The Eurofi Magazine April 2021
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www.eurofi.net VIEWS THE EUROFI MAGAZINE APRIL 2021 JOÃO LEÃO Minister of State for Finance, Portugal We must spare no efforts until we achieve a sustainable and inclusive recovery M. CENTENO Building upon the integration leap we experienced with the crisis M. MCGUINNESS Strengthening the European financial system after Brexit and the Covid crisis A. ALDER Key issues for global regulators post-Covid VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.EUROFI.NET for our latest publications on the conditions for relaunching growth post-Covid and on-going trends and policy developments in the financial sector EUROFI POLICY NOTES PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR VIEWS THE EUROFI VIEWS MAGAZINE APRIL 2021 This bi-annual Views Magazine comprises contributions from a wide range of public and private sector representatives on the challenges and conditions for relaunching growth post-Covid, on-going industry trends such as digitalisation and ESG and key on-going policy initiatives in the financial sector. EDITORIAL & OPENING INTERVIEWS 1. POST-COVID CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES Post-Covid economic and financial priorities ..................................................................................................................... 30 EU Recovery Package implementation ................................................................................................................................ 34 Fostering more investment in the EU .................................................................................................................................. 42 2. FINANCIAL RISKS AND STABILITY CHALLENGES Key financial sector vulnerabilities............................................................... ........................................................................ 52 Lessons from Covid on Non-Bank Financial Institution (NBFI) risks ................................................................................. 60 EU Anti Money Laundering (AML) policy redesign ............................................................................................................ 68 3. GLOBAL OUTLOOK Global fragmentation ........................................................................................................................................................... 74 Post-Brexit prospects ............................................................................................................................................................ 78 4. BANKING AND INSURANCE REGULATION Challenges faced by the EU banking sector ....................................................................................................................... 86 Basel banking standards evolution ..................................................................................................................................... 96 Policy priorities for the EU banking sector ........................................................................................................................ 102 EU Bank crisis management framework ........................................................................................................................... 108 Solvency II review ................................................................................................................................................................ 114 Insurance sector global issues ........................................................................................................................................... 122 4 | VIEWS | The EUROFI Magazine | April 2021 | eurofi.net CONTENT 5. FUTURE STEPS OF THE CMU New CMU action plan ......................................................................................................................................................... 130 AIFMD and ELTIF reviews .................................................................................................................................................... 138 Retail investment ................................................................................................................................................................. 144 Equity funding ..................................................................................................................................................................... 150 Securities and derivatives clearing .................................................................................................................................... 154 Securities post-trading ....................................................................................................................................................... 158 Consolidated tape and single access point ...................................................................................................................... 164 Relaunching securitization ................................................................................................................................................. 170 6. DIGITALISATION AND PAYMENTS Digital Finance Strategy ...................................................................................................................................................... 176 Financial data space and cloud infrastructure .................................................................................................................. 182 Adapting the financial framework to digitalization .......................................................................................................... 186 Crypto-assets and stablecoins ........................................................................................................................................... 190 Cross-border payments global roadmap .......................................................................................................................... 194 EU retail payment initiatives ............................................................................................................................................... 198 7. ESG AND SUSTAINABLE FINANCE ESG global and EU standards convergence ...................................................................................................................... 208 EU sustainable finance taxonomy ...................................................................................................................................... 216 Climate-risk implications .................................................................................................................................................... 222 eurofi.net | April 2021 | The EUROFI Magazine | VIEWS | 5 EDITORIAL CHALLENGING TIMES FOR THE EU AND ITS FINANCIAL INDUSTRY The April 2021 Eurofi High Level Seminar organized virtually in association with the Portuguese EU Presidency and the publication of this Magazine are taking place at a particularly challenging time, since the pandemic is not over in the world and in Europe. The responses to the Covid-19 crisis, how to relaunch growth in the EU and the role that the financial sector may play in this regard will provide major topics of discussion during this event and this Magazine offers a wide range of views on the related challenges and opportunities. The “Next Generation EU” Recovery plan in particular is a significant step towards more fiscal cohesion and solidarity, but money alone will not ensure recovery. One particular challenge at this point in time is the relaunching of productive investment DIDIER CAHEN and sustainable growth in the EU. Indeed, major investments are needed for supporting the post-Covid recovery, the EU Green Deal and digital transformation. However real Gross Domestic Product growth and productivity gains in the euro area have failed to catch up with the US, China and Japan over the past two decades and lasting low interest rates develop a preference for liquidity over productive investment among potential investors. Potential risks to global and European financial stability are another challenge. Near term financial stability risks are contained by massive monetary, fiscal, regulatory and supervisory support. But we are not out of rough waters. At the top of the list of threats lie high levels of public and private debt in a number of Member States, which cannot be alleviated by monetary policy. In addition, pushing too hard and too long on the monetary pedal may generate further vulnerabilities and eventually create the conditions for future crises. More structural policies are also needed in order to enhance fiscal sustainability. In terms of opportunities, major EU initiatives launched before the Covid crisis, such MARC TRUCHET as the Banking Union, the Capital Markets Union, the sustainable finance taxonomy and new initiatives such as the Digital Finance Strategy have the potential to provide the EU with the vibrant single market for financial services that is needed for funding the EU economy. However, these projects still need to become a reality. How to implement these initiatives in an effective way will be at the centre of the discussions of this event. In preparation for these debates, the Eurofi secretariat has prepared several papers on these issues that can be found in the April 2021 issue of the Eurofi Regulatory Update and the speakers participating in this event have been invited to express their views on these questions in this Magazine. We are grateful to the 180 public and private sector representatives who have provided us with input on these issues, and we are