A challenge by Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, which could have derailed the Bundesbank’s participation in the European Central Bank’s (ECB) stimulus programmes, appears to have been resolved. 

German payments firm Wirecard has filed for insolvency following a scandal involving the disappearance of €1.9bn in cash from its balance sheet, raising concerns that it was inadequately supervised. 

European Commission proposals for a ‘quick fix’ package to the capital requirements regulation (CRR) to help mitigate the capital impact on banks from the economic slump caused by the Covid-19 pandemic were approved by the European Parliament and Council. 

Banks and insurers have been ordered by the Bank of England to draw up plans by the end of 2021 detailing how they will cope with climate change risks. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown European banks the “art of the possible” as they responded in record time to the fast evolving crisis, and consultancy McKinsey argues that this mindset is integral to these institutions reinventing themselves within the next three years. 

In an assessment of bond market transparency over two years after the markets in financial instruments directive (MiFID) II came into force, the French securities regulator, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), found there are still too many gaps in the needed data to gain a full picture of market activity. 

Commercial banks have waded into the Bank of England policy-makers’ debate over the possibility of imposing negative interest rates, warning that it would crush their earnings and diminish their ability to absorb an expected avalanche of bad loans as a result of the coronavirus crisis.