Author: Selwyn Manning

Source: European Banking Authority

The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – the ESAs) today published their Spring 2025 Joint Committee update on risks and vulnerabilities in the EU financial system, which focuses on the challenges linked to geopolitical tensions and cyber risks.

The ESAs warn that growing geopolitical tensions and rising cyber risks present significant challenges to financial stability. These include trade disputes, rapidly shifting policies, ongoing international conflicts and the prospect of economic fragmentation which are reshaping global markets, requiring heightened vigilance and adaptability from supervisors and financial entities alike.

Financial institutions must navigate growing uncertainties, including exposure to international markets, liquidity risks and the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI). Ensuring resilience in the face of these developments is crucial.

The ESAs, therefore, emphasise the need for proactive risk management, stronger cyber resilience and a close monitoring of global financial linkages. As financial markets continue to evolve, international cooperation and regulatory preparedness will be key to maintaining stability. Against a background of high geopolitical risks, the ESAs recommend that supervisors and financial entities prepare for continued market volatility, consider the potential materialisation of liquidity risks and stand ready to adapt to adverse developments, including by provisioning adequately.

To better manage cyber and digitalisationrisks, supervisors and financial institutions should continue to strive for robust data governance, critically assess AI solutions and their compliance with the AI Act, and support the timely implementation of the Digital Operational Resilience Act’s provisions.

Background

This Spring 2025 Joint Committee update on Risks and Vulnerabilities was presented at the meeting of the Financial Stability Table of the EU’s Economic and Financial Committee (FST-EFC) on 27-28 March 2025 as input from the ESAs.

Source: European Banking Authority

The Joint Committee (JC) of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) has today published its evaluation report on the functioning of the EU Securitisation Regulation (SECR). The report puts forward recommendations to strengthen the overall effectiveness of Europe’s securitisation framework through simplification, while ensuring a high level of protection for investors and safeguarding financial stability.

This report identifies areas where the regulatory and supervisory framework can be enhanced, supporting the growth of robust and sound securitisation markets in Europe.

Key recommendations

Clarifying the scope of the Securitisation Regulation

The ESAs recommend specifying that the application of SECR is triggered where at least one party to the securitisation — whether on the sell-side or buy-side — is established in the European Union. This aims to ensure legal certainty and consistent supervision.

Broadening the definition of public securitisation

The report proposes reviewing the definition of public securitisation to include transactions where securities are:

• Issued with a prospectus approved under the EU Prospectus Regulation; or

• Admitted to trading on EU-regulated markets or multilateral trading facilities (MTFs); or

• Marketed broadly with non-negotiable terms and subject to a market test requiring EU originators or sponsors to demonstrate that transactions are not offered to an undefined public.

Introducing proportionality in due diligence requirements

The report calls for more proportionate and practical due diligence requirements, enabling institutional investors to receive data in formats that support meaningful risk assessment, along with commitments from sell-side parties to provide ongoing information throughout the life of the transaction.

Simplifying transparency and reporting requirements

Recommendations include streamlining reporting templates for public securitisations, improving data standardisation and introducing flexibility to use aggregated or stratified data for certain asset classes. The report also suggests targeted exemptions to reduce compliance burdens for small and medium-sized reporting entities.

Targeted changes to the STS framework

The report proposes focused adjustments to improve the efficiency of the Simple, Transparent, and Standardised (STS) framework, particularly in relation to on-balance-sheet (OBS) securitisations introduced under the Capital Markets Recovery Package (CMRP).

Clarifying risk retention rules

Clearer guidance on risk retention is recommended to reduce interpretation challenges, particularly for Collateralised Loan Obligations (CLOs) and including the term “predominant source of revenues”.

Promoting greater supervisory consistency across Europe

The need for stronger supervisory convergence is highlighted to prevent fragmentation and ensure consistent application across Member States. In the short term, this could be achieved through stronger coordination at the ESAs Joint Committee Securitisation Committee. In the longer term, the ESAs suggest exploring more consolidated European supervisory arrangements, especially for cross-border transactions.

Next steps

These recommendations will feed into the European Commission’s legislative review of the securitisation legislative framework, contributing to the development of well-functioning, resilient and transparent securitisation markets across the European Union.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 20-03-2025 | 15:15

Leading scientists

Minister Bruins: “The world is changing. Tensions are on the rise. We are seeing an increase in the number of scientists looking for another place to continue their work. I want more top international scientists to do so here in the Netherlands. After all, leading scientists are of immense value to the Netherlands and to Europe as a whole.”

