DUBLIN MISSING OUT ON EUROPEAN BANKING AUTHORITY, WARNS MEP - Ireland looks set to miss out on the European Banking Authority relocating to to Dublin when the UK leaves the EU, Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes has warned.
Mr Hayes, who represents the Dublin constituency in the European parliament, said Warsaw and Milan are leading the battle to win approval from large member states to secure the EBA, which is based in London. "It has emerged that there is consensus among some of the larger member states that the preference for the EBA would be to go to either Warsaw or Milan following Brexit," he told The Irish Times. "Milan is regarded as a positive option because it is understood that there was a de facto agreement in place that the three largest member states would always host the three European supervisory authorities separately. With the UK leaving, this would leave Italy as the third-largest state and Milan in position to take the EBA".
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RETAINING FOSSIL FUEL STOCKS 'COST STATE €100m' - The State-backed Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) would have made around €22m more than it did at the end of last year had it sold off its fossil fuel stocks and invested in clean energy, a report has claimed.
The paper, commissioned by Trocaire, argues retaining fossil fuel investments cost ISIF around €100m in the past three years, writes the Irish Independent. Trocaire is due to present the report, which was carried out by Canadian-based research firm Corporate Knights, to TDs in the coming days. The report claims ISIF is investing in more carbon efficient stocks relative to peers, but also tends to invest more overall in high carbon sectors. "The ISIF had investments in about 50% more 'green' companies than the MSCI ACWI (Morgan Stanley Capital International All Country World Index) benchmark," the report states. "It also appears to tend to pick more carbon efficient stocks particularly in the utility sector, demonstrating awareness around climate change. However, the ISIF has higher than average exposure to high carbon sectors. It has investments in 50% more fossil fuel companies and has a 50% higher carbon footprint than the MSCI ACWI benchmark," it added.
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EU REVIEW CASTS DOUBT ON CITY'S HOPES FOR 'EQUIVALENCE' AS BREXIT LAST RESORT - Brussels is reconsidering how it grants EU market access to overseas financial firms, casting doubt over the use of the bloc’s "equivalence" arrangements as a fallback option for the City of London after Brexit.
No decisions have yet been taken by the European Commission about the regime, which extends limited access rights to non-EU jurisdictions that have rules deemed equivalent, such as the US. But senior officials are re-examining existing equivalence rules, with an eye to streamlining and strengthening the approval process so it is more rigourous for systemically relevant jurisdictions, writes the Financial Times. Any move to tighten the access regime would signal that Brussels will let Britain take nothing for granted in negotiations to leave the EU. It would also be a blow to the US and more than a dozen jurisdictions, who fear approval for their pending applications will be waylaid by Brexit politics. One senior EU official said equivalence "is not automatic and is not a right" and was bound to be reconsidered in light of Brexit. Another official noted that the patchy criteria needed to be clarified. The aim would be to create a more transparent process and recognise that deep financial interaction, such as with the US or UK, requires deeper equivalence checks.
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BIRDS EYE AND WALKERS ASK SUPERMARKETS FOR UP TO 12% PRICE RISES - Birds Eye fish fingers and Walkers crisps are asking supermarkets for price rises of up to 12%, in the latest standoff between household brands and retailers over the dramatic fall in the value of the pound.
The brands have joined Typhoo and Unilever, the owner of Marmite, and a number of smaller suppliers in an industry-wide battle over price increases caused by the 14.5% drop in the value of the pound against the euro and 18% against the dollar since the UK voted to leave the European Union. Birds Eye, which is owned by New-York-listed Nomad Foods, is seeking price rises of as much as 12% as it said many of its raw materials were priced in dollars and so its sterling costs had risen, says today's Guardian. Birds Eye is said to be threatening to shrink pack sizes on some products to help offset cost increases, cutting the number of fish fingers in a packet, for example, from 12 to 10 or from 20 to 18. Wayne Hudson, Birds Eye’s UK and Ireland managing director, said: "Increasing costs is not a decision we take lightly, and the last time it was necessary to raise costs was in 2012. As such, we have been in open and collaborative conversations with the retailers for some time now and are working closely with them to minimise any impact on our customers."
