WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen released the following statement on President Biden's executive order on digital assets. "President Biden’s historic executive order calls for a coordinated and comprehensive approach to digital asset policy. This approach will support responsible innovation that could result in substantial benefits for the nation, consumers, and businesses. It will also address risks related to illicit finance, protecting consumers and investors, and preventing threats to the financial system and broader economy. Under...

Today, the Commission is proposing to activate the Temporary Protection Directive  to offer quick and effective assistance to people fleeing the war in Ukraine. Under this proposal, those fleeing the war will be granted temporary protection in the EU, meaning that they will be given a residence permit, and they will have access to education and to the labour market. At the same time, the Commission is also putting forward operational guidelines intended to help Member States' border guards in...

The Council today introduced further restrictive measures in view of the Russian Federation’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. The Council decided in particular to prohibit: the provision of specialised financial messaging services, which are used to exchange financial data (SWIFT), to Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank, Sovcombank, VNESHECONOMBANK (VEB), and VTB BANK’. This prohibition will enter into force on the tenth day after the publication in the Official Journal of the EU, and will also apply to...

The OECD has released the third batch of 2021/2022 updates to the transfer pricing country profiles, reflecting the current transfer pricing legislation and practices of 28 jurisdictions. The updated country profiles add new information on countries’ legislations and practices regarding the transfer pricing aspects of financial transactions and the application of the Authorised OECD Approach (AOA) on the attribution of profits to permanent establishments. In addition, the country profiles reflect updated information on a number of transfer pricing aspects such...

The United Nations Environment Assembly, meeting in Nairobi, has just agreed to launch negotiations on a legally binding global agreement to combat plastic pollution. EU diplomacy has played a key role in securing the support of the global community coming together in Nairobi for this agreement, which aims at reducing and eventually eliminating plastic pollution in all environments. Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans said: “It is encouraging to see the global community come together at this...

Financial stability concerns include potentially higher sensitivity to global financial conditions. Most of the activity in the rapidly growing world of sustainable finance has been previously concentrated in advanced economies, but emerging markets, while still a small share of the total, saw a surge last year. As a result, their market share has increased for the first time since 2016, underscoring the growing investor appetite for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) products, but this growing opportunity also poses new...