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Crypto Asset

Briefing Note

TIME TO MICAR

Crypto-assets and DLT technology are consolidating in the financial industry. Avantage Reply brings the right skill-set to support banks and financial institutions in embracing with innovation and new business models meanwhile managing risks and uncertainty.

AML

Briefing Note

AML package

Fresh from the presses! A tidal wave is looming on the horizon of the AML landscape: the first European Regulation on AML/CFT, an independent and autonomous authority specific to AML... 2024 will be a landmark for financial crime regulation!The GRC Team is proud to present an in-depth look at the AML Package set to be adopted by the end of the year.

Briefing Note

Six Design Principles for Bank Risk and Control Operating Model Transformations in 2024

This briefing note functions as a starting point for banks’ senior management to identify key priorities and design decisions for risk and control target operating model (TOM) transformations in 2024. It has been developed by identifying the key supervisory priorities of the UK and EU regulators, analysing strategic risk management trends in the industry, and leveraging Avantage Reply’s insights from developing target operating models for a range of risk and control functions at some of the most significant financial institutions across Europe.

Case Study

Risk Support

Avantage Reply provided support to the Risk department of a custodian bank that operates at an international level. The goal was to help with the completion of the department’s daily tasks and any upcoming projects

Case Study

Risk Management Support

The client began a project to switch to a new core banking system and aimed to complete this transition quickly with minimal impact on their daily processes and duties.

Case Study

Internal Audit of the Recovery Plan

The client, an independent and privately-owned banking group which provides private banking services, wanted an external expert to support their internal audit team. In particular, the client wanted to review and provide assurance that their Group Recovery Plan is in line with the latest regulatory requirements and best market practices.

Case Study

Standardized Approach for Counterparty Credit Risk

The client, a major banking group offering a broad range of financial products and services such as bilateral loans, trade financing and derivative products to corporate and institutional clients, required assistance with calculating the capital requirements for counterparty credit risk under the new standardized approach.

Case Study

Compliance Support

Avantage Reply supported the Compliance department of an internationally operating Private Bank / Financial Services Company in moving its European headquarters between countries. This involved PMO support, regulatory analysis and assessment of the Bank’s Compliance functions across several locations in the Eurozone, the UK and other European countries.

White Paper

Climate and environmental risk integration within the prudential framework: Sustainable-FRTB

Climate change will continue for many decades to come, Banks should adequately incorporate climate-related and environmental risk within their governance and risk management frameworks in order to mitigate risks.

Briefing Note

Solvent Exit Planning for Non-Systemic Banks and Building Societies

The Consultation Paper outlines the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (”PRA”) proposals for non-systemic banks and building societies in the UK to prepare, as part of their business-as—usual activities, for an orderly ‘solvent exit’ and if needed, to be able to execute one.

Briefing Note

BCBS 239: A renewed ECB Priority

Since the release of the BCBS 239 Principles in 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) has been urging European banks to comply with these Principles. These Principles cover three main topics: Overarching governance and structure, risk data aggregation capabilities, and risk reporting practices (often referred to by the ECB as 'RDAR').

Briefing Note

DORA - Overview of the Joint Consultation on the First Batch of DORA Policy Products

On 19th June 2023, The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – the ESAs) launched a public consultation on the first batch of policy products under the DORA. This pack provides an overview of the four draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) and one set of draft implementing technical standards (ITS) released.

Case Study

Recovery Planning under ECB supervision

The client, an ECB-supervised bank, is required to maintain and update their Recovery Plan regularly. In this context, the client requested the assistance of Avantage Reply, to assist the bank in the production of its Group Recovery Plan.

Case Study

Enhancement of the Group’s ICAAP Framework

Avantage Reply undertook a project to assist an international banking group in enhancing its Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) framework in alignment with best banking practices.

Case Study

ICAAP/ILAAP Reports Update and Enhancement

Avantage Reply assisted a client with their objective to produce two regulatory reports namely the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (‘ICAAP’) and the Internal Liquidity Adequacy Assessment Process (‘ILAAP’).

