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☆ ECB starts preparation for digital euro in multi-year project
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Francesco Canepa | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A number of Caribbean countries and Nigeria have already launched digital currencies while China and Sweden are among those that have rolled out pilot projects. The ECB says a digital euro will create competition in the market for payments, dominated by U.S. credit card companies. The digital euro will distributed by the ECB as well as commercial banks and digital wallet providers. Many of these projects surged around 2019, when Facebook announced plans to introduce a digital currency, which were then ditched. But the rise of stablecoins – crypto tokens backed to some degree by traditional currencies – gave central bank’s digital currencies, or CBDC in financial jargon, new impetus.

Persons: Markus Ferber, Francesco Canepa, Alex Richardson, Deborah Kyvrikosaios Organizations: European Central Bank, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Canada, European People's Party, U.S, Monetary Fund, Commission, Bank for International, Facebook, Thomson Locations: FRANKFURT, Nigeria, China, Sweden

ESG ratings providers must stop providing consulting services to investors, stop the sale of credit ratings and the development of benchmarks among other things, according to the EU's draft legislation published on Tuesday. "ESG ratings agencies that score companies on governance factors are completely unregulated so it's very difficult to compare ratings by different agencies. Agencies providing ESG ratings include S&P Global (SPGI.N), Moody's (MCO.N), MSCI (MSCI.N)> and Morningstar's (MORN.O) Sustainalytics. Britain has also outlined plans to regulate ESG ratings providers where the rating is used by anyone in the UK. In March, the finance ministry published a consultation on regulating ESG ratings providers, saying it saw a "clear benefit" from improving the transparency of methodologies as well as rating providers' governance and processes.

Persons: Mairead McGuinness, Markus Ferber, Ferber, Julia Payne, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Sinead Cruise, Mark Potter, Ed Osmond Organizations: European, European Securities and Markets Authority, Financial Services, P, Global, Morningstar, Conservative European, European Commission, Thomson Locations: EU, BRUSSELS, LONDON, Britain, Europe

☆ EU lawmakers set up clash with member states over share trade ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - A panel of European Union lawmakers were set for a clash with member states after they backed a draft law banning brokers from earning fees in return for directing share trades to specific trading platforms. The European Parliament and the EU bloc's 27 member states must now thrash out a joint position that would become law. "A ban of PFOF is a huge disservice to retail clients and to the Capital Markets Union as a whole," said Markus Ferber, a committee member from Germany, where many PFOF brokers are based. The proposed ban is part of a draft law to update the bloc's securities rules known as MiFID. The committee also backed reducing off exchange "dark trading" favoured by big investors to 7% of total trading from 8% at present, and below the 10% which EU states want.

☆ EU lawmakers back 'prohibitive' capital rules for cryptoassets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers backed a draft law on Tuesday to implement the final leg of post-financial global bank capital rules, adding "prohibitive" requirements to cover risks from cryptoassets. The European Parliament's economic affairs committee approved a draft law to implement Basel III capital rules from January 2025, though backing several temporary divergences to give banks more time to adapt. EU states have already approved their version of the draft law, and lawmakers will now negotiate a final text with member states, with further tweaks expected. EU states have taken a more accommodative approach to when foreign banks serving customers in the bloc should open a branch, or convert a branch into a more heavily capitalised subsidiary, with EU lawmakers on Tuesday taking a harder line. The EU is keen to build up "strategic autonomy" in capital markets as it faces a competing financial centre on its doorstep after Brexit.

FRANKFURT, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Czech Republic-based private investment firm McWin said on Tuesday it had bought a majority stake in Germany's L'Osteria in a deal that values the Italian-themed restaurant chain at around 400 million euros ($434 million). The move is aimed at driving the chain's growth across Europe, with McWin investing alongside L'Osteria founders, Klaus Rader and Friedemann Findeis, and management. Founded in 1999, L'Osteria serves Italian food in 157 restaurants across eight European countries. The investment follows an auction process and has been made via McWin Restaurant Fund (MRF), which totals 525 million euros and was launched in August 2022. McWin's financial adviser was KPMG, while L'Osteria and its shareholders were advised by Ferber & Co and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE).

☆ EU financial services chief favours banning sales inducements on investment products
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A European Union ban on inducements for recommending sales of financial products could cut costs for retail customers by more than a third, the bloc's financial services chief Mairead McGuinness has said. McGuinness is due to set out a new retail investment strategy to help deepen the bloc's capital market. Ferber told McGuinness in October he would strongly advise against banning inducements. McGuinness said she was still assessing different policy options, but the current dominant inducement-based model for selling retail investment products often means products are more costly than other cheaper alternatives on the market. "The comprehensive retail investment study has found that products on which inducements are paid are - on average - about 35% more expensive than investment products on which no inducements are paid," McGuinness said in her letter.

☆ EU backs watering down of final Basel bank capital rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - European Union member states have backed a temporary watering down and two-year delay to 2025 for the final leg of the globally agreed Basel III bank capital rules, the Czech EU presidency said on Tuesday. EU states will now negotiate a final deal with the European Parliament in early 2023. Most of the Basel III rules, a set of tougher capital rules for banks after the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, have already been implemented. EU ministers backed a two-year delay to the start date for rolling out the final rules, pushing it back to January, 2025. Smaller banks would benefit from simpler disclosure, and EU states pushed back against attempts at stricter EU harmonisation in checking whether top bank staff are 'fit and proper'.

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