The EU financial legislative programme: what’s next?

Although there have been many complaints by the financial sector that there has been too many new EU legislations and regulations, there are still quite some initiatives and ongoing legislative proposals at EU level, some of which might actually reverse some of the earlier financial reforms. Here is a very short overview with the main legislative files:

Continuing legislative proposals in 2017 on which final decisions need to be taken include:

• Simple Transparent and Standardised (STS) Securitisation Regulation(opens in new window)
• Further reform of banking rules and capital requirements : Capital Requirement Directive V (CRD V) and Capital Requirement Regulation II (CRR II)(opens in new window)
• Regulation for a European Deposit Insurance Scheme Proposal(opens in new window)
• Banking Structural Reform (BSR)(opens in new window) to separate the most speculative banking activities from basic banking activities

For different legislation, technical standards have to be agreed, including on position limits on commodity derivatives trading and definition of speculative non-financial commodity traders

New legislative initiatives foreseen for 2017 include:

• A ‘mid-term review’ of the Capital Markets Union Action (CMU) plan, identifying remaining obstacles and any additional measures required, following the 2016 call for evidence on the cumulative impact of financial legislation;
• Revision of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) that deals amongst others with over-the-counter derivatives, central counter parties (CCPs), and reporting of derivatives trading ;
• A framework for an EU personal pension product;
• A review of the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of oversight at both macro- and micro- prudential levels;
• Different initiatives for fairer taxation of corporations, including avoid tax dodging;
• Legislation to facilitate funding of infrastructure corporates by institutional investors;
• An Action Plan on retail financial services (non-legislative);
• A new sustainable finance programme, based on the outcome of the High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (non-legislative), by the end of 2017.

This overview was first released in the ‘EU Financial Reform’ newsletter which is published by SOMO and German NGO WEED. Go to our archive to read all EU Financial Reform Newsletters(opens in new window)  or to subscribe.