A new NWO fund

Mr Bruins has asked the Dutch Research Council to establish a new fund as soon as possible to encourage outstanding researchers and talented scientists to come to the Netherlands to pursue their ambitions. For example, a financial package could be made available in the form of a grant. The aim is to ensure that scientists have the resources to live and work in the Netherlands and continue their research at a Dutch knowledge institution.

Details of the fund have yet to take shape, but the minister is eager to announce it at this early stage to scientists who are currently considering the next step in their career. It is important that they include the Netherlands in their deliberations. Other European countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Belgium are also taking initiatives to bring leading international scientists into the fold.

Truly international

A number of guiding principles of the fund have already been made clear. Eligibility is not restricted to Dutch nationals working abroad. Mr Bruins wants to open up the scheme to the full spectrum of top international talent, regardless of nationality. He also wants the fund to launch as soon as possible, sending a strong signal that leading researchers are welcome in the Netherlands. The ambition is that the fund will bring several dozen top scientists to the Netherlands. In close consultation with the Dutch Research Council, the minister expects to clarify the financial details in the coming weeks, along with the start date for the fund and the exact conditions that candidates will have to meet.

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a draft technical package for version 4.1 of its reporting framework. This publication aims to provide an early version of the 4.1 release to facilitate the implementation for the reporting entities. The final version is expected to be released in end May 2025.

The draft technical package provides the standard specifications that include the validation rules, the DPM and the XBRL taxonomies to support the following reporting obligations:

• Pillar 3 templates included in the comprehensive ITS on Pillar 3 disclosures, for the purpose of the Pillar 3 data hub.
• Own initiative guidelines on reporting of data that competent authorities will need for the purpose of their supervisory tasks and for significance assessment (MiCAR reporting Guidelines).
• Integration of Instant Payments reporting ITS into DPM and taxonomy
• In addition, a series of validation rules have been added to the ESG ad-hoc data collection module.

Background and next steps

The final version of the technical package for the 4.1 reporting framework will be published in end May 2025 and will include possible corrections coming from the revision of the technical package by various stakeholders.

In June 2024, the EBA published its plan for the implementation of DPM 2.0. The draft technical package for version 4.1 published today, continues the transition to DPM 2.0 and to the new glossary, as announced in June. This draft technical package includes a version of the data dictionary contents in both formats the DPM 1.0 and the new format DPM 2.0.

The FAQs published by EBA in December 2024 providing additional explanations on the transition to DPM 2.0 and new glossary period remain a good source of information and can be found here.

We welcome comments and suggestions for identified issues with the draft technical package 4.1 by 15 April 2025 or on the DPM new glossary at any time until the revision is finalized. Please send them through this form. 

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the 9th edition of its biennial Consumer Trends Report for 2024/25. The Report has identified payment fraud, indebtedness, and de-risking as the most important issues affecting EU consumers. The Report is based on information provided by the national authorities of the 27 EU Member States, selected national and EU consumer associations, EU industry associations, national ombudsmen, as well as quantitative data from a variety of sources, including for the first time the EBA’s new Retail Risk Indicators, which the EBA publishes separately since 2022 with a view to identify potential consumer harm.

The Report summarises the input the EBA has received to conclude that payment fraud is still the most significant issue for EU consumers. This also reflects the emergence of new types of fraud, such as social engineering techniques. In this type of scams, payers are manipulated into making a payment to the fraudsters, who have adapted their techniques to elude the application of the strong customer authentication requirements imposed by EU law.

Indebtedness emerges as the second most relevant issue reported to the EBA, with a significant rise of what is commonly referred to as ‘Buy-Now-Pay-Later’ credit and other types of small, fast, accessible and short-term credit. Inadequate creditworthiness assessment practices of lenders and poor disclosure of pre-contractual information are found to be key drivers to indebtedness.

De-risking is the third most relevant issue reported to the EBA, with more consumers facing increased difficulties in opening and retaining payment accounts, access to which is a prerequisite for residents in the EU to be able to participate in the EU economy. This issue is reported to materialise in the form of refused onboarding of new and the offboarding of existing consumers and seems to be affecting mostly specific categories of consumers, i.e., migrants, refugees, the homeless, cross-border workers, and individuals with poor financial histories.

Following these findings, the EBA will consider which actions to take in 2025/26 to address the topical issues identified in 2024/25 and with the aim of further enhancing consumer protection across the EU.

Legal basis and background

The Consumer Trends Report 2024/25 has been developed in fulfilment of the EBA’s mandate set out in Article 9(1) of its founding Regulation, which requires the Authority to take a leading role in promoting transparency, simplicity and fairness in the market for consumer financial products or services across the internal market, including by collecting, analysing and reporting on consumer trends.

