European Union

The FTX estate has agreed to drop a lawsuit that sought to claw back at least $323.5 million from the original owners of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange’s European unit, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Under a proposed settlement, the two main targets of the lawsuit—FTX Europe co-founders Patrick Gruhn and Robin Matzke—agreed to buy back the unit’s assets for $32.7 million. Details of the proposed settlement emerged in a Thursday court filing from the FTX estate. The deal still needs to be approved by a judge.

The European Union's economy is stronger as a result of the recovery fund, set up to drive post-pandemic growth, which has boosted jobs, investment and offset some of the impact of the Ukraine war, the European Commission said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Officially known as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the 723 billion euro ($780.84 billion) fund, launched in 2021 for a six-year period has so far disbursed 225 billion euros.

The EU adopted a law to set aside windfall profits made on frozen Russian central bank assets, it said on Monday, in a first concrete step towards the bloc's aim of using the money to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine, Reuters reported. The EU and the Group of Seven nations (G7) froze some 300 billion euros ($323 billion) of Russian central bank assets following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The EU and G7 have been debating if and how these funds can be used for over a year.

Crypto companies based outside the EU will only be able to directly serve customers within the bloc under very limited conditions to avoid unfair competition, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) proposed on Monday, Reuters reported. The EU approved the world's first comprehensive rules for crypto markets last year, known as MiCA, a groundbreaking move in an online sector where national borders have been hard to police.

Banks in the European Union face closer scrutiny of how they assess the impact of interest rate changes on their balance sheets after an initial examination uncovered a patchwork of approaches, the bloc's banking watchdog said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The European Banking Authority (EBA) last year discussed with banks how they apply a rule known as interest rate risk in the banking book or IRRBB written by the global Basel Committee.

The European Union is unlikely to confiscate Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe, despite G7 plans to discuss the legality of such a move at a meeting in February, senior EU officials said, Reuters reported. The EU, United States, Japan and Canada froze some $300 billion of Russian central bank assets in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Some $200 billion of that is held in Europe, mainly in the Belgian clearing house Euroclear. The discussion comes as U.S. President Joe Biden faces Republican opposition to his request for another $61 billion in aid to Ukraine.

Capital buffers for banks in the European Union have reached historic highs, with rises in interest rates boosting profitability to support record payouts to shareholders, the bloc's banking watchdog said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Since taxpayers bailed out lenders in the 2007-09 global financial crisis, tougher rules have forced banks to build up their capital buffers, with further rises in the pipeline.

Days after EU countries and lawmakers agreed on a provisional deal on artificial intelligence rules, experts from both sides are meeting on Tuesday to hammer out details, Reuters reported. Over 11 scheduled technical meetings beginning on Tuesday, government officials and aides of lawmakers will hash out specific details such as the scope of the laws and how they will work. They will clarify the legal basis on how governments can use of AI in biometric surveillance, copyright issues posed by foundation models and how to regulate major AI systems such as ChatGPT will be on the agenda.

France, Germany and the EU executive expressed hope on Friday that EU governments will reach an agreement on the bloc's fiscal rules by the end of the year, with Spain floating the idea of convening an extraordinary meeting to achieve that goal, Reuters reported. France and Germany still differ on how to sustain investment when budget deficits are above EU limits, and other countries, roughly in two camps behind Paris and Berlin, are wrangling over other issues, including the minimum pace of debt reduction.

Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino expressed hope an agreement on the reform of EU fiscal rules could be clinched as soon as Thursday evening, while her German counterpart said he thought a deal was possible this week, Reuters reported. EU finance ministers are discussing changes to the rules on Thursday and Friday, aiming to agree on a joint position that would then be negotiated with the European Parliament early in 2024. Spain holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.