EBA Guidelines on the sound management of third-party risk regarding non-ICT services
How can supervisors ensure sound third-party risk management without placing disproportionate burdens on institutions and supervisors alike? The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published its final Guidelines on the management of third-party risk, part of its ongoing effort to simplify and strengthen the EU regulatory framework. The Guidelines focus on third-party arrangements supporting critical or […]
When Machines Attack: Frontier AI Cyber Threats and Policy Responses in the Financial Sector
FSI Occasional Paper No. 28 Frontier AI models can autonomously identify vulnerabilities and conduct sophisticated cyberattacks — but does that require a new regulatory framework, or a faster execution of existing ones? The Financial Stability Institute (FSI) of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has published FSI Occasional Paper No. 28, examining how frontier AI is transforming […]
Cyber Risk and Bank Supervision: Lessons from the ECB Cyber Stress Test
SUERF Policy Brief Can supervisory scrutiny alone — without capital charges or public disclosure — shift bank behaviour on cybersecurity investment? This SUERF Policy Brief, based on an ECB Working Paper, examines whether the ECB’s 2024 Cyber Resilience Stress Test (CyRST) induced banks to increase cybersecurity investment. Cybersecurity has become a central financial stability concern: […]
Joint EBA-ECB Report on Payment Fraud: Strong Authentication Remains Effective but Fraudsters Are Adapting
Strong customer authentication has reduced payment fraud — but are security frameworks keeping pace with the tactics fraudsters are now using? The European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) have published their 2025 joint report on payment fraud in the European Economic Area (EEA). While the overall fraud rate remained stable at […]
2026 Geopolitical Risk Reverse Stress Test: Final Results
How prepared are euro area banks to identify and withstand geopolitical shocks that could threaten their capital positions? The European Central Bank (ECB) has published the results of its 2026 thematic reverse stress test on geopolitical risks, covering 110 euro area banks under direct ECB supervision. The exercise — part of the ECB’s supervisory priorities […]
Neo-conglomerates and EU Regulatory Perimeter Challenges: State of Play and Evaluation of Policy Options
As large technology-driven groups accumulate financial licences and offer bank-like services outside the regulatory perimeter, are supervisory frameworks keeping pace? The European Central Bank (ECB) has published Occasional Paper No. 394, examining the implications for financial stability of bank-like services being offered in the EU by large non-bank groups — referred to as “neo-conglomerates” — and […]
The 2026 Global AI in Financial Services Report: Adoption, Impact and Risks
As AI reshapes financial services at an accelerating pace, are regulatory authorities keeping up — or falling further behind? The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the BIS, IMF, World Economic Forum, IDB, CGAP, and the Arab Monetary Fund, has published the 2026 Global AI in Financial […]
Strengthening the Going-Concern Role of AT1: Options and Trade-offs
Are Additional Tier 1 (AT1) instruments actually functioning as going-concern capital — or have they become, in practice, a gone-concern tool? The Financial Stability Institute’s (FSI) latest report warns that the sector has never been stress-tested through a severe economic downturn, leaving leverage and borrower credit quality vulnerabilities untested. Key concerns include deepening ties between […]
Annual Economic Report 2026
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has released its Annual Economic Report 2026, warning that economic progress faces rising perils and that disciplined policy responses across all fronts are now essential. The report identifies four pressure points of direct relevance for banking supervisors. First, inflation risks: in a world of more frequent negative supply shocks […]
Revised Guidelines on Common Procedures and Methodologies for the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP) and Supervisory Stress Testing
How can supervisory frameworks become more risk-focused, proportionate, and efficient — without losing coherence or effectiveness? The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published its final revised Guidelines on common procedures and methodologies for the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP) and supervisory stress testing, a core deliverable of its regulatory simplification and efficiency agenda. The […]