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the 9th edition of its biennial Consumer Trends Report for 2024/25. The Report has identified payment fraud, indebtedness, and unwarranted de-risking as the most important issues affecting EU consumers. The Report is based on information provided by the national authorities of the 27 EU Member States, selected national and EU consumer associations, EU industry associations, national ombudsmen, as well as quantitative data from a variety of sources, including for the first time the EBA’s new Retail Risk Indicators, which the EBA publishes separately since 2022 with a view to identify potential consumer harm.

The Report concludes that payment fraud is still the most significant issue for EU consumers. This also reflects the emergence of new types of fraud, such as social engineering techniques. In this type of scams, payers are manipulated into making a payment to the fraudsters, who have adapted their techniques to elude the application of the strong customer authentication requirements imposed by EU law.

Indebtedness emerges as the second most relevant issue, with a significant rise of what is commonly referred to as ‘Buy-Now-Pay-Later’ credit and other types of small, fast, accessible and short-term credit. Inadequate creditworthiness assessment practices of lenders and poor disclosure of pre-contractual information are found to be key drivers to indebtedness.

Unwarranted de-risking is the third most relevant issue, with more consumers facing increased difficulties in opening and retaining payment accounts, access to which is a prerequisite for residents in the EU to be able to participate in the EU economy. This issue materialises in the form of refused onboarding of new and the offboarding of existing consumers and seems to be affecting mostly specific categories of vulnerable consumers, i.e., migrants, refugees, the homeless, cross-border workers, and individuals with poor financial histories.

Following these findings, the EBA will consider which actions to take in 2025/26 to address the topical issues identified in 2024/25 and with the aim of further enhancing consumer protection across the EU.

Legal basis and background

The Consumer Trends Report 2024/25 has been developed in fulfilment of the EBA’s mandate set out in Article 9(1) of its founding Regulation, which requires the Authority to take a leading role in promoting transparency, simplicity and fairness in the market for consumer financial products or services across the internal market, including by collecting, analysing and reporting on consumer trends.

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its updated methodology for the assessment of regulatory and supervisory frameworks of non-EU countries. The changes reflect the amendments to the revised Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Capital Requirements Directive (CRD).

The methodology used to perform a thorough assessment of the jurisdiction’s regulatory and supervisory framework is based on the following two questionnaires published on the EBA’s website:

• The 1^st step questionnaire consists of a preliminary screening to determine whether the main requirements and principles are in place.
• The 2^nd step questionnaire is a more in-depth examination, systematically mapping provisions of the EU framework with that of the non-EU country.

Further to aligning the methodology with the latest regulatory developments, the EBA also streamlined its 2^nd step questionnaire to improve the overall user experience.

Finally, the content of the questionnaires was moved to an online platform, allowing countries to reply directly via a secured digital format. Upon request, interested non-EU jurisdictions may get a dedicated access to this platform. They may contact the EBA for further information (Equivalence@eba.europa.eu).

Legal Basis and background

Article 33(2) provides that the EBA shall assist the European Commission in preparing equivalence decisions pertaining to regulatory and supervisory regimes in non-EU countries following a specific request for advice from the European Commission or where required to do so by the legislative acts referred to in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) 2010/1093.

Source: European Banking Authority

EMBARGOED UNTIL 20 MARCH 2025 AT 11:00 CET

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its Q4 2024 Risk Dashboard (RDB), which discloses aggregated statistical information for the largest EU/EEA institutions.

• EU/EEA banks reported a return on equity (RoE) of 10.5% in 2024, an increase of 10bps compared to 2023 (11.1% in Q3 2024). The return on assets for 2024 stood at 0.73%, up from 0.69% in 2023 (0.76% in Q3 2024).
• The net interest margin (NIM) decreased by 1bp to 1.66% on a quarterly basis, decreasing further from its peak level of 1.69% in March 2024. Despite the slowdown in net interest income (NII), the total income of EU/EEA banks benefited from a consistent rise in net fee and commission income (NFCI), which grew by 6.1% QoQ and 9.6% YoY (see figure 1).
• EU/EEA banks reported a quarterly increase of over 1% in loans to households and non-financial corporations (NFCs) across nearly all jurisdictions. Cash balances fell by close to 7% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ). At country level, most countries reported an increase in sovereign exposures. At EU/EEA level, they rose by more than 3% compared to Q2 2024 (EUR 118bn) to EUR 3.64tn (see figure 2).
• The asset quality of EU/EEA banks remained stable, with non-performing loans (NPLs) decreasing by 1.1% QoQ, amounting to EUR 375bn. All segments reported a reduction in NPLs, except for commercial real estate (CRE) loans with a marginal increase. Stage 2 loans rose by 2.6%, reaching EUR 1.57 trillion and accounting for 9.7% of the total loan portfolio (9.5% in Q3). The cost of risk held steady at 49 basis points, although substantial differences among countries remain.
• On a fully loaded basis, EU/EEA banks’ common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio held steady at 16.0%, a sign of the sector’s strong capitalisation. Risk weighted assets increased by close to 1.1%, as a result of further increases in credit and operational risks (see figure 3).
• The liquidity coverage (LCR) and net stable funding (NSFR) ratios experienced a minor adjustment in the last quarter, and stood at 163.4% (compared to 161.5% in Q3), and 127.1% (127.2% in Q3) respectively. Both ratios were well above their minimum requirements. The loan-to-deposit ratio for households and NFCs further declined to 104.9% due to deposits increasing faster than loans over the quarter. Deposits from households and NFCs grew by 2.8% in the last quarter.

