data on behalf of its participants as part of the investigation into the possible violation of the GDPR by the international companies. The GDPR prescribes that companies that are active in Europe are obliged to provide access to stored personal data on request. In addition, it must be clearly stated how the personal data is stored and with whom it is shared. However, it is often not clear how such a request should be submitted to the company, if the option is offered at all. There is also no explicit way of supplying the stored personal data, which makes it difficult for consumers to understand which data is stored and used, and how it can be modified or deleted. Continue reading…

How many insurers were subject to winding-up proceedings since the introduction of Solvency II on 1/1/2016? In part I, we revealed that based on the OJ publications about 20-30 insurers have been subject to winding-up proceedings. But is 23 (or 34) the true story? Would the findings of the second source, the data of the national supervisory authorities, corroborate these revelations? Continue reading…

by Lieve Lowet

It must be the best kept secret in town (apart from EIOPA’s Supervisory Handbook) how many insurers and reinsurers went bankrupt since the introduction of the Solvency II framework directive (SII FD). Trying to piece together the answer on the basic question of  how many insurers went belly up since the introduction of Solvency II on 1/1/2016 proved to be a Sherlock Holmes story. But here is what I found. Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) have published an updated assessment of the UK’s access to cash infrastructure, taking into account the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19), alongside new research on consumers who rely on cash. The findings show that most people have reasonable access to cash through a combination of bank, building society, or Post Office branches and ATMs. The FCA and PSR estimate that 95.4% of the UK population are within 2km of a free cash access point and 99.7% are within 5 km. Consumers’ ability to access banking services and cash can be affected when banks and ATM providers make decisions to close branches and cash machines. Continue reading…

The European Commission has presented an ambitious package of legislative proposals to strengthen the EU’s anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing (AML/CFT) rules. The package also includes the proposal for the creation of a new EU authority to fight money laundering. This package is part of the Commission’s commitment to protect EU citizens and the EU’s financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing. The aim of this package is to improve the detection of suspicious transactions and activities, and to close loopholes used by criminals to launder illicit proceeds or finance terrorist activities through the financial system. As recalled in the EU’s Security Union Strategy for 2020-2025, enhancing the EU’s framework for anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing will also help to protect Europeans from terrorism and organised crime. Continue reading…

by Michael Edesess

Nassim Nicholas Taleb doesn’t mince words. When he thinks that something is worthless, he says so. In a recent paper he says in no uncertain terms that bitcoin is worthless. However, those “uncertain terms” are not only in mathematical language but in Taleb-speak. They need some explanation and interpretation. I will provide it in this brief article. In a new paper, “Bitcoin, Currencies, and Fragility,” Taleb aims a scattergun at bitcoin and its underlying database technology, blockchain. Some of those scattershots merely ding bitcoin or blockchain only slightly, or not at all. But some of them hit the mark squarely. Continue reading…

Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), recently delivered a speech at the launch of the FCA’s Business Plan. When I became CEO last October, I joined a purposeful organisation. Our people working round the clock with great energy and to great effect to stand up for consumers and businesses affected by the pandemic. Almost five million payment deferrals granted across credit cards, loans and mortgages to people who had suddenly little or no money coming in. Businesses forced to close or scale back operations won insurance payments of more than three-quarters of a billion pounds for COVID-related losses thanks to our efforts in the Supreme Court. And all the while, the global markets we oversee proved resilient at a time of unique stress and volatility – laying the foundations for record capital raising this year to support economic recovery. Continue reading…

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) recently decided to launch the investigation phase of a digital euro project. Following the decision, the President of the Eurogroup Paschal Donohoe joined the meeting, congratulated the Governing Council and expressed his full support for the project. “It has been nine months since we published our report on a digital euro. In that time, we have carried out further analysis, sought input from citizens and professionals, and conducted some experiments, with encouraging results. All of this has led us to decide to move up a gear and start the digital euro project”, says ECB President Christine Lagarde. “Our work aims to ensure that in the digital age citizens and firms continue to have access to the safest form of money, central bank money”. Continue reading…

Takedown of DoubleVPN makes it harder for criminal hackers to cover their tracks. This week, law enforcement and judicial authorities in Europe, the US and Canada have seized the web domains and server infrastructure of DoubleVPN. This is a virtual private network (VPN) service which provided a safe haven for cybercriminals to attack their victims. This coordinated takedown, led by the Dutch National Police (Politie), under jurisdiction of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office (Landelijk Parket), with international activity coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, has now ended the availability of this service.  Continue reading…