The Joint Committee of the three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA ed ESMA) launched a public consultation to amend the Implementing Regulations on the mapping of credit assessments of External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAIs) for credit risk.
The amendments are needed to assign mappings for two newly established ECAIs and to reflect the outcomes of a monitoring exercise on the adequacy of existing mappings, namely changes to the Credit Quality Steps (CQS) allocation for two ECAIs and the introduction of new credit rating scales for nine ECAIs.
The consultation runs until 5 March 2021.

ESMA is launching a common supervisory action (CSA) with national competent authorities on the application of MiFID II product governance rules across the European Union (EU).
The CSA will be conducted during 2021 and will help in the analysis of:

  • how manufacturers ensure that financial products’ costs and charges are compatible with the needs, objectives and characteristics of their target market and do not undermine the financial instrument’s return expectations;
  • how manufacturers and distributors identify and periodically review the target market and distribution strategy of financial products; and
  • what information is exchanged between manufacturers and distributors and how frequently this is done.

ESMA has written to the European Commission (EC) sharing its views on the main challenges in the area of ESG ratings and assessment tools and highlighting the need to match the growth in demand for these products with appropriate regulatory requirements to ensure their quality and reliability.
ESMA identifies the following key points for consideration:

  • The market for ESG ratings and other assessment tools is currently unregulated and unsupervised. When combined with increasing regulatory demands for consideration of ESG information, there are increased risks of greenwashing, capital misallocation and products mis-selling.
  • There should be a common definition of ESG ratings that covers the broad spectrum of possible ESG assessments currently on offer. This will help future-proof any regulatory framework and mitigate against possible obsolescence.
  • The supervisory and regulatory regime should be adapted to the current market structure and accommodate both large multi-national providers who may be subject to existing regulatory frameworks, as well as smaller entities.
  • ESG rating providers can be part of larger groups providing services such as green bond certification and credit ratings. On the other hand, smaller players would also benefit from having access to an EU-wide regime. Given this overlap and to benefit from economies of scale in supervision ESMA is ready to support possible future supervisory responsibilities in this area.

ESMA launches a consultation on guidelines on the application of certain aspects of the appropriateness and execution-only requirements under MiFID II.
This Consultation Paper builds on relevant parts from ESMA’s Guidelines on certain aspects of the MiFID II suitability requirements, while adjusting these to the appropriateness and execution-only framework. In addition, it takes into account the insights of supervisory activities conducted by national competent authorities (NCAs) on the application of the appropriateness and execution-only requirements, in particular resulting from the 2019 common supervisory action (CSA) on appropriateness.
This CSA showed that there was insufficient convergence in the understanding and application of several areas of the appropriateness and execution-only requirements by firms in different Member States, and often within Member States themselves, creating problems for achieving a consistent level of investor protection in the EU.

ESMA launches a public consultation on the revision of the Delegated Regulation regarding fees charged to CRAs.
The consultation paper contains proposals which ensure that the supervisory fees charged to credit rating agencies (CRAs) reflect the costs of registration, certification and on-going supervision whilst remaining proportionate to CRAs’ turnover.
ESMA’s main proposals are to charge:

  • A single registration fee of €45,000;
  • Annual supervisory fees of €20,000 to registered CRAs with annual revenues of between €1 million and €10 million;
  • An annual endorsement fee of €20,000 to all CRAs endorsing credit ratings for use in the EU; and
  • Annual fees to all certified CRAs.

EBA published additional clarifications on the application of the prudential framework in response to issues raised as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These clarifications update the FAQ section of the EBA Report on COVID-19 implementation policies, which provides clarity on the implementation of (i) the EBA Guidelines on moratoria and (ii) the EBA Guidelines on COVID-19 reporting and disclosure.
The Report includes additional technical clarifications on the application of the Guidelines on moratoria related to the recent re-activation of the EBA guidelines on payment moratoria.
This Report is part of the EBA’s wider monitoring of the implementation of COVID-19 policies as well as of the application of existing policies under these exceptional circumstances.

EBA, on 29 January 2021, launched the 2021 EU-wide stress test and released the macroeconomic scenarios.
Following the postponement of the 2020 exercise, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s EU-wide stress test will provide valuable input for assessing the resilience of the European banking sector. Accordingly, the adverse scenario is based on a narrative of a prolonged COVID-19 scenario in a ‘lower for longer’ interest rate environment, in which negative confidence shocks would prolong the economic contraction.
The EBA expects to publish the results of the exercise by 31 July 2021.

EIOPA published its Consumer Trends Report with a risk heat-map providing a snapshot of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the insurance and pension sector from a consumer protection perspective as of 30 June 2020.

(only in Italian)
Il Consiglio dei Ministri, riunitosi venerdì 29 gennaio, ha approvato in esame definitivo il decreto legislativo recante norme di adeguamento della normativa nazionale alle disposizioni del Regolamento Prospetto.

Bank of Italy today publishes ‘TIPS – TARGET Instant Payment Settlement’, the first issue of the new series ‘Markets, infrastructures, payment systems’

(only in Italian)
La Ragioneria Generale dello Stato, con la Circolare n. 4 del 29 gennaio 2021, ha fornito chiarimenti in materia di accertamento dei residui passivi di bilancio e residui passivi perenti alla chiusura dell’esercizio finanziario 2020.
La Circolare fornisce le istruzioni per le operazioni di accertamento dei residui alla luce delle novità relative all’applicazione delle disposizioni di cui all’art. 34, comma 12, secondo periodo, del decreto-legge 28 ottobre 2020, n. 137 (Decreto Rilancio), e agli stanziamenti in conto capitale relativi alle disposizioni di cui ai decreti legge n. 18/2020, n. 23/2020 e n. 34/2020.