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On 18 February 2019, the European Banking Authority (EBA) opened a formal investigation into a possible breach of Union law by the Estonian Financial Services Authority (Finantsinspektsioon) and the Danish Financial Services Authority (Finanstilsynet) in connection with money laundering activities linked to Danske Bank and its Estonian branch in particular.

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) today published their final recommendations following a consultation on targeted amendments to the Delegated Regulation covering the rules for the Key Information Document (KID) for Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs).

The European Banking Authority (EBA) welcomed the National Bank of Moldova as an additional signatory party to the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with banking supervisory authorities in several South-Eastern European (SEE) countries. The MoC was signed in 2015 to establish a framework for cooperation and information exchange.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on fraud reporting under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). These Guidelines, which the EBA developed in close cooperation with the European Central Bank (ECB) and which are addressed to payment service providers and competent authorities, are aimed at contributing to the objective of PSD2 of enhancing the security of retail payments in the EU.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launches today a consultation on amendments and additions to CEBS Guidelines on interest rate risk from non-trading activities (IRRBB) published on 3 October 2006. The proposed changes are aimed at improving the management of IRRBB risks by institutions, and to promote the convergence of supervisory practices in reviewing and evaluating institutions under the Pillar 2 assessment process. The consultation runs until 27 September 2013.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines regarding the types of exposures to be associated with high risk under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). Through these Guidelines, the EBA aims not only to enable a higher degree of comparability in terms of current practices in identifying exposures associated with high risk, but also to facilitate the transition to the upcoming regulatory revisions, noting that the forthcoming implementation of the revised Basel standards will only apply as of 2022.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an updated version of the CEBS guidelines on technical aspects of the management of interest rate risk arising from non-trading activities under the supervisory review process, published on 3 October 2006. The guidance provided in these updated guidelines applies to the interest rate risk arising from non-trading activities (IRRBB), one of the Pillar 2 risks specified in the Capital Requirements Directive (CRDIV).

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) approved on 10 January 2019 the content of the Multilateral Agreement on the practical modalities for exchange of information between the European Central Bank (ECB) and all competent authorities (CAs) responsible for supervising compliance of credit and financial institutions with anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations under the fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD4). The Agreement will create a clear framework for exchanging information between the ECB and CAs and potentially will enhance the effectiveness of their supervisory practices.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a report on the costs and performance of structured deposits in the European Union (EU). The report is a response to a request the EBA had received from the EU Commission as part of the implementation of it Capital Market Union Action Plan and concludes that the market for structured deposits in the EU appears to be limited in size and that data on costs and performance is not widely available. The report, therefore, also sets out the steps the EBA will take to enhance the data quality in the future.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today two reports on the consistency of risk weighted assets (RWAs) across all EU institutions authorised to use internal approaches for the calculation of capital requirements. The reports cover credit risk for high and low default portfolios (LDPs and HDPs), as well as market risk. The results confirm previous findings, with the majority of risk-weights (RWs) variability explained by fundamentals. These benchmarking exercises, conducted by the EBA on an annual basis are a fundamental supervisory and convergence tool to address unwarranted inconsistencies and restoring trust in internal models.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the results of its assessment of the applicability and suitability of EU law to crypto-assets. Typically, crypto-asset activities do not constitute regulated services within the scope of EU banking, payments and electronic money law, and risks exist for consumers that are not addressed at the EU level. Crypto-asset activities may also give rise to other risks, including money laundering. In light of these issues, the EBA recommends that the European Commission carry out further analysis to determine the appropriate EU-level response. The EBA also identifies a number of actions that it will take in 2019 to enhance the monitoring of financial institutions’ crypto-asset activities and consumer-facing disclosure practices.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Risk Dashboard, which summarises the main risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector using quantitative risk indicators. Together with the Risk Dashboard, the EBA published the results of its Risk Assessment Questionnaire, which includes the opinions of banks and market analysts on the risk outlook collected in autumn 2018. In the third quarter (Q3) of 2018, the Dashboard confirms improvements in both asset quality and capital ratios, while profitability remains subdued.

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published today a joint report on innovation facilitators (regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs). The report sets out a comparative analysis of the innovation facilitators established to date within the EU. The ESAs also set out best practices for the design and operation of innovation facilitators.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) updated today its Recommendation on the equivalence of confidentiality and professional secrecy regimes by adding three non-EU (third country) supervisory authorities to the current list of third country supervisory authorities whose confidentiality regimes can be regarded as equivalent. The EBA Recommendation is designed as a guide for EU authorities in their assessment of third country equivalence with the aim of facilitating cooperation with third country supervisory authorities and their participation in supervisory colleges overseeing international banks.

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have today issued a consultation paper on targeted amendments to the Delegated Regulation covering the rules for the Key Information Document (KID) for Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs).

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a response to a letter it had received from a law firm regarding the case of a reclassification by an institution of some specific grandfathered own funds instruments. The EBA also addressed this issue through its Q&A process. In particular, Q&A 2018_4417 (Own funds - Reclassification of own funds instruments from a grandfathered category to a fully eligible category and purpose of grandfathering provision ), clarifies in more general terms the appropriate prudential treatment for such cases.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today some initial observations on the post-implementation impact of IFRS 9 on EU banks. This exercise, which builds on the two pre-implementation impact assessments published in November 2016 and July 2017, is mainly based on data extracted from institutions’ supervisory reporting. The initial observations from this exercise are consistent with the forecasts of the second EBA impact assessment report. The report also identifies some areas for ongoing scrutiny and further work from an EBA perspective.

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published today two joint draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) to amend the RTS on the clearing obligation and risk mitigation techniques for non-cleared OTC derivatives. These standards provide a specific treatment for simple, transparent and standardised (STS) securitisation to ensure a level playing field with covered bonds. They are required for the proper implementation of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and will amend the current regulation on the clearing obligation and risk mitigation techniques on OTC derivatives not cleared by central counterparties (CCPs).

As a follow up to its June 2018 Opinion on financial institutions' preparedness for the UK withdrawal from the EU, the European Banking Authority (EBA) today reminds affected financial institutions to maintain their efforts in effective contingency planning and to increase their efforts in communicating to customers. The EBA urges such institutions to take its Opinion into careful consideration and to swiftly proceed with advising customers on the specific implications stemming from the UK withdrawal from the EU.