The European Parliament has published provisional versions of the following legislative texts adopted at its recent plenary session:
The European Commission has published a press release in which Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services, welcomes the European Parliament’s approval of the proposed Regulation on improving securities settlement and central securities depositaries (the CSD Regulation). Following the recent vote in plenary, the CSD Regulation needs to be formally adopted by the Council of the EU. It is expected that the rules will be published in the Official Journal of the EU in the third quarter of 2014.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has updated its questions and answers (Q&As) on the single rulebook which relate to the CRD IV package of reforms: the CRD IV Directive, the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and the related technical standards and guidelines developed by the EBA. The latest addition relates to article 310 CRR and considers the calculation of own funds requirements for exposures to a qualifying central counterparty.
Following the European Parliament vote which approved the draft legislative texts of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (recast) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) (together MiFID II), the European Commission has published a statement and a memo containing FAQs.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has updated its work programme for 2014. The update follows a series of calls for advice from the European Commission and most of the additional work concerns technical advice relating to the Capital Requirements Regulation and the Capital Requirements Directive IV (CRR/CRD IV).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has issued a list of incorrect validation rules found in its implementing technical standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting. As a consequence, data submitted in accordance with these ITS should not be validated against the published set of incorrect rules. The EBA will publish updated versions of the list in advance of the remittance date for Q1 2014 data, which is 30 June 2014.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has issued a press release in which it welcomes the European Commission’s adoption of its implementing technical standards on supervisory reporting.
In accordance with the opinion, the remittance dates of the first set of supervisory reports are postponed from April/May 2014 to end June 2014. However, there is no change to reference dates.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has published FAQs on the Basel III liquidity coverage ratio (LCR). The purpose of the FAQs is to promote the consistent global implementation of the requirements and deal with a number of interpretation questions that the BCBS received following the publication of the LCR standard in January 2013. The BCBS will be updating the FAQs periodically.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced on April 9 that it has uncovered no evidence of systematic failings in retail claims handling practices. Last year, the FCA launched a thematic review of claims handling in personal lines, with a particular focus on household and travel products. Based on its findings, the FCA is not proposing any new requirements or rule changes for firms in this area.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has published the April 2014 issue of its newsletter, Outlook, in which it announces that its levy for 2014/15 will be £276 million. Admittedly this is £37 million less than the estimated levy of £313m that was projected by the FSCS in January 2014, when it consulted on its 2014/15 plan and budget. The reason for this, is that payment protection insurance claims reached a plateau in 2013/14 and are now more than likely on a downward trend.