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☆ EU parliament backs world's first comprehensive rules for cryptoassets
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly backed the European Union's first set of rules to regulate cryptoasset markets. Parliament voted by 517 in favour and 38 against to approve the world's first comprehensive set of regulations for issuing and trading cryptoassets such as bitcoin. "This regulation brings a competitive advantage for the EU," said Stefan Berger, the lawmaker who steered the rules through parliament. "The European crypto-asset industry has regulatory clarity that does not exist in countries like the U.S.," Berger said. Parliament also backed new rules for tracing transfers of cryptoassets like bitcoins and electronic money tokens.

☆ UK financial watchdog intervenes to cut building insurance costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - Britain's financial watchdog has proposed changes to cut the cost of insuring residential apartment blocks, saying intervention was needed to prevent wrongful use of commission. The proposals announced on Friday follow a review after the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people and led to big increases to building insurance costs. The FCA published a consultation paper on its proposals alongside a review of 16 insurance brokers' sales to blocks of apartments between January 2019 and September 2022. "Brokers were often unable to articulate what insurance-related services or benefits of value were provided by the parties sharing commission," the watchdog said. Leaseholders would have transparency on insurance costs and ability to challenge poor value under the FCA proposals.

☆ UK watchdog to ensure savers benefit from interest rate rises
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - Britain's financial watchdog said on Thursday it would use new, tougher consumer protection powers from July 31 to ensure banks pass on increases in interest rates to savers, and further action was not ruled out. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will begin phasing in its "consumer duty" from July 31, giving it stronger powers to ensure that the companies it regulates act in the best interest of their customers. Since December 2021, the Bank of England has increased interest rates from nearly 0% to 4.25%, with markets expecting another increase next month. "Given rising interest rates and firms' performance on base rate pass-through we have considered whether we should restart this work," Rathi said. "However, we believe the Consumer Duty gives us greater flexibility to react to market developments, rather than needing to introduce detailed and prescriptive rules."

Inflation, which hit a 41-year high of 11.1% in October, continued to eat into the spending power of workers whose pay is rising by less. Britain's headline inflation rate is now the highest in western Europe and compares with an average of 6.9% in the euro zone and 5.0% in the United States. Austria recorded a higher inflation rate than Britain in February. Reuters GraphicsPOLITICAL PRESSUREHigh inflation is a problem for Britain's government as well as the BoE, which forecast in February that inflation would be below 4% by the end of the year. Producer price inflation - which measures changes in prices charged and paid by manufacturers and often leads changes in CPI - tumbled in March due to lower oil prices.

☆ Digital euro not a 'Big Brother' project, says EU official
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Johanna Geron/PoolLONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - A digital euro will offer choice in making payments and is not a "Big Brother" project that seeks to control people, the European Union's financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness said on Wednesday. But critics say a digital version of the euro could be used to pry on people's activities, and make it harder to use cash for making payments and purchases. "This is not a Big Brother project," McGuinness told the European Parliament. If the EU decides to grant formal 'legal tender' status to a digital euro, the bloc would need to do likewise for the cash version of the single currency, McGuinness said. The court said legal tender means mandatory acceptance of the euro at full face value, along with power to discharge from payment obligations or release from debt.

☆ Cross-border remote working could boost London financial centre, says report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Britain's leading role in financial services investment faces challenges from three continents, as Singapore, France and Germany also quickly catch up. "Britain attracted just three more financial services projects than France in 2021, 63 vs 60," the report, compiled with law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said. While some recommendations refer to existing reforms, such as tweaking insurance rules to encourage green investments, the report also wants cross-border remote working made easier. Business visa rules should be amended to allow staff based overseas to work remotely for financial firms in Britain, and vice-versa, the report said. "Adopting an innovative cross-border remote working system would ...also support manufacturing businesses across the UK," the report said.

☆ EU urges others to copy its rules for cryptoassets
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - The rest of the world should copy European Union rules for cryptoassets to create a robust global approach that protects consumers and financial stability, the EU's financial services chief said on Wednesday. The crypto sector has been rocked by the failure of crypto exchange FTX and other collapses, sending benchmark bitcoin prices tumbling, though it has begun to recover. "I hope that our rules could become a model for other countries," EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness told the parliament. Crypto firms authorised in one EU state would be allowed to offer their services across all 27. McGuinness said the commission will study whether further rules are needed for decentralised finance, and for lending and borrowing in cryptoassets.

