Oonagh McDonald – FinConf News

After closely monitoring the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, the impact of the second COVID-19 wave and the related government restrictions taken in many EU countries, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has decided to reactivate its Guidelines on legislative and non-legislative moratoria. This reactivation will ensure that loans, which had previously not benefitted from payment moratoria, can now also benefit from them. The role of banks to ensure the continued flow of lending to clients remains of utmost importance and with the reactivation of these Guidelines, the EBA recognises the exceptional circumstances of the second COVID-19 wave.… [...]

ESAs propose to adapt the EMIR implementation timelines for intragroup transactions, equity options and novations to EU counterparties

23 November 2020

The European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), have today published a final report with draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) proposing to amend the Commission Delegated Regulation on the risk mitigation techniques for OTC derivatives not cleared by a CCP (bilateral margin requirements) under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). [...]

The EBA calls on the European Commission to harmonise the significant risk transfer assessment in securitisation

23 November 2020

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today a Report on significant risk transfer (SRT) in securitisation transactions, which includes a set of detailed recommendations to the European Commission on the harmonisation of practices and processes applicable to the SRT assessment. The EBA proposals aim to enhance the efficiency, consistency and predictability of the supervisory SRT assessment within the current securitisation framework. [...]

Banks report a significant use of COVID-19 moratoria and public guarantees

19 November 2020

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a first assessment of the use of COVID-19 moratoria and public guarantees across the EU banking sector. COVID-19 related moratoria on loan repayments provided breathing space to borrowers across many countries with many banks reporting that loans under moratoria represented a significant share of their total loans. The use of moratoria was particularly widespread for SMEs and commercial real estate but were also important for mortgage loans in some countries. While public guarantees were used to a lesser extent, they allowed banks to provide new lending to many companies impacted by the crisis.… [...]

Piers Haben speaks at the European Association for Banking and Financial Law event

19 November 2020

Piers Haben, Director of the Banking, Markets, Innovation and Consumers department at the EBA, spoke about a multi-layered approach to regulation at the event "What to regulate? How to regulate? Who should regulate?" organised by the European Association for Banking and Financial Law. In his speech, Piers Haben highlighted the EBA's approach towards innovative applications of technology in the financial sector in accordance with the principle of technological neutrality. [...]