Efforts to address remaining items in the Covered Bond Directive continue. While the Directive has brought many benefits, there is still room for improvement, particularly for European Secured Notes, which could offer both banks and SMEs funding benefits.

Tuesday, October 15th 2024 - 3:00 PM (CEST)

Giving depositors preference in insolvency and harmonising national deposit guarantee schemes are among proposed steps to improve the process for dealing with failing banks. They also edge towards the goals of the European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS).

Scope Ratings has published the performance overview of notes issued by Marzio Finance, a EUR 10bn securitisation programme backed by ‘cessione del quinto’ and ‘delegazione di pagamento’ (CQS) loans originated by IBL Banca.

Profits at the Russian operations of RBI, UniCredit, and OTP Bank, the European banks with the highest exposures to Russia, continue to increase despite regulatory pressure to expedite exit plans.

Italian NPL collections in the first half of 2024 were 20% below the same periods of 2022 and 2023. The decline was driven by DPOs (down EUR 90m or 28%) and note sales (-EUR 66m, 62%). Judicial proceeds were broadly stable (down EUR 17m, 3%).

Italian banks are poised for strong profitability in 2024 thanks to higher-than-expected rates and resilient credit quality. After a strong first half, lenders are confident of matching or even beating last year’s full-year performance.

Green and social covered bond issuance hit USD13.4bn in the first seven months of the year, representing approximately one in 10 new issues. But there is pressure to enforce consistent and standardised ESG disclosures related to cover pools.

Changes to the way the ECB plans to determine banks’ capital add-on requirements to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the supervisory process and to focus on risks that require greater attention are welcome developments.

EU policymakers remain steadfast in their conviction that deploying bank and institutional capital and retail savings through frictionless banking and capital markets union will create economic security. An EU MidCap Bond market should be a priority.