☆ Factbox: EU updates bank crisis rules to strengthen taxpayer shield
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - The European Union set out draft reforms to rules for closing down failing banks on Tuesday. The original rules were introduced after the 2007-09 global financial crisis when taxpayers had to bail out lenders. This has often involved public money and the EU reform seeks to make it easier to apply its resolution rules to all sizes of banks to minimise taxpayer involvement. PRECAUTIONARY CAPITALItaly injected 5.4 billion euros ($5.9 billion) of state aid into Monte dei Paschi di Siena in 2017 under the precautionary capital mechanism, helping to circumvent resolution rules. DEPOSIT GUARANTEE POTThe proposals make it easier for regulators to use cash from industry-funded deposit guarantee schemes in a bank that has gone bust.

☆ ECB told not to take banks' word for it when assessing risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FRANKFURT, April 17 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank should stop relying on banks' self-assessments when setting capital requirements and do its own homework instead, independent experts said on Monday. It was the most notable recommendation in a report commissioned by the ECB to evaluate its work on the key task as the euro zone's top financial supervisor, namely to decide how much capital banks must have to absorb losses. The ECB has been blending its analysis with the banks' own to come up with capital requirements. They told the ECB to change the way it sets capital demands and focus "on specific risks requiring additional capital coverage, while significantly limiting the use of ICAAPs". Fellow ECB supervisor Elizabeth McCaul welcomed a recommendation to use more "qualitative measures" with banks, which she said could include "limitations on business activity, demanding changes in the board and management, and monetary sanctions".

LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - There may need to be limits initially on the use of major stablecoins for payments, and they should also be backed by high quality and liquid assets to protect consumers, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Monday. "Systemic stablecoins will need to be backed with high quality and liquid assets," Cunliffe told a conference held by Innovate Finance, a UK fintech industry body. "These could include either deposits at the Bank of England or very highly liquid securities, or some combination of the two. As rules for payment stablecoins are developed it was important to also develop how tokenised bank deposits could be regulated to allow banks and non-banks to develop payments using new technologies, he said. The Bank intends to set out its approach on this alongside a consultation on the payment stablecoin regime, Cunliffe said.

☆ Britain seeks to boost banking services from fintechs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"While significant progress has been made, there is more to be done to deliver the full benefits of open banking within retail banking markets, and beyond," the statement said. The recommendations from regulators will keep up momentum in open banking and extend its benefits to other sectors, said Marion King, chair of Open Banking Limited, which checks on whether the nine banks comply with open banking rules on customer data. Britain is keen to push open banking to the next stage following Brexit to attract more fintechs to set up in Britain as the European Union is poised to compete with its own version of open banking. The data protection draft law, now going through parliament, will be used to put open banking on a sustainable footing, Griffith said. "We now need to see proportionate regulation," said Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, the UK fintech industry body.

☆ Exchanges and asset managers square off over EU market rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - Stock exchanges and asset managers have squared off ahead of European Union negotiations this week over how much information investors should be given to find the best deals on Europe's fragmented stock markets. The European Parliament and EU states begin negotiations on Tuesday on finalising reform of the bloc's securities rules, known as MiFID, aimed at making its capital market more efficient now that if faces competition from a post-Brexit London. Exchanges, which earn money from market data, say parliament is going beyond transparency to give investors a trading tool. "The inclusion of real-time pre-trade data, as per the European Parliament proposal... would only further distort EU market structure," the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) said in a statement last week. The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) also backs parliament's position, saying liquidity in European stock markets has contracted by 25% since 2013 compared with a 23% rise on U.S. markets, with a number of factors contributing to this.

