On Tuesday 15 May, the national ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) will take stock of the work of the national experts on the 'banking risk reduction' package, the positive outcome of which would make it possible to take the work of the Council on sharing banking risks off ice, for instance by completing Banking Union in the Eurozone.
Summing up the interim results of 38 expert working sessions, a note of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU dated 10 May lists four unresolved issues to be discussed at political level in order to secure an agreement in principle between now and the Ecofin Council of Friday 25 May.
These questions are: - completing, through the temporary introduction of a reporting requirement, the ongoing reform of the prudential rules aiming to cover the risks inherent to securities portfolios ('fundamental review of the trading book'), which the Basel Committee will not finalise before the end of 2020; - introducing a new methodology to grant specific treatment and therefore adapt the level of equity required to the activities of banking groups of systemic importance (G-SII) in the 19 countries of Banking Union; - exempting 14 development banks of a single member state (Germany?) from the prudential rules; - setting the minimum level of subordinated financial instruments to be mobilised as a priority in the event of the resolution of systemic banks (G-SII and 'top-tier banks') and determining the leeway available to the supervisor to set a level of subordinated instruments above the minimum level. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)