In recent decades, the volume of EU legislation on financial law has increased exponentially. Banks, insurers, pension funds, investment firms and other financial institutions all are increasingly subject to European regulatory rules, as are day to day financial transactions. Serving as a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to European banking and financial law, the book is organized around the three economic themes that are central to the financial industry: (i) financial markets; (ii) financial institutions; and (iii) financial transactions. It covers not only regulatory law, but also commercial law that is relevant for the most important financial transactions. It also explains the most important international standard contracts such as LMA loan contracts and the GMRA repurchase agreements. Covering a broad range of aspects of financial law from a European perspective, it is essential reading for students of financial law and European regulation.

The European Banking Union and the Role of Law offers a comprehensive and unique examination of the European Banking Union’s (EBU) impact on existing legal disciplines and assesses the role of law in shaping the EBU framework.

Competition law is a complex and constantly evolving area of law which affects every aspect of the market economy, including the financial services sector. This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the application of the EU competition rules to banking and insurance industries. This book is divided into two parts: the first part explores the application of Articles 101, 102 and 107 TFEU to the insurance industry. Emphasis is placed on recent changes which have progressively eroded the block exemption regime that traditionally benefited the insurance industry. In the second part of the book, focus is on the application of the Articles of TFEU to the banking industry, with specific reference to card payment systems, which give rise to some of the most intricate antitrust issues in the financial services sector. Relevant Commission decisions and European Court of Justice case law are discussed and suggestions are made for an alternative regulatory framework through comparative analysis of US regulations. This book will be an invaluable reference point for legal practitioners specialising in EU Competition law, as well as postgraduate students and academic researchers working in competition law and the financial services sector.

This is the first book to offer a profound, practical analysis of the framework for the judicial and pre-judicial protection of rights under the supranational banking supervision and resolution powers in the European Banking Union (EBU). It is also unique in its in-depth commentary on the developing case law from the European Court of Justice in this new field of EU litigation.

Most legal text books and practitioners' guides focus on the impact of financial services law and regulation as applicable to individual legal entities: the application of such law and regulation on a group basis is often a cursory afterthought, or neglected altogether. This book reverses the balance. It is the first book to fully and systematically address how groups of businesses within the financial services sector are regulated. It starts with the company law and corporate insolvency law foundations and how they are established and formed into groups. It then builds up through prudential regulation and resolution-driven principles, focusing on such how regulations apply and operate at a consolidated group and sub-group level, to the structural responses from firms and counter-responses from legislators and regulators. This new work also considers the tensions that arise from the conflicts between authorities and legal systems on a cross-border basis, and between the formal legal system and the powers and agendas of the regulators. In its final section, the book applies the principles explored in previous sections to a wide range of transaction types. The book covers intragroup transactions, and the role that regulation plays requiring and restricting the movement of financial resources around groups. It is up-to-date as at April 2019, marking the culmination of over 10 years of intense regulatory change, addresses UK ring-fencing rules and EU and US intermediate parent undertaking requirements, and considers the impact of Brexit and the EU banking reform/risk reduction package.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of European Union (EU) central banking law, a field of EU economic law which emerged in the late 1990s and has developed rapidly ever since. European central banking law pertains to the rules governing the functions, operation, tasks and powers of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks (NCBs) of EU Member States. Systematically presenting and analysing the role of the ECB as a monetary and banking supervisory authority, the book discusses its changing and developing responsibilities following the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and the ongoing fiscal crisis in the euro area. The book also highlights the ECB’s significant role in relation to the resolution of credit institutions, as well as, conversely, its relatively limited role in respect of last-resort lending to EU credit institutions exposed to liquidity risk. The related tasks and powers of the ECB are presented in light of its interaction with NCBs within the Eurosystem, the European System of Financial Supervision, the Single Supervisory System and the Single Resolution Mechanism. Providing a detailed analysis of the legal framework governing (mainly) the ECB’s monetary policy and other basic tasks within the Eurosystem and its specific tasks in relation to banking supervision and macro-prudential financial oversight, this comprehensive book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of EU monetary and banking law.

Global finance is in the middle of a radical transformation fueled by innovative financial technologies. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitization of retail financial services in Europe. Institutional interest and digital asset markets are also growing blurring the boundaries between the token economy and traditional finance. Blockchain, AI, quantum computing and decentralised finance (DeFI) are setting the stage for a global battle of business models and philosophies. The post-Brexit EU cannot afford to ignore the promise of digital finance. But the Union is struggling to keep pace with global innovation hubs, particularly when it comes to experimenting with new digital forms of capital raising. Calibrating the EU digital finance strategy is a balancing act that requires a deep understanding of the factors driving the transformation, be they legal, cultural, political or economic, as well as their many implications. The same FinTech inventions that use AI, machine learning and big data to facilitate access to credit may also establish invisible barriers that further social, racial and religious exclusion. The way digital finance actors source, use, and record information presents countless consumer protection concerns. The EU’s strategic response has been years in the making and, finally, in September 2020 the Commission released a Digital Finance Package. This special issue collects contributions from leading scholars who scrutinize the challenges digital finance presents for the EU internal market and financial market regulation from multiple public policy perspectives. Author contributions adopt a critical yet constructive and solutions-oriented approach. They aim to provide policy-relevant research and ideas shedding light on the complexities of the digital finance promise. They also offer solid proposals for reform of EU financial services law.