On September 20th, a collaboration was signed in Paris between the Institute of Risk & Compliance and Risk & Compliance Platform Europe. The two parties will continue to live completely independently of each other, but they will rely on good cooperation on the expertise and know-how of each in the appropriate areas. The Institute of Risk & Compliance is a foundation created in autumn 2017. Its president is Michaël Amado. The signing took place at The Westin Hotel, Paris Vendome, after the morning session on Compliance Management. The beautiful hotel is the permanent place of the Institute’s conferences.
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European Union (EU) securities markets, infrastructures and investors face new risks in the form of high volatility, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said in its latest Trends, Risks, and Vulnerabilities (TRV) Report (No 2, 2018). ESMA also re-iterated its concerns about cyber risk and Brexit risks for business operations. The TRV, which covers the first half of 2018, finds that overall risk levels for the EU’s securities markets remained stable but at high levels for most risk categories. Equity and bond volatility spikes in February and May reflected the growing sensitivities. ESMA also sees a deterioration in outstanding corporate debt ratings, and in corporate and sovereign bond liquidity.
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In February 2008 Ms Ilyés and Mr Kiss concluded with a Hungarian bank a credit contract for the provision of a loan denominated in Swiss francs (CHF). According to the contract, although the monthly repayment instalments were to be paid in Hungarian forints (HUF), the amount of those instalments was to be calculated on the basis of the current exchange rate between the HUF and the CHF. In addition, the contract refers to the foreign exchange risk in the event of possible fluctuations in the exchange rate between these two currencies.
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The European Central Bank (ECB) published a guide to on-site inspections and internal model investigations. The publication follows the completion of the public consultation. Inspections are a critical tool for banking supervision worldwide. The objective of the guide, which was drafted in close cooperation with the national competent authorities (NCAs), is to explain how ECB Banking Supervision conducts inspections and to provide a useful document for banks subject to such inspections. Through the publication of the guide, the ECB is enhancing transparency towards the industry.
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 The European Banking Authority (EBA) published two reports on EU banks’ funding plans and asset encumbrance respectively. The reports aim to provide important information for EU supervisors to assess the sustainability of banks’ main sources of funding. The results of the assessment show that banks plan to match the asset side increase in the forecast years by a growth in client deposits as well as market based funding.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that its remaining investigations into firms, following its thematic review into the fair treatment of longstanding customers in the life insurance sector, have each been closed. The FCA launched the investigation following a thematic review, published on 3 March 2016. This identified further work was required to determine whether 6 of the 11 firms that were involved in the thematic review had failed to meet our standards. These 6 firms were Abbey Life, Countrywide Assured, Old Mutual, Police Mutual, Prudential and Scottish Widows.
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European Central Bank (ECB) Banking Supervision has published the findings of the thematic review of banks’ profitability and business models conducted from 2016 to the end of the first quarter of 2018. The review shows that although the economic situation of banks in the euro area has generally improved, profitability and business models remain under pressure.
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Authors: Mathias Drehmann and James Yetman
Excessive credit growth is part and parcel of any financial boom and bust. But what is “excessive”? There is no clear cut answer to this question, so researchers use proxies. Typically, credit is divided, or “normalised”, by some variable such as GDP so that it can be compared across time and between countries. The gap between the level of normalised credit and some “trend” level is then used as a proxy for excessive credit growth.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Christian Bittar from performing any function in relation to any regulated financial activity. Mr Bittar formerly worked at Deutsche Bank where he traded interest rate derivative products referenced to benchmarks including EURIBOR. The FCA has found that Mr Bittar lacks integrity and therefore fitness and propriety to carry out such a role. Mr Bittar made requests to EURIBOR submitters to make high or low EURIBOR submissions, both internally to Deutsche Bank submitters and externally to traders at other EURIBOR panel banks. He did so to benefit the profitability of the trading positions for which he was responsible and, on occasion, the profitability of the trading positions of other traders.
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Introductory statement by Mr Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, and Mr Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank. We will  report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by the Commission Vice-President, Mr Dombrovskis. Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. We continue to expect them to remain at their present levels at least through the summer of 2019, and in any case for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2% over the medium term.
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