ΕΥ (2014), ΕΥ Eurozone Forecast, EY Outlook for Financial Services, Winter 2013/2014
The run-up to Christmas and the start of 2014 proved to be a busy time for Europe’s financial sector. Sadly, this was less to do with the festivities and more to do with the necessary groundwork to underpin the Eurozone’s new regulatory framework. After lengthy delays, work around Solvency II — recently re-animated by agreement over the Omnibus II Directive — is starting to pick up again, but with the focus now increasingly on Pillar 3. However, there is no doubt that the European Central Bank’s (ECB) asset quality review (AQR) and comprehensive assessment represents the largest workload.