The Commission has on 26 October adopted a legislative proposal to make instant payments in euro, available to all citizens and businesses holding a bank account in the EU and in EEA countries. The proposal aims to ensure that instant payments in euro are affordable, secure, and processed without hindrance across the EU. Instant payments allow people to transfer money at any time of any day within ten seconds. This is much faster compared to traditional credit transfers, which are received by payment service providers only during business hours and arrive at the payee’s account only by the following business day, which could take up to three calendar days. Instant payments significantly increase speed and convenience for consumers, for example when paying bills or receiving urgent transfers (e.g. in case of medical emergency). Continue reading…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) recently published a report on liquidity in core government bond markets. The report forms part of the FSB’s work programme to enhance the resilience of non-bank financial intermediation (NBFI). Changes in core government bond markets over the past decade may have made them more prone to liquidity imbalances in times of stress. The severe dislocations experienced in those markets during the March 2020 turmoil were the outcome of large spikes in the demand for liquidity by various market participants, especially non-banks. Continue reading…

Kwayga, the leading online matching platform for national and international B2B buyers and suppliers within the food and beverage industry, has announced that it will be offering one year free premium membership to its platform to Ukrainian food and beverage suppliers as a way of supporting the industry during the ongoing conflict with Russia. The announcement came during the recent webinar hosted by Kwayga called ‘Ukraine is open for business’ and included speakers such as Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Trade Representative at the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, Larysa Gerasko, Ambassador of Ukraine to Ireland and Mariia Dehtiarova, Export Promotion Manager at U-Food Association, whose mission it is to develop and promote Ukrainian food worldwide. Continue reading…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published a proposed framework for the international regulation of crypto-asset activities. The core components of this framework are proposals for: recommendations that promote the consistency and comprehensiveness of regulatory, supervisory and oversight approaches to crypto-asset activities and markets and strengthen international cooperation, coordination and information sharing; and revised high-level recommendations for the regulation, supervision, and oversight of “global stablecoin” arrangements to address associated financial stability risks more effectively. Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found 7.8 million people are finding it a heavy burden to keep up with their bills, an increase of around 2.5 million people since 2020. The FCA has published a snapshot of the latest edition of its landmark Financial Lives survey, which was carried out between February and June 2022. One in four UK adults are in financial difficulty or could quickly find themselves in difficulty if they suffered a financial shock, and 4.2 million people have missed bills or loan payments in at least three of the six months before the survey took place.   Continue reading…

Almost 3 000 cross-border money laundering cases have been registered at Eurojust during the past six years. Since 2016, the number of cases brought to the Agency has been steadily rising. Over 600 cases were brought to the Agency in 2021, representing more than double of those registered in 2016.These are some of the findings of Eurojust’s first comprehensive report on money laundering, published on 20 October. Due to its clandestine nature, the global scale of money laundering is difficult to measure, but it is considered to be significant. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that between 2 and 5% of global GDP – up to 1.87 trillion Euros – is laundered each year. This reflects Eurojust’s case statistics that show that money laundering cases accounted for almost 15% of all cases registered at the Agency between 2016 and 2021. Continue reading…

Supported by Eurojust and Europol, French authorities, in collaboration with Latvia and Spain, have taken action against an organised crime group (OCG) that used fraudulent software to duplicate keys and steal cars in France. In a coordinated action carried out in the three countries involved, thirty one suspects were arrested and twenty-two locations were searched. The suspects allegedly produced and used fraudulent software to steal vehicles by duplicating the vehicles’ ignition keys. Marketed as an automotive diagnostic solution, the tool was able to replace the original software of the targeted vehicles without respecting the protocol and without the original key. Continue reading…

by Michel Klompmaker

Last week from October 10 to October 13, the RAI Congress Center was all about SIBOS. It started with the official opening by Queen Maxima, who appeared on stage just in time to dutifully read her story from the paper. She spoke in her capacity as “United Nations Secretary-General’s Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA)”. Her presentation was preceded by that of Swift chairman Yawar Shah, who was of course very content with the fact that SIBOS was able to be held live again after three years. During the plenary opening, CEO Javier Pérez-Tasso also spoke about the challenges of the sector. Mairead McGuiness, EU Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets spoke to us via video link. Those were strange days because somehow there was a kind of weird atmosphere and menace over the market. Not in the sense of a sudden fall in the stock markets, but rather the threat of a nuclear conflict on European soil after the attack on the Russian bridge towards Crimea. The same thoughts came back to me from September 2008, during SIBOS in Vienna, when it was announced that Lehman Brothers had fallen over…

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On 15 October, Klaas Knot delivered a speech at the 37th Annual G30 International Banking Seminar. Shocks are hitting the euro area economy. A mixture of global shocks has set-off high inflation. The pandemic first caused supply chain restrictions, pushing up inflation, which was subsequently reinforced by pent-up demand. This strong demand shock effect in the first half of this year has been an upside surprise for central banks. A similar pattern can be observed in the energy crisis as a result of the war in Ukraine. The disrupted energy supply is a classic negative supply shock leading to elevated energy prices. Governments have responded with extensive fiscal measures, which support demand. If the scope of the support measures is too broad, they will fuel inflation. Continue reading…

This report presents key developments in the area of migration and asylum, and it takes stock of the progress achieved in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum in the past year. It identifies key challenges ahead, highlighting the need for further progress towards a responsible and fair migration management system in the EU. From Russia’s war against Ukraine causing the largest forced displacement of people in Europe since the Second World War, to the instrumentalisation of migration for political purposes by the Belarusian regime, through a pandemic and unprecedented travel restrictions, all alongside continued and even growing pressure on traditional migratory routes – the EU has over the last year been faced with a series of challenges with major repercussions for migration, asylum and border management. Continue reading…