Case Study

Regulatory Reporting Support

In the context of transferring banking activities to another partner, the bank (the client) must comply with European banking authority (EBA) reporting requirements. The bank is required to produce regulatory reporting on a monthly and quarterly basis (i.e., COREP, FINREP etc.) Avantage Reply was engaged to provide support and expertise to generate regulatory reporting.

Case Study

ILAAP Internal Audit Support

Avantage Reply assisted the internal audit department of a leading private bank in the Eurozone, a less significant institution (LSI) that is part of an international group.

Briefing Note

SMCR Overview for 2023

The SM&CR was introduced in response to failures in senior management conduct and accountability evidenced in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. The regulatory expectations under the regime are proportional to the degree of influence a stakeholder has on the firm’s decision-making. In particular, it is categorised under three key elements.

Briefing Note

Unique Product Identifier - UPI

The Unique Product Identifier (UPI) is necessary to improve transparency and reduce risk in the OTC derivatives market, but implementing it poses challenges for financial institutions, including data quality, system integration, cost, and industry coordination. High-quality data and system integration are crucial for effective implementation, and coordination is necessary for consistent global adoption.

Case Study

Support to Risk Management: Risk monitoring tool migration

The client is a large multinational asset management company. The customer needed assistance on the migration of its risk monitoring tool (from RiskMetrics to Aladdin Risk). Avantage Reply supported the client on the risk monitoring tool migration as Project Manager, leveraging on industry knowledge and internal know-how.

Briefing Note

Last amendment on SFTR

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released an update to Validation Rules and XML Schemas for the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR) and Reply’s team will support you in defining the main impacts.

Case Study

Liquidity & Interest Rate Risk Assessment on Complex Financing Structures

Avantage Reply assisted a well-known universal bank in the Eurozone to analyze, assess and document the potential liquidity and interest rate risks related to complex financing structures. The tailor-made financing solutions are important for more sophisticated clients, mostly corporations with precise financial needs, and aim at financing them via term loans, leasing, liquidity raising, securitization or short-term investments.

Case Study

National Central Bank Reporting Support

Avantage Reply assisted the finance department of a well-known bank in updating its process to produce monthly and quarterly statistical reporting for the Nation’s Central Bank, following the publication of the updated guidelines. This guideline modifies the statistical reporting requirements for credit institutions

Case Study

Recovery Plan Update

The client, a subsidiary of a leading bank, is required to maintain and update their Recovery Plan on the regular basis. Given internal resource limitations along with new requirements, the client required an assistance in the review and update of the plan. Avantage Reply provided a recovery plan expert who 1) updated the plan according to the latest regulatory requirements and 2) integrated the recommendations received from the internal audit function as well as the national regulator.

Case Study

Support with Credit Risk Regulatory Inspection

The client, a European-based leading bank in online financial services that offers state-of-the-art solutions to meet investment needs, required support from Avantage Reply on the preparation of a regulatory inspection for Credit risk and IT-related topics.

Case Study

Finance Function Support

Avantage Reply supported the Finance department of an internationally operating custodian bank in their daily and monthly production of internal and regulatory reports, as well as other routine activities. The client was handling a large project, the complexity of which had to be managed, while simultaneously completing all regularly occurring tasks to the highest possible standard without any disruption.

Case Study

Supporting daily ALM activity and reporting

Avantage Reply assisted a Finance department of a well-known private bank in daily activity and reporting production of the Assets and Liabilities Management team. The key tasks were assist the team in the improvement and preparation of the Internal Liquidity Adequacy Assessment Process (ILAAP), advise on the regulatory requirements and contribute to the implementation of local.

Case Study

Testing of liquidity regulatory reporting in light of the new BO system

Avantage Reply assisted a Finance department of a well-known private bank in the connectivity test phase within back office tool migration. The project covered a wide range of activities such as conducting multiple User Acceptance Tests (UAT) with on-shore teams, verify the impact of the change on regulatory reporting.

