Officials in the USA have announced an $18.7 billion settlement with BP that resolves years of litigation over the oil spill of five years ago.
The settlement announcement comes as a federal judge was preparing to rule on how much BP owed in federal Clean Water Act penalties after million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill resulted from the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers.

TARGET2-Securities (T2S), the Eurosystem’s landmark platform for securities settlement, started live operation on the 22 of June 2015. A first group of securities depositories and their user communities from Greece, Malta, Romania and Switzerland are now connected to T2S for settlement of euro transactions. Continue reading…

The presidents of five European institutions published a report entitled “Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union,” commissioned by leaders at the Euro Summit last October. The report, written by the presidents of the European Council, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Eurogroup and the European Central Bank, lays out a roadmap for further integration of the euro area. Continue reading…

By Peter Praet

Long-run growth, monetary policy and financing of the economy may seem like an unusual combination of topics, as it is often argued that monetary policy has no long-run effects. Monetary policy can however affect long-run growth in several ways. Continue reading…

Euro area systemic stress has remained low over the past six months, according to the latest Financial Stability Review of the European Central Bank (ECB), which was released recently. This also reflects ECB action that calmed fears of a too prolonged period of low inflation threatening to harm both price and financial stability.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an Opinion to the European Union (EU) institutions on the impact of EMIR on UCITS. In the opinion, ESMA calls for a modification of the UCITS Directive to take into account the clearing obligations for certain types of over-the-counter (OTC) financial derivative transactions under EMIR.
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Is your current system holding you back? Are you equipped for regulatory changes? We have conducted a survey exploring how much of a problem an outdated investment management system poses. System limitation and incompatibility with other technologies are just a couple of examples outlined by a great majority of asset managers.

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A few days ago, information related to planned confidential Bank work on the potential implications of a renegotiation and national referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union made its way into the public domain, due to an internal email sent inadvertently to an external party. Continue reading…

by Andy Scherpenberg

VAT carousels, intentional road collisions to defraud the insurance companies, ‘man in the browser’ technology that intercepts your financial transactions and modifies both amount and account number while you are still seeing the usual transaction screens: fraud has permeated every sector and is taking new forms and shapes. Fraudsters are becoming smarter by the day and they have access to more and more resources. In a previous blog post you could already get a sense if the impressive weaponry that the fraudsters have at their disposal. Continue reading…

Businesses should consider appointing an executive risk leader to navigate today’s increasingly complex world, or risk leaving their company exposed to the next big crisis, according to Airmic and other leading business organisations. The association’s CEO, John Hurrell, (see photo above)  has said this would open up exciting opportunities for risk professionals wanting a more strategic influence in their business.

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