Dear friends, dear interested, There is news on consumer and investor protection in digital financial services! The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) has just demonstrated how strict consumer protection can go hand in hand with innovation friendliness in the FinTech sector. The Committee’s position on blockchain-based trading systems combines strengthened investor […]
Money laundering in the banking sector: EU Court of Auditors gives European institutions a damning report card
28 June. The European Court of Auditors has just published its special report on EU anti-money laundering measures in the banking sector. Their verdict: “EU efforts to fight money laundering in the banking sector are fragmented and implementation is insufficient”. The auditors criticise a “lack of coordination at EU level” to prevent money laundering and […]
New rules for Bitcoin & Co: My proposals for the EU crypto regulation
Dear friends, dear interested, Europe is finally moving forward with the regulation of crypto-assets. This is to introduce binding rules for existing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum and to create a framework for innovative financial services based on blockchain. After the EU Commission presented a legislative proposal for Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) last autumn, […]
Inflation definition of the ECB: Exploding housing costs can no longer be ignored
Dear friends, dear interested, Lately, rents and residential real estate prices in most areas have known only one direction: steeply upwards. But while citizens groan under the exploding costs, officials at the ECB have paradoxically been complaining about too low rates of inflation for a long time. This is in part because housing costs have […]
Greens call on the European Commission to not put the credibility of the Sustainable Finance rules at risk
Yesterday, 24 March 2021, Bas Eickhout, co-rapporteur of the Taxonomy Regulation and Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group have sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President Frans Timmermanns and Finance Commissioner Mairead McGuinness. They call on the Commission to refrain from any […]
Hearing at the European Parliament: Lessons from the Wirecard case – Tue, 23 March, 13h45 – 15h45
Dear friends, dear interested, On my initiative, the European Parliament’s Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs, jointly with the Committee for Legal Affairs, will hold a hearing on lessons from the Wirecard case tomorrow, 23 March. I am particularly happy that our invitation was accepted by journalist Dan McCrum of the Financial Times whose stubborn […]