☆ Global watchdog issues blueprint for banks to report cyber attacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - The G20's financial watchdog on Thursday recommended a blueprint for banks to report cyberattacks in a common format in a bid to speed up responses to hacking and limit the fallout on financial stability. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which comprises central banks, financial regulators and treasury officials from the Group of 20 (G20) major economies, set out the recommendations following a public consultation. "The interconnectedness of the global financial system makes it possible that a cyber incident at one financial institution (or an incident at one of its third-party service providers) could have spill-over effects across borders and sectors," the FSB said in a statement. "Over the last decade, however, meaningful differences have and continue to emerge in the requirements and practices associated with cyber incident reporting." Reporting by Huw Jones Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ KPMG fined 875,000 pounds for failures in Luceco audit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - KPMG has been fined 875,000 pounds ($1.09 million) for its audit of lighting manufacturer Luceco (LUCEL.L) for its financial year to Dec. 31, 2016, Britain's accounting watchdog said on Thursday. During 2016 Luceco was the parent of companies that produced and distributed lighting products and wiring accessories, with subsidiaries in China and other countries. "The breaches included failures in the design and performance of audit procedures, failures to adequately review and critically assess the audit evidence obtained, failure to document the audit work and failures by the respondents to apply professional scepticism," the Financial Reporting Council said in a statement. Smith, who no longer works at KPMG, was fined 50,000 pounds. Cath Burnet, head of audit at KPMG UK, said the accounting firm is committed to dealing with and learning from its historical cases and regretted that aspects of its 2016 audit of Luceco fell short of required standards.

☆ Marketmind: Dollar skids, China revs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The dollar's DXY index - the Swiss franc hit its strongest level in more than two years. Taking in all the information, futures markets still show a near 75% chance of another quarter point rate rise to the 5.0-5.25% range in May, but more than 60 basis points of cuts from there to yearend. Two-year Treasury yields were stuck at 4%, with producer price inflation and weekly jobless up next on Thursday's data calendar. European markets were further pepped by reports the European Central Bank was minded to downsize its rate hikes to a quarter point in May after six successive half point moves. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ LSE teams with digital trading platform to offer bitcoin futures and options
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange Group has teamed up with Global Futures and Options (GFO-X) to offer Britain's first regulated trading and clearing in bitcoin index futures and options derivatives, the companies said on Thursday. GFO-X, which is licensed by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, is a start-up platform aimed at global institutional investors who want to trade digital asset derivatives. LSEG's Paris-based LCH SA clearing unit will introduce a new, segregated clearing service, DigitalAssetClear, for cash-settled dollar-denominated digital assets traded on GFO-X. "GFO-X is taking the first steps to extracting efficiencies from new technologies within a traditional market structure, with the goal over time of delivering 24/7 trading to global regulated digital asset markets," GFO-X said in a statement. Frank Soussan, head of LCH DigitalAssetClear, said bitcoin index futures and options are a rapidly growing asset class, with increasing interest among institutional investors.

☆ Banking turmoil questions begin at board level, says Basel's de Cos
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

These events marked the first real stress test of banks since the global financial crisis of 2007-09, de Cos told an Institute of International Finance roundtable in Washington. While it was unlikely a single culprit was to blame, he said the "whodunnit" task should start with bank boards. "A bank’s board, senior management and risk management function should be asking themselves questions in a timely fashion and taking credible measures to shore up resilience," de Cos said. De Cos also said supervisors should also ask tough questions and take "decisive action" to ensure safety and soundness of banks. Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England and former chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the G20 watchdog that drove through post-global financial crisis reforms of banking rules, has called for a rethink of bank liquidity rules.

☆ G20 financial watchdog seeks to learn from latest banking turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 12 (Reuters) - The G20's financial watchdog on Wednesday said rules it introduced after the global financial crisis had prevented contagion from the latest banking sector turmoil, but it would remain vigilant as the outlook has become more challenging. Unlike other market shocks, the latest episode originated in the financial sector, and therefore "put to the test" the G20's financial reforms, FSB Chair Klaas Knot said in a letter to G20 finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Washington. He said "rapid and effective" actions by authorities in Switzerland, the United States and other jurisidictions maintained global financial stability. "Without these reforms, the stress faced by individual banks could have led to broader contagion within the financial system," Knot said. The outlook for financial stability had become more challenging, Knot said, and the need for financial authorities to learn lessons and act upon them was "all the greater".

☆ BoE's Bailey says bank reforms worked but questions about liquidity buffers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Today I do not believe we face a systemic banking crisis. Bailey, however, echoed calls from his predecessor Mark Carney by saying there might be questions over the size of liquidity buffers required of banks in order to tide them over short-term shocks. This must beg the question of what are appropriate and desired liquidity buffers that create the time needed to take action to solve the problem." Data from the European Central Bank on Wednesday showed a slight weakening in liquidity buffers at banks it regulates, though they are still well above minimum requirements. Banks' holdings of liquidity have more than doubled since the global financial crisis, helping to contain fallout from the recent banking turmoil, de Cos said.

