Some days after the agreement paving the way for a new support programme for Greece, the European Commission revealed plans to help Greece maximise its use of EU funds. As mandated by the Euro Summit on 12/13 July, this will help mobilise more than €35 billion up to 2020 to support the Greek economy, provided that the conditions agreed upon by the Euro Summit will be met. Continue reading…

From mid-August on the German-language site will be live of your Risk & Compliance Platform Europe live. This is the fourth language added to our European Platform. Continue reading…

The euro was increasingly used as a funding currency by international borrowers in 2014 and early 2015, compared with the previous review period, while the share of the euro in foreign exchange reserves remained broadly stable. These are among the main findings of the report on “The international role of the euro”, which examines developments in the use of the euro by non-euro area residents in 2014 and early 2015 and was published today by the European Central Bank (ECB). Continue reading…

Policyholders should be willing to pay higher insurance premiums for contract certainty, according to an Airmic report on the importance of business-critical insurance launched at its annual conference. Produced in conjunction with PwC, it urges policyholders and insurers to raise awareness at board level of the strategic value of certain types of insurance. Continue reading…

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank decided today to maintain the provision of emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to Greek banks at the level decided on 26 June 2015 after discussing a proposal from the Bank of Greece.

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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…