Press releases

​​​​​​​The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – ESAs) held a joint public event in the format of a technical discussion about the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) on 6 February 2023. The online event gathered over 2,000 representatives from credit and payment institutions, investment firms, (re)insurance undertakings, ICT third-party service providers and other financial entities. The event allowed industry participants to engage with regulators on the new legislation, share their initial views and raise any potential areas of concern regarding the policy mandates the ESAs have to develop over the course of 2023 and 2024.

The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA - ESAs) published today a consultation paper on draft joint Guidelines on the system for the exchange of information when assessing the fitness and propriety requirements. These Guidelines aim to increase the efficiency of the information exchange between sectoral supervisors by harmonising practices and clarifying how competent authorities should use the information system developed by the three ESAs.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today the 2023 EU-wide stress test and released the macroeconomic scenarios. This year’s EU-wide stress test is designed to provide valuable input for assessing the resilience of the European banking sector in the current uncertain and changing macroeconomic environment. The adverse scenario is based on a narrative of hypothetical heightened geopolitical tensions, with high inflation and higher interest rates having strong adverse effects on private consumption and investments, both domestically and globally. In terms of GDP decline, the 2023 adverse scenario is the most severe used in the EU wide stress up to now. The severe nature of the adverse scenario reflects a deliberate choice and reflects the purpose of the stress test exercise, which is to assess the resilience of the European banking system to a hypothetical severely deteriorated macro-environment. The EBA expects to publish the results of the exercise at the end of July 2023.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published three Q&As that, jointly with three other Q&As that the EBA had published previously, clarify comprehensively the application of strong customer authentication (SCA) to digital wallets under the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2). This press release provides a summary of these Q&As and, thus, aims at bringing about a consistent understanding by all market stakeholders of the applicable requirements.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on its draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting with respect to IRRBB. Proportionality is a key consideration in the proposed new reporting, in order to make reporting requirements better suited to the size and risk of the institutions.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an Opinion on the draft European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) developed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). In this Opinion, addressed to the European Commission, the EBA acknowledges that, overall,  the draft ESRS are consistent with international standards and any other relevant EU Regulation. In addition, the EBA very much welcomes the level of alignment with the Pillar 3 disclosure requirements reached at this stage. The EBA also highlights a few aspects that should deserve further consideration by the European Commission.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a response to the letters received from a law firm on 23 June and 3 October 2022, regarding the case of the prudential classification as Tier 2 instruments of legacy perpetual bonds (so-called ‘Discos’) of an institution established in Norway (DNB Bank ASA).

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Report on high earners for 2021. The analysis shows a significant increase of the number of individuals working for EU banks and investment firms who received a remuneration of more than EUR 1 million. This increase is linked to the overall good performance of institutions, in particular in the area of investment banking and trading and sales, continuing relocations of staff from the UK to the EU and a general increase in salaries.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its annual quantitative Report on minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) with data as of December 2021. The Report is complemented by an analysis looking into the impact of the MREL framework on a number of relevant dimensions. As of 31 December 2021, the EBA estimated that 70 banks reported an MREL shortfall of EUR 33bn out of a sample of 245. This is down by 42% compared to last years’ quantitative report on MREL on a comparable basis. The Report shows progress in closing MREL shortfalls, albeit at a lower rate for smaller banks, and concludes that the impact of MREL on banks’ profitability is manageable, although heterogeneous across types of banks and Member States.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its Report on liquidity measures, which monitors and evaluates the liquidity coverage requirements currently in place in the EU. The liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) declined to 166% in June 2022. The fall was due to an increase in outflows driven by higher interest rates and volatility which led to a decline in asset prices during the first half of the year. The evolution of banks’ LCR levels is particularly relevant given the uncertain economic outlook with high levels of inflation and the process of normalisation of the monetary policy. EU banks hold materially lower liquidity buffers in foreign currencies, particularly the USD, which requires enhanced monitoring by banks and supervisors to avoid excessive vulnerability to disruptions in the foreign exchange markets.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its quarterly Risk Dashboard together with the results of the autumn edition of the Risk Assessment Questionnaire (RAQ).

The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA - ESAs) published today a joint thematic Report on national financial education initiatives on digitalisation, with a focus on cybersecurity, scams, and fraud. The Report identifies good practices that national competent authorities and other public entities can follow when designing and implementing their financial education initiatives.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its peer review on authorisation of payment institutions and e-money institutions under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The review generally found increased transparency and consistency of the information required in the authorisation process. However, it also identified significant divergences in competent authorities’ assessment and the degree of scrutiny of applications. The review, therefore, sets out a series of measures to address such divergencies, to level out the supervisory playing field and to mitigate against ‘forum shopping’.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today updated the JSON files within the taxonomy package. The updates are limited to the JSON files and, therefore, only impact the XBRL-CSV reporting documents.  To identify columns, a data point identifier is being used instead of a data point version identifier.

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – ESAs) published today the list of identified financial conglomerates for 2022. The 2022 list includes 63 financial conglomerates with the head of group located in the European Union or European Economic Area.