Case Study

Finance reporting support

Avantage Reply assisted a Finance department of a well-known private bank in daily and monthly reporting production related to liquidity. The key tasks were: produce and certify various regulatory reports, such as LCR, AMT, NSFR incl. contributions to group consolidated reports; produce and certify integral liquidity reports based on inputs from various business line.

Case Study

AnaCredit – Data remediation Activity

Avantage Reply assisted a Finance department of a well-known private bank in daily and monthly reporting production related to liquidity. The key tasks were: Produce and certify various regulatory reports, such as LCR, AMT, NSFR incl. contributions to group consolidated reports; produce and certify integral liquidity reports based on inputs from various business lines...

Case Study

Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) Transition

The regulatory classification of banking institutions, concerning their competent authority, is an important aspect that determines a lot about their regulatory obligations. Based on several criteria, a bank may be deemed significant.

Briefing Note

BASEL 3.1: BRACE FOR IMPACT

The Bank of England has published its position on Basel 3.1 reforms, introducing a series of fundamental changes to the current prudential regulation regime in the UK. CP16/22 - Implementation of the Basel 3.1 standards has largely been adopted from BCBS standards and its core principle are aligned to global practices. However, there remain some key points of difference/divergence, specific to the practices in the UK market.

White Paper

EBA’S NEW REQUIREMENTS ON CSRBB MANAGEMENT

On 20 October 2022, the European Banking Authority (EBA)published new regulatory requirements on Interest Rate Risk and Credit Spread Risk in the Banking Book (IRRBB / CSRBB) aiming to finalise the implementation of Basel III requirements (BCBS368, Guidelines on IRRBB) in the European Union.

Case Study

Enhancement of Internal Rating Based Framework

The client, a major universal bank featuring a significant wealth management activity, was in the process of enhancing its IRB framework (Internal Ratings Based) following Basel IV requirements and feedback from the European Central Bank (ECB). This program has been launched to repair internal models used to calculate own funds requirements for credit risk under the Internal Ratings Based (IRB) approach.

Case Study

Remediation of the outsourcing control framework

In 2021, an internal systemic Bank launched a holistic risk assessment of its Depositary Bank (DB) business. As part of this review, Avantage Reply performed a review of DB exposure to risks related to outsourcing arrangements including the effectiveness of controls to mitigate associated risks.

Case Study

ILAAP Support

Following the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP), the bank received a letter from the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg (BCL) highlighting a number of findings and recommendations concerning its liquidity risk management framework. The bank was asked to address these recommendations as part of its submission of the 2021 Internal Liquidity Adequacy Assessment Process (ILAAP).

Case Study

Risk and treasury processes automation

Following recommendations from Banque Centrale du Luxembourg (BCL) as well as the findings raised by its internal auditor, the bank wished to automate several operational and regulatory processes conducted by the Risk and Treasury departments.

Case Study

Pillar 3 Support

In the context of Pillar 3 on public disclosure requirements and with the implementation of the regulation known as CRR 2, the bank is required to produce and publish every year a Pillar 3 report (annual and semi-annual versions). Avantage Reply was engaged to provide support and expertise in the Pillar 3 and CRR 2 regulatory requirements implementation.

Case Study

Counterparty Credit Risk (Pillar 1 and 2)

The client, a major banking group specialised in the provision of online banking and trading services, was in the process of launching new derivative products for its retail clients and required assistance for the counterparty credit risk calculations and regulatory reporting of these products.

Case Study

Standardised Approach for Counterparty Credit Risk

The client, a major banking group specialised in the provision of online banking and trading services, was in the process of launching new derivative products for its retail clients and required assistance with calculating the capital requirements for counterparty credit risk under the new standardised approach. This project was a continuation of similar work which Avantage Reply performed prior for this client, regarding the mark-to-market approach.

Case Study

Development and implementation of the IRB-models

Avantage Reply supported a large bank in Luxembourg with a complete transformation of the internal credit risk model portfolio. In doing so, our team was involved in several steps of the model lifecycle: model development, model backtesting, model validation by the second line of defense, model review by the ECB and implementation of the model in the bