Consob,  the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV – Spain), the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF – France) and the Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA – Austria) has published their key priorities as part of the debate on the macro prudential approach to asset management and in view of the European Commission’s forthcoming consultation on this topic

The authorities of Italy, Spain, France and Austria have identified five priorities.

The first three relate to short- and medium-term measures, while the others should be pursued in the long term:

  • ensure widespread availability and increased use of Liquidity Management Tools (LMTs) in all types of Open-Ended Funds (OEFs): the recent revision of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) will significantly advance the adoption of LMTs, although Level 2 measures are still under development;
  • banning the amortised cost accounting of Money Market Funds (MMFs): amortised cost accounting is inherently detrimental to financial stability, amounts to misrepresentation to investors, making them believe that they enjoy a stable Net Asset Value (NAV), and incentivises first movers;
  • systematic stress tests should also be envisaged to better understand the vulnerabilities of each asset management group and its interconnections with other participants in the financial system;
  • introduce a truly consolidated supervisory approach for large cross-border asset management groups: as their teams and funds are currently supervised by different national competition authorities in different countries, the creation of a supervisory college for these groups would bring significant benefits both in times of stress and in normal market conditions;
  • create an integrated data hub, shared by market supervisors and central banks, which meets the reciprocal needs, both in terms of day-to-day supervision and stress-testing exercises.

EIOPA has published a report analyzing how insurance undertakings in the EU implemented the new insurance accounting standard IFRS 17 as well as the synergies and differences in the calculation of insurance liabilities with the Solvency II framework

In January 2023, IFRS 17 became the new international accounting standard for insurance contracts, replacing the previous interim standard, IFRS 4.

The objective of this transition is to enhance reliability and transparency in financial statements and reduce methodological differences through harmonization.

The report is based on 2023 semiannual financial statements from a sample of 53 (re)insurance groups from 17 Member States.