Yesterday, the European Commission adopted a key package of initiatives to reduce tax compliance costs for large, cross-border businesses in the European Union. The proposal, called “Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation” (BEFIT), will make life easier for both businesses and tax authorities by introducing a new, single set of rules to determine the tax base of groups of companies. This will reduce compliance costs for large businesses who operate in more than one Member State and make it easier for national tax authorities to determine which taxes are rightly due. The new, simpler rules could reduce tax compliance costs for businesses operating in the EU by up to 65%. Continue reading…

by Luiz Pereira da Silva,

Central banks, and central bankers, stand at a crossroads. They face not one, but five major forks in the road. In line with their mandate and in addition to their known achievements, central banks, in the 21st century need to reflect carefully on how the new challenges could affect their role. I will list five of these forks: (1) the re-emergence of inflation; (2) climate change; (3) inequality; (4) digital financial innovation; and (5) artificial intelligence. As you know, modern central banks have been successful because they have been capable of strengthening their analytical thinking when facing challenges in the past, balancing risks properly and choosing the best path, even if that path looked challenging. Now, the many consequential issues that we face imply that central banks will have to carefully identify and analyse the paths they mean to tread. Continue reading…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have recently published a report outlining a comprehensive policy and regulatory response to cryptoasset activities. The report synthesises the IMF’s and FSB’s policy recommendations and standards. It illustrates macroeconomic and financial stability implications of cryptoasset activities, how they may interact, and how the IMF and FSB’s policy recommendations fit together. The report also encourages implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) standards to address risks to financial integrity and mitigate criminal and terrorist misuse of the cryptoassets sector. Continue reading…

Yesterday, the European Commission and the UK Government have concluded negotiations and reached an agreement in principle on the association of the UK to Horizon Europe and Copernicus under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This is a landmark moment for scientific and space collaboration between the EU and the UK following agreement of the Windsor Framework earlier this year. Association to Horizon Europe will further strengthen and deepen links between the scientific communities in the UK and the EU, foster innovation and enable researchers to work together on global challenges from climate to health. The UK Government and the European Commission look forward to enabling collaboration between their researchers in which the UK and the EU share a mutual interest, such as in new and emerging technologies. To this end, the EU will assess UK participants’ access to strategic parts of the Horizon Europe programme[*1] on equal terms with other associated countries.
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The number of interest-only (750,000) and part-interest-only (245,000) mortgages has halved since 2015, new FCA analysis has found. The fall is a result of borrowers moving in greater numbers onto repayment loans or repaying earlier than expected. Of those remaining, the greatest number of interest-only mortgages are set to mature in 2031 (72,000) and 2032 (77,000), with a smaller peak in 2027. This means borrowers without a repayment plan still have time to act and reduce at least some of their outstanding capital by the end of their mortgage.  Continue reading…

The infrastructure of the malware and botnet known as ’Qakbot’ has been taken down in an international operation led by the United States involving actions in the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Romania and Latvia. The Qakbot malware infected more than 700.000 victim computers, facilitated the delivery of ransomware and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage worldwide. This is one of the largest financial and technical disruptions of a botnet infrastructure leveraged by cybercriminals to commit ransomware, financial fraud and other cyber-enabled criminal activity.

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The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published its third Report on the functioning of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) colleges. The Report finds that competent authorities had taken important steps to improve the functioning of AML/CFT colleges. Nevertheless, many colleges had not reached full maturity. The Report highlights good practices that will be useful for competent authorities to further improve the effectiveness of AML/CFT colleges and of supervisory outcomes. Continue reading…

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has published its first consultation package under the Markets in CryptoAssets Regulation and invites comments from stakeholders by 20 September 2023. In this first of three consultation packages, ESMA is seeking input on proposed rules for cryptoasset service providers (CASPs), in particular related to their authorisation, identification and management of conflicts of interests and also how CASPs should address complaints. Continue reading…

The Commission has adopted its proposal for the 2024 fishing opportunities for the Baltic Sea in response to a scientific assessment that indicates several fisheries are in a dire situation. The Commission proposed the total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for three out of the ten stocks managed in the Baltic Sea. The remaining quota proposals will be established at a later stage. The Commission proposes to increase fishing opportunities for salmon in the Gulf of Finland by 7%, while proposing to decrease fishing of salmon in the main basin by 15%, and to decrease herring catches in the Gulf of Riga by 20%. As for the other stocks in the Baltic (western cod, eastern cod, western herring, Bothnian herring, central herring, sprat and plaice), the Commission has requested additional information from the International Council on the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) to take better account of the fact that cod is caught together with flatfish, and herring together with sprat. Continue reading…

The Bank for International Settlements’ Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have on 23 August published a Report on current central counterparty practices to address non-default losses highlighting the need for CCPs to have adequate resources and appropriate tools to address NDLs. CCPs have become increasingly important to the financial system for managing counterparty risk, especially since the introduction of the clearing obligation for standardised OTC derivatives following the 2007–09 global financial crisis. Continue reading…