16 September 2021

Brussels4Breakfast 175: risks to the City of London, German elections, new AML initiatives...

The main challengers to the City may be NY and Asian centres, but Brussels still matters - and there seems to be little let-up in its policy of non-cooperation with London, particularly over CCPs.

Why you should watch:

 But there is a lot more going on that will impact on the City - including the ESAs' risk review, the Commission's AML package, the ECB's stress tests and the new European Green Bond standard. Will the EU really emerge as the global Green Bond leader? And what about Europe's plans for a digital currency? As for vdL's SoT(E)U speech, two things: talk of a European Defence Union may be significant - but equally significant was that Brexit didn't even merit a single mention (and the UK itself only one).

Moderator: Andrew Hilton (Director, CSFI)

Graham Bishop is the eponymous force behind grahambishop.com, and one of the UK's leading economic commentators on European affairs. A former bond analyst in the City, he has been following EU financial legislation for at least three decades.

Douglas McWilliams was Gresham Professor of Commerce in 2012-14. He is also the founder and (currently) Executive Deputy Chairman of the Centre for Economics and Business Research, which he set up in 1993, after having been chief economic adviser to the CBI.

John Rega is a director at the Brunswick Group in Brussels, having joined earlier this year from Politico - for whom he had covered European financial services. Before joining MLex (and Politico), he spent 12 years at Bloomberg, much of it in Washington DC, where he also worked for the Bureau of National Affairs.

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The topics for discussion were drawn from our lengthy list of `summer' events:

Brexit: TheCityUK – London at risk of losing global crown within 5 years; Bruegel: Banks post Brexit regulatory divergence or parallel tracks? ECON brief: main difference in supervising large banks in UK v Euro area? FT: City of London grapples with wave of post-Brexit regulation, UK and Singapore mark a new era of fincial service co-operation; ESMA publishes methodology for assessing third country CCPs' systemic importance

General: German elections – implications; ESAs highlight risks of market corrections

Banking: Commission AML package; ECB stress test shows EU banks resilient; Integrating ESG factors into banking regulation

Capital Markets Union: Response to Commission retail investment strategy

ESG: New Sustainable Finance Strategy and a European Green Bond Standard; Taxonomy – green; Taxonomy - social; Sustainable tax system; Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive responses

Digital:  ECB starts 2- year investigation phase for it digital currency; IMF crypto assets as a national Currency: a step to far? FCA on risks of Token Regulation.

© CSFI