The European Commission recently announced its intention to issue up to €75 billion of EU-Bonds in the first half of 2024 (H1). As in 2023, the Commission will raise these long-term funds under its unified funding approach, using single-branded EU-Bonds. The Commission will continue to complement its long-term funding operations with issuance of short-term EU-Bills. The funds raised will be used primarily to meet payments related to NextGenerationEU and notably the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The Commission’s funding plan for H1 2024 builds on a strong year of funding transactions in 2023: in total, the Commission raised €115.9 billion in long-term funds over the course of the year. This included NGEU Green Bond issuances of €12.5 billion, which brought the total amount of NGEU Green Bonds outstanding to €48.9 billion. Continue reading…

Two experts at payments advisory firm, RedCompass Labs, recently made some comments on payments and financial crime that might work for any 2023 review/2024 predictions articles that you may be working on. Read on to view a summary with the inclusion of the full commentary.
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The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), proposed by the Commission in April 2021. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said: “Artificial intelligence is already changing our everyday lives. And this is just the beginning. Used wisely and widely, AI promises huge benefits to our economy and society. Therefore, I very much welcome today’s political agreement by the European Parliament and the Council on the Artificial Intelligence Act. The EU’s AI Act is the first-ever comprehensive legal framework on Artificial Intelligence worldwide. So, this is a historic moment. The AI Act transposes European values to a new era. By focusing regulation on identifiable risks, today’s agreement will foster responsible innovation in Europe. By guaranteeing the safety and fundamental rights of people and businesses, it will support the development, deployment and take-up of trustworthy AI in the EU. Our AI Act will make a substantial contribution to the development of global rules and principles for human-centric AI.” Continue reading…

The European Union and China held their 24th Summit in Beijing on 7 December 2023. President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, met with China’s President, Xi Jinping, followed by an exchange with China’s Premier, Li Qiang. The Summit was an opportunity to engage with China following a period of intensified bilateral contacts and dialogues. High-level visits and dialogues on strategic and foreign policy issues, human rights as well as trade and economy, climate, and environment, digital have paved the way for the Summit, demonstrating the EU’s commitment to engage with China. The EU highlighted the need for concrete progress following these discussions. Continue reading…

by Klaas Knot

As many of you know, I am a General Board member of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). In that capacity, I contribute to, and follow the work of the ESRB closely. But today, I will be speaking as chair of the Financial Stability Board. And so, I wanted to begin by highlighting a few similarities between these two important international bodies. Both the ESRB and the FSB were created after the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). The former under the EU, the latter under the G20. Those of you who have been involved in one of our committees such as the ESRB’s ATC [*1] or the FSB’s SRC [*2] will know that we share a love for acronyms. But, of course, we have something far more fundamental in common. We both monitor vulnerabilities in the financial system. We make policy recommendations to address them and we look at how these recommendations are implemented.
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by Michel Klompmaker

On 7 November 2023, the Serious Whistleblowing Annual Conference took take place at the Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Hague, Netherlands. The EU Whistleblower Directive has been implemented in the Whistleblowers Protection Act. Employers have set up their internal procedures or are busy doing so. What is of great importance for the professionals in the field is the following: (I) receiving notifications securely, (ii) protecting the reporter, (iii) investigations into reported abuses, (iv) handling and measures, and (v) legal proceedings. This is part one in a series of four articles on the event.  Continue reading…

Thomas Jordan

I would especially like to thank our colleagues at the Bank for International Settlements and the Federal Reserve Board for working together with us in organising this event. The topic of this year’s conference – policy-making under uncertainty – is highly relevant. There is, for instance, substantial uncertainty regarding the impact of accumulated monetary tightening on future inflation. There is also high uncertainty about how the current geopolitical tensions will affect the global economy. Continue reading…

by Robert Houghton

As financial institutions gear up for the next 12 months, it’s time to reflect on the key trends and developments, considering how they’ll shape the year ahead. While the financial landscape is constantly evolving, we believe there are four important issues that will shape 2024: Continue reading…

During the EU-Canada Summit, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau endorsed an Administrative Arrangement allowing closer cooperation on disaster response and emergency management. The EU and Canada will also share best practices to enhance prevention, preparedness, and coordination on natural and human-induced disasters including in third countries. In addition, the European Commission will finance the purchase 12 new Canadian built planes (Canadair) to increase the aerial firefighting capacity of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism strategic reserve (‘rescEU’). EU Member States have also ordered a further 12 planes.
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