Grant Thornton’s "The Financial Services Insider" is a Quarterly Newsletter designed to help you navigate the constantly changing regulatory landscape within which your business operates.
"The Financial Services Insider" covers the main regulatory developments in the Financial Services sector, published by the EU and Greek competent authorities the previous quarter, in order to help you remain up-to-date with the most significant regulatory updates affecting your organization.
The most important highlights of the 3rd quarter of 2020
Third-quarter 2020 saw a lot of important developments in the area of Anti-Money Laundering, Government, Capital Market and Risk Management, while the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continued to dominate the regulatory agenda.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
New Law 4734/2020 transposed into national law the 5th AML Directive amending Law 4557/2018 on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The 5th anti-money laundering Directive introduces articles that add new categories of the obliged entities. The main goal of the 5th Directive is to enhance transparency, improve cooperation and strengthen the exchange of information between anti-money laundering supervisors, broaden the criteria for the assessment of high-risk countries and limit the anonymity related to virtual currencies.
Governance
An updated working programme has been published by EBA in light of the COVID-19 pandemic so as to allow the banks to focus on and ensure continuity of their core operations including support to their customers. The European Central Bank has published for consultation a guide intended to clarify its supervisory approach to consolidation projects involving euro area banks. The Financial Stability Board has also published an evaluation of too-big to fail reforms that made the banks more resilient and resolvable underlined though that the gaps need to be addressed.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
The European Regulation 2020/852 has entered into force in regard to the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, and amending Regulation 2019/2088. EBA published its response to the European Commission’s consultation on a Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy which mandates the EBA to take into account sustainable business models and the integration of ESG factors in the field of activities of credit institutions, financial conglomerates, investment firms, payment institutions and e-money institutions, to the extent necessary to ensure the effective and consistent application of its mandates.
Risk Management
The European Commission is close to adopting its legislative proposal on Digital Operation Resilience for the financial sector. The legislative proposal establishes a unified framework for the coherent application of all components of risk management for the information and communication technology. ESMA announced that risk parameters on stress test scenarios will be updated and has published a report in regard to the sanctions imposed under the Markets in Financial Instrument Directive (MiFiD II) by National Competent Authorities (NCAs).
FinTech
The European banking supervision (ESBC) published the responses provided to a consultation paper of European commission (EC) related to the new digital finance strategy for Europe taking into accounts the new challenges and risks that the pandemic highlighted. The Bank for International Settlements has published a paper named “Rise of the central bank digital currencies: drivers, approaches and technologies”.
Capital Markets
The European Banking Authority published a final report concerning amendments to its existing guidelines on uniform disclosures under Article 473a of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) on the transitional period for mitigating the impact of the introduction of IFRS9 on own funds to ensure compliance with the CRR ‘quick fix’ in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other areas of interest
Law 4714/2020 was published on 31.07.2020 in the Government Gazette and transposed into national law, among others, the EU Directives 2018/822 and 2020/876, which provide for the mandatory reporting of information on reportable cross-border arrangements. Law 4107/2020 has been published recently establishing the rules of granting microfinance.
For more information contact us: RiskandRegulatory@gr.gt.com
