European Banking Federation

European Banking Federation Requests Delay in Implementation of CRD IV

 The European Banking Federation (EBF) published a letter dated November 21 to Michael Barnier, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, formally requesting a year long delay for the introduction of Capital Requirements Directive IV (CRD IV) to implement Basel III.

 The delay has been requested on the grounds that EU banks would be competitively disadvantaged if the rules are introduced in the EU before the US requires compliance with equivalent rules (on 9 November 2012, the U.S. federal banking agencies announced an indefinite delay to the scheduled implementation date of 1 January 2013). The EBF is therefore calling on Mr. Barnier to set a new date of entry for the EU rules contained in CRD IV, in order to coordinate the approach across both the U.S. and EU.

European Banking Federation – Response to Liikanen Report

On November 14, the European Banking Federation (EBF) published its response to the European Commission’s consultation on the EU banking sector structural reforms set out in the Liikanen report.

The EBF disagrees with the Liikanen report’s recommendation that the mandatory separation of proprietary trading activities would adequately address issues such as systemic risk.  Instead, it states that such a move may harm the ability of banks to lend and negatively impact the competitiveness of the European financial sector.  However, the EBF does agree that recovery and resolution plans need to be strengthened, suggesting that such measures should be an alternative to the mandatory separation of proprietary trading.

The European Commission’s consultation closed on November 13. Further responses will be published online in due course.