April 30, 2020 | The Federal Reserve on Thursday expanded access to its Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility (PPPLF) to additional lenders, and expanded the collateral that can be pledged. The changes will facilitate lending to small businesses via the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). As a result of the changes, all PPP lenders approved by the SBA, including non-depository institution lenders, are now eligible to participate in the PPPLF. SBA-qualified PPP lenders include banks, credit unions, Community...

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April 30, 2020 | The European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU’s securities markets regulator, has today made available, under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and Regulation (MiFIR): • The annual transparency calculations of the large in scale (LIS) and size specific to the instruments (SSTI) thresholds for bonds; • systematic internaliser calculations for equity, equity-like instruments and bonds; and • new data for bonds subject to the pre- and post-trade requirements of MiFID II and MiFIR. Annual transparency calculations of...

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A health crisis at the outset, the coronavirus pandemic soon turned into an unprecedented economic and social crisis. In an article published with several European think tanks, I sketch how COVID-19 could magnify three global developments. "The COVID-19 Crises challenges the current form of globalisation and is a political test for the EU and Europe's democratic systems," - Josep Borrell The main takeaways of the article are: • The pandemic will likely magnify existing geopolitical dynamics and test the strength of Europe’s...

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April 30, 2020 | • Series of additional longer-term refinancing operations to ensure sufficient liquidity and smooth money market conditions during the pandemic period • Operations allotted on a near monthly basis maturing in the third quarter of 2021 The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) today decided to conduct a new series of seven additional longer-term refinancing operations, called pandemic emergency longer-term refinancing operations (PELTROs). These operations will provide liquidity support to the euro area financial system and contribute...

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April 30, 2020 | • Interest rate on all targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO III) reduced by 25 basis points to -0.5% from June 2020 to June 2021 • For banks meeting the lending threshold of 0% introduced on 12 March 2020, the interest rate can be as low as -1% • Start of the lending assessment period brought forward to 1 March 2020 The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) today decided on a number of modifications to the terms...

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April 30, 2020 | At today’s meeting the Governing Council of the ECB took the following monetary policy decisions: (1) The conditions on the targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO III) have been further eased. Specifically, the Governing Council decided to reduce the interest rate on TLTRO III operations during the period from June 2020 to June 2021 to 50 basis points below the average interest rate on the Eurosystem’s main refinancing operations prevailing over the same period. Moreover, for counterparties whose...

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