Our Insights

A glimpse into the future of financial services.

EU response to COVID crisis

2-minute read interview with the Executive Vice President of the European Commission on the EU response to the Coronavirus crisis. One of the quotes: “Capital markets and the Capital Markets Union will be fundamental for the economic recovery. More than ever, companies need to be able to access a broad choice of alternative sources of […]

17/12/2020

MiFID “quick fix”

Very interesting to note that while the public consultation on the review of the MiFID II/MiFIR regulatory framework has just ended, the European Commission is considering some MiFID “quick fix” which could be voted before the full review of MiFID II is finalized. The objective of this MiFID “quick fix”, in response to COVID-19, is […]

17/12/2020

Delay in the implementation date of the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRDII)

The European Commission refused to delay the implementation date of the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRDII), as asked by several industry bodies. Therefore, issuers, CSDS and all other financial intermediaries will need to be ready and compliant by September 3 2020. It means that a lot of players will need to accelerate their efforts in the […]

17/12/2020

Re-imagine Tech

The current crisis is likely to push the financial sector further towards (Tech) shared services partnerships and to this respect we see cloud policies being reviewed at a rapid pace. By turning towards third party specialists, financial institutions look to benefit from economies of scale, a more flexible cost base and further resilience to economic […]

17/12/2020

Payments

Will fingerprint biometric cards end the use of PIN codes for card payments? Introducing mobile payments technology into cards. The switch to a cashless and cardless society takes time as mobile payments, although they have a lot of advantages, still need to be widely accepted amongst consumers and merchants. https://newsroom.mastercard.com/asia-pacific/press-releases/mastercard-idemia-and-matchmove-pilot-fingerprint-biometric-card-in-asia-to-enhance-security-and-safety-of-contactless-payments/

17/12/2020

Digital Finance Strategy

A digital finance strategy for Europe could speed up the adoption of securities tokens. The development of securities tokens (and crypto assets in general) is currently hindered by the regulatory uncertainty on this subject. Finding a balance between investor protection, market stability, risk mitigation and innovation does not seem to be that obvious. The European […]