RRP: PRA Gently Turns the Screw (but to what end?)

Introduction

On 19 December 2013, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) issued Policy Statement PS8/13 together with two Supervisory Statements, SS18/13 on recovery planning, and SS19/13 on resolution planning.  Together, this guidance details the PRA’s final RRP rules for UK banks, building societies and UK designated investment firms. Their publication follows on from the FSA’s original consultation paper (CP11/16) and Feedback Statement (FS12/1).  The final rules are set out in the PRA Rulebook Recovery and Resolution Instrument 2013 (PRA 2013/37), which is annexed to PS8/13 and come into force 1 January 2014.

RRD Compromise Text Published

On 22 December 2013 the Council of the EU published a note attaching the final compromise text of the proposed Recovery and Resolution Directive (RRD) agreed with the European Parliament.  Agreement in trialogue had previously been reached on 11 December 2013.

On 20 December 2013, the Permament Representatives Committee (COREPER) of the Council of the EU also published a press release confirming that it had approved (on the Council’s behalf) the compromise text agreed with the Parliament.  The text of the RRD now needs to be formally adopted by the EU Parliament and the Council.

Single Resolution System- closer to being resolved

MEP’s voted on the 17^th to establish their position on critical details of the single resolution system. During yesterday’s Parliamentary hearing, ECB President Mario Draghi said,

How to Spot a G-SII

Introduction

On 12 December 2013, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a consultation paper on draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the methodology for the identification of global systemically important institutions (G-SIIs)[1] and draft implementing technical standards (ITS) on uniform formats and dates for the disclose of the values of the indicators used for determining the score of G-SIIS[2].

EU Banking Reform Legislation Expected January 2014

On 11 December 2013, the European Commission published a press release containing remarks made by Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services on EU banking structural reform.  Mr Barnier stated that the legislative proposal on EU banking reform will be presented at the beginning of January 2014.  Following the recent publication of the Volcker Rule on 10 December 2013, the Commission will also look at the details of this new rule (see this blog post for more details).  For certain banks deemed too big to fail, he explained that the EU banking reform proposal will consider separation, calibration and treatment of the risks taken by these banks.

Trilogue Agreement Reached on RRD

On 12 December 2013, the European Commission published a press release announcing that on 11 December 2013, Parliament and Council Presidency negotiators reached political agreement in trilogue on the proposed Recovery and Resolution Directive (RRD). The Directive will enter into force on 1 January 2015 and will introduce the bail-in principle which will apply from 1 January 2016. The Directive now needs official approval by the Parliament and Council of the EU at first reading.

SRM Update

On 6 December 2013, the Presidency of the EU Council published its latest compromise proposal (17410/13) with respect to the single resolution mechanism (SRM). Changes to the previous compromise text (17055/13) are highlighted in bold and underlined. The Council has also published a Presidency report (17411/13)  dated 6 December 2013 detailing key outstanding issues relating to the SRM Regulation including:

Banking Union Details to be Discussed in Emergency Meeting

Yesterday’s meeting of finance ministers in Brussels failed to establish crucial details over bail-in according to the Financial Times. The negotiations did produce a draft compromise broadly based on Germany’s revised position (see this blog post for more details).  The financing details will be left to an emergency meeting on the eve of the next EU summit in Brussels on 19 December 2013.  In the event Brussels rejects the board proposal, the plans would need the approval of the European Commission or a majority vote of banking union member states.

France and Germany inch toward banking union deal

An article in today’s Financial Times reports that, today’s meeting of finance ministers in Brussels is expected to make further progress on the creation of a single banking framework union. Following a meeting of key countries and EU officials in Berlin last Friday, unsubstantiated reports that France and Germany were resolving ongoing differences and a deal was close to completion emerged.

FCA Legislation Update