Increases in life expectancy and low interest rates are big problems for pension schemes. The European Central Bank’s ultra-easy monetary policy with historically low interest rates unprecedented bond purchase programmes is making it very difficult for companies offering in-house schemes for their employees to meet their pension obligations. Under its bond-buying (or “quantitative easing”) program,
Deutsche Bank, one of Europe’s largest investment banks, is making headlines again. As one of the most highly leveraged banks in Europe at the beginning of the crisis, the bank has been subject to continuous scrutiny by the press, seeing the bank’s persistent failure to adequately deal with the fallout of regulatory fines and address
On March 5, QED held its Conference on Capital Markets Union (“CMU”) in Brussels. Among the high-level speakers and panellists were Paulina Dejmek-Hack, Member of Cabinet of the President of the European Commission Mr. Juncker; Philip Tod, Capital Markets Union Acting Head of Unit, DG FISMA of the European Commission; Mr. Philippe de Backer, Member
Extremely low interest rates ‒ together with the bond-buying scheme launched by the ECB ‒ brought relief for many actors in the financial markets. At the same time, they also triggered serious problems for insurers and pension funds. One of the biggest challenges for institutional investors in recent days is to generate adequate investment returns.
Half a year has passed by since the first mentions of Capital Markets Union (CMU) appeared, but to this day the architecture of the CMU is – to put it mildly – rather hazy. But even if we remain in the dark as regards the elements to shape the CMU, at least we are slowly
On December 3, Cecilia Malmström met with Members of the European Parliament who are active in the International Trade Committee (INTA) for the first time in her capacity as the EU Commissioner for Trade. The topic for discussion was a fresh start on TTIP. TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or as Commissioner Malmström
The European Commission had recently adopted a new piece of legislation regarding the Single Resolution Mechanism. To get a better idea about its role in the Banking Union architecture, have a look at the picture below: Image source The legislative proposal in question will serve as a basis for the calculation of contributions to be
Today marks what is a cheerless anniversary in the minds of many in the financial industry. On 15 September 2008 – exactly six years ago – the financial services firm Lehman Brothers fell prey to the mortgage crisis. Even today, Lehman Brother’s crash echoes in the halls of financial institutions as they struggle to win
The European Ombudsam asked the Council and Commission to publish the EU negotiating directives for the on-going TTIP negotiations with the US. Acknowledging that civil society is rightly concerned about key documents not being disclosed, about delays and about the alleged granting of privileged access to TTIP documents to certain stakeholders, Emily O’Reilly proposes a range of practical measures to the Commission and advises to make certain TTIP
Following BETTER FINANCE Conference in Reykjavik, organised in cooperation with its Icelandic member the Icelandic Savers Association, all presentations are available here: Bolli Hédinsson, Chairman of The Icelandic Savers Organisation, on « Economies before, during and after the crisis ». Páll Harðarson, President of NASDAQ OMX Iceland, on « Rebuilding the Icelandic equity market: progress, opportunities and challenges ». Laurent