Note: Due to data resubmissions, Q3 data have been restated and, therefore, slightly adjusted compared to previous publications.

Source: European Banking Authority

EMBARGOED UNTIL 20 MARCH 2025 AT 11:00 CET

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published key indicators on climate risk in the EU banking sector, based on information published by banks as part of their Pillar 3 ESG disclosures. This new dashboard is a first step in establishing a broader ESG risks monitoring framework and allows centralised access to comparable climate risk indicators. It also provides relevant benchmarks and enhances the assessment and monitoring of transition and physical climate-related risk across the EU/EEA banking sector.

The EBA has a traditional role in gathering data and analysing risks to facilitate the stability and effectiveness of the EU banking sector. The monitoring of ESG risks is a new initiative. This new interactive monitoring tool covers, for the time being, climate risk only, thus reflecting the scope of the quantitative Pillar 3 disclosures.

The data shows substantial EU/EEA banking sector exposure to sectors highly contributing to climate change, with average exposure shares to these sectors above 70% in most countries. Banks reported the share of exposures in areas subject to elevated physical risk below 30% on average, but the level of granularity of assessment differs across banks. The data further indicates a notable portion of loans secured by immovable property falling within the highest energy efficiency score buckets, although banks make considerable use of proxies and estimates.

The indicators are built based on data with reference dates of 31 December 2023 and 30 June 2024. The EBA intends to regularly update the indicators and to further develop the monitoring framework over time.

Legal basis

The ESG risk indicators have been developed in accordance with Article 29(f) of the EBA founding regulation (Regulation EU 1093/201), requiring the EBA to put in place a monitoring system to assess environmental, social and governance-related risks taking into account the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Moreover, the development of the ESG risk monitoring framework supports the Commission’s objective to systemically monitor climate-related financial stability risks. 

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 19-03-2025 | 10:45

The Ministerial Meeting in Amsterdam includes meetings to ensure more EU private investments in digital technologies and to improve access to financing for startups and scale-ups. The ministers will also discuss challenges regarding connectivity. Such as increasing the supercomputing capacity within the EU to be able to develop innovations in the field of both digital infrastructure and technology. During the D9+ the participating Ministers will also have meetings on artificial intelligence. Discussions will be held on topics like developing innovative AI technology and AI infrastructure within the EU and the use of AI in public services. During these meetings various guest speakers will also provide insight into how business investments can be stimulated.

The following Ministers from the D9+ Group will be in Amsterdam for the summit: Caroline Stage (Minister for Digital Affairs; Denmark), Liisa-Ly Pakosta (Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs; Estonia), Niamh Smyth (Minister of State for Trade, Promotion, AI and Digital Transformation; Ireland), Elisabeth Margue (Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister for Media and Connectivity; Luxembourg), Dariusz Standerski, Secretary of State for Digital Affairs; Poland); Margarida Balseiro Lopes (Minister for Youth and Modernization; Portugal), Ksenija Klampfer (Minister of Digital Transformation; Slovenia), Oscar Lopez Águada (Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service; Spain), Marian Jurečka, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs; Czech Republic), Erik Slottner (Minister for Public Administration; Sweden). The representatives from Belgium and Finland have to be confirmed yet.

The participating ministers have the ambition to deliver a final declaration which Minister Beljaarts will hand over to EU Commissioner Virkkunen. At the same time as the D9+ Ministerial Meeting both business federations (B9+) and start-up and scale-up organizations (S9+) from the thirteen countries involved will meet in Amsterdam.

Origin of D9+

In 2016, Sweden launched an initiative called ‘Digital Frontrunners’ following a report in which nine EU member states were designated as frontrunners. Four additional countries have since become members of the D9+. The Ministers meet informally twice a year to work together on their ambitions in the field of digital economy and technology. There is a rotating presidency. After the Netherlands, Portugal will organize the next D9+ in the second half of 2025.