The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly backed the European Union's first set of rules to regulate cryptoasset markets, Reuters reported. Parliament voted by 517 in favour and 38 against to approve the world's first comprehensive set of regulations for issuing and trading cryptoassets such as bitcoin. "This regulation brings a competitive advantage for the EU," said Stefan Berger, the lawmaker who steered the rules through parliament. "The European crypto-asset industry has regulatory clarity that does not exist in countries like the U.S.," Berger said.
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The European Union on Tuesday proposed making it harder for states to pour billions of euros of aid into an ailing bank, as Italy did with Monte dei Paschi di Siena six years ago, Reuters reported. Proposals from the EU's executive seek to ensure that banks hold enough resources, in particular debt that can be written down to release cash in a crisis, to avoid taxpayer handouts. The recent collapses in the United States of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and the forced takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS last month were a reminder that failures still occur.
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The European Union was closing in Tuesday on approval for a plan to ramp up semiconductor production as it seeks to wean itself off reliance on Asia for the tiny computer chips that control everything from cars to washing machines, the Associated Press reported. The European Parliament and the bloc's 27 member states struck an informal agreement for the 43 billion-euro ($47 billion) Chips Act, which pools public and private funds and allows for state aid to kick-start massive investments for chipmaking facilities.
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Stock exchanges and asset managers have squared off ahead of European Union negotiations this week over how much information investors should be given to find the best deals on Europe's fragmented stock markets, Reuters reported. The European Parliament and EU states begin negotiations on Tuesday on finalising reform of the bloc's securities rules, known as MiFID, aimed at making its capital market more efficient now that if faces competition from a post-Brexit London.
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European Union lawmakers want to give regulators new powers to govern the development of technologies like those behind ChatGPT, the biggest push so far in the West to curb one of the hottest areas in artificial intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported. The breakneck pace of AI development in recent months requires a new set of rules tailored to powerful, general-purpose AI tools, a group of influential EU lawmakers say in an open letter they plan to publish Monday.
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The European Union is determined to scrap the draconian fiscal rules of the past blamed for choking economies in the aftermath of the previous financial crisis despite Germany’s call for strict limits to reduce public expenditure, Bloomberg News reported. “Clearly we are not getting back to the 1/20th rule” that forced member states to implement severe adjustments to their public debt levels, European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview Friday the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Washington.
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Central banks will seek to safeguard financial stability amid growing concerns about their ability to weather the higher interest rate environment, which has resulted in raising fears of a credit crunch, the Swiss Re Institute has stated in a recent report, Reinsurance News reported. Credit has already been tightening in the U.S. and EU, just as smaller banks are experiencing renewed pressure on assets. This potential credit crunch would involve a sudden and sharp restriction on lending to businesses and households, which could cause serious damage to the real economy.
Core inflation in the eurozone hit a record in March, a setback for central bankers whose rapid interest-rate rises have exacerbated financial sector strains and caused pains in part of the bloc’s economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The fresh data increases the likelihood that the European Central Bank will raise its key rate again in May. It could also encourage governments to explore alternative ways to cool prices rises by targeting inflationary increases in profits.
EU regulators are likely to open investigations into tax deals between EU countries and multinationals after reviewing their arrangements in the previous decade, the bloc's competition chief warned on Monday, Reuters reported. European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, who has ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland and Amazon 250 million euros to Luxembourg, among a dozen cases, has said such tax deals amount to illegal tax breaks. Despite her crackdown, Vestager said aggressive tax planning "is still with us".
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Italy's Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti is closely watching market developments following the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the ministry said on Monday, adding that the European Union should act quickly to shore up banks if needed, Reuters reported. "We appreciate the timeliness with which the U.S. authorities intervened and trust that, if necessary, European authorities will intervene with the same timeliness, assessing the implications for the conduct of monetary policy and financial stability," the economy ministry said in a statement.
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