Banking supervision in the euro area has just marked another important milestone towards achieving a more consistent approach to supervising banks. From this year onwards, a common methodology will be applied to the annual supervisory assessment of all euro area banks, including the smaller ones, operating within the Single Supervision Mechanism framework. These smaller banks – known as less significant institutions (LSIs) – are not directly supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB) but by the national competent authorities (NCAs) of the 19 member countries of the euro area. Their assessment, the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP), is a core activity of ECB Banking Supervision and is conducted, with the necessary proportionality, by the NCAs.
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All Department of Financial Services (DFS) Regulated Financial Services Companies Are Required to Comply with Regulation’s Governance Policies and Procedures, as Well as Risk Based Monitoring Systems Requirements and Encryption Programs for Nonpublic Information by September 4, 2018. Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo reminded all Department of Financial Services (DFS) regulated entities covered by DFS’s landmark cybersecurity regulation that the third transitional period of New York’s first-in-the-nation cybersecurity regulation ends on September 4, 2018. Beginning on September 4, 2018, banks, insurance companies, and other financial services institutions regulated by DFS are required to have come into compliance with several additional provisions of the cybersecurity regulation that are vital to the governance and components of a robust financial services cybersecurity program.
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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has made available new data for bonds subject to the pre- and post-trade requirements of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and Regulation (MiFIR) through its data register. ESMA has started, since July 30, to make available the second quarterly liquidity assessment for bonds. For this period, there are currently 466 liquid bonds subject to MiFID II transparency requirements. However, this assessment, which is dependent on the data submitted to ESMA, experienced data quality issues. The content of the non-equity file has now been updated, by removing the affected instruments.
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The European Banking Authority (EBA) published 12 indicators and updated the underlying data from the 35 largest institutions in the EU, whose leverage ratio exposure measure exceeds EUR 200 bn. This end-2017 data contributes to the internationally agreed basis on which a smaller subset of banks will be identified as global systemically important institutions (G-SIIs), following the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) final assessments. The EBA, acting as a central data hub in the disclosure process, will update this data on a yearly basis and will provide a user-friendly platform to aggregate it across the EU. Continue reading…

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) today announced exclusions from the accountancy profession for three former executives of AssetCo plc, after a Disciplinary Tribunal found they had committed Misconduct in relation to the preparation and approval of the company’s financial statements for the financial years ended 31 March 2009 and 31 March 2010. Continue reading…

During the almost three years on office, former boss Cryan cleaned up most of the toxic lagacy of Deutche’s pre-financial crisis bid to compete with global investment banking giants, in part by paying billions in fines and compensation. But he failed to drag the bank back into positive numbers. On top of that President Trump’s corporate tax reform is the mail reason of the bigger than expected net loss of € 735 million in 2017, reported the Deutche Bank. Begin 2018 some investors wanted supervisory board chairman Achleitner to look for a new top manager.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has, in collaboration with 11 financial regulators and related organisations, announced the creation of the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN), building on the FCA’s proposal earlier this year to create a ‘global sandbox’. The network will seek to provide a more efficient way for innovative firms to interact with regulators, helping them navigate between countries as they look to scale new ideas. It will also create a new framework for co-operation between financial services regulators on innovation related topics, sharing different experiences and approaches.
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The Threat Intelligence-based Ethical Red Teaming (TIBER-EU) Framework enables European and national authorities to work with financial infrastructures and institutions (hereafter referred to collectively as “entities”) to put in place a programme to test and improve their resilience against sophisticated cyber attacks. The ECB has published the TIBER-EU Framework (TIBER-EU Framework: How to Implement the European Framework for Threat Intelligence-based Ethical Red Teaming). The present Services Procurement Guidelines (“Guidelines”) are referred to in, and are an integral part of, the TIBER-EU Framework. They set out in detail the different elements of TIBER-EU procurement.
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At first sight, they seem unrelated, says Mr Claudio Borio, Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). After all, why should low inflation and rising debt be linked? True, from the early 1980s inflation declined, and then stayed quite low in much of the world while debt (private plus public) in relation to GDP rose to new peaks. But is this not just a coincidence? Maybe. On reflection, though, the link may be much tighter than we think. To understand why, we need to travel back in time. Not too far, but some distance nonetheless.
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There is much more to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) than feeling good and public relations. It can be a valuable risk management tool, says Antonio Huertas of MAPFRE. “There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.” Mahatma Gandhi’s words from a century ago serve as more than a moral compass by which to live one’s life, they also encapsulate what is to me the essence of corporate social responsibility (CSR). I like to think of CSR as the conscience of a corporation, guiding senior management on their journey to maximising shareholder returns legally and ethically. Harnessed effectively and supported from the top down, it can contribute both to improving relationships with stakeholders and enhancing business outcomes.
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