Reuters GraphicsNOTHING 'BROKEN' YETInternational economic officials gathering in Washington this week for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings can take some comfort that pandemic-era risks are continuing to diminish. An aggressive year of central bank rate hikes hasn't yet "broken" any of the economies involved, with the U.S. unemployment rate at 3.5%, near its lowest level since the late 1960s. Still, that terminal rate remains unclear, and the end of synchronized tightening by the Fed, BoE and European Central Bank doesn't mean tight monetary policy is going away. Wages, services and food are driving price growth to the point that the ECB's attention has shifted almost entirely to underlying inflation on fears that rapid price growth is at risk of getting stuck above target. The U.S. central bank is expected to increase its benchmark overnight interest rate by another quarter of a percentage point next month, and signal whether more hikes may be warranted.

☆ UK watchdog sets out plans to keep London a 'preeminent' financial centre
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

As global competition to attract listings becomes tougher, and London competes with European Union centres like Amsterdam in share trading since Brexit, regulators face pressure to speed up financial reforms. Such reforms "will help ensure that the UK maintains its position as a preeminent financial centre". The FCA announced last month it was investigating competition in UK financial data, whose findings will shape how consolidated tapes are constructed. The FCA said last week that UK listings rules were facing a shake-up, as the City worries about listings shifting to New York. It is taking on new responsibilities, such as crypto markets, speeding up authorisations, and stepping up enforcement against scams.

☆ Germany warns EU over tampering with schemes for struggling banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The EU's executive European Commission is due on April 18 to set out draft reforms to rules for handling stricken banks. The schemes link banks in a national network, allowing a struggling lender to get financial aid from the scheme's other members, forming part of a country's protections for bank depositors. CARVE OUTLindner said the commission's current plans would introduce a "number of new and significant restrictions" on IPS schemes by treating them like deposit guarantee schemes. A "clear and precise carve-out for IPS from newly introduced restrictions would be the easiest and cleanest way" to respect last year's agreement not to tamper with IPS, Lindner said. A report for the European Parliament last year said IPS represents a central and substantial component of depositor protections in Germany.

☆ EU vote on human rights 'due diligence' looms for financial firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

EU states and the European Parliament have the final say, and the inclusion of financial services has become one of the draft measure's most controversal aspects. Last December, EU states reached a deal among themselves, deciding to give themselves the option of excluding financial services from the rules. But parliament's lead legal affairs committee is due to vote on the draft measure on April 24, and its members have reached a tentative cross-party compromise that includes financial services, setting up a clash. Asset managers should engage with companies, use their voting rights to end harmful impacts, it added. After this month's vote, lawmakers would meet with EU states to thrash out a final version that becomes law.

☆ Liquidity rules need rethink after Silicon Valley Bank crash, says Carney
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the United States last month highlighted the "greater flightiness" of desposits, particularly those of small business clients, Carney told a Reuters Breakingviews podcast. Over $40 billion left Silicon Valley Bank in 24 hours, leaving authorities confronting a new risk: the social media bank run as depositors can withdraw cash with just a few taps on their phone. These buffers should also count a bank's access to central bank liquidity as part of their calculations, he added. The United States has generally applied Basel standards only to its biggest banks, which did not include Silicon Valley Bank. Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods told lawmakers last week that bank liquidity rules might now be an open question for international policymakers.

☆ Morning Bid: Markets brush off OPEC as factories stall
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike DolanRelatively calm world markets have brushed off OPEC's latest twist and focussed more squarely on stalled global manufacturing and edgy U.S.-China relations. Crude oil prices held much of Monday's pop higher on the surprise weekend production cut by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But Brent crude remains below levels seen just before the Silicon Valley Bank bust last month and is still tracking year-on-year declines of 20%. Strikingly, both short and long-term inflation expectations embedded in the Treasury markets , have barely budged since the OPEC news. McCarthy, the third-most-senior U.S. leader after the president and vice president, is due to host a meeting in California on Wednesday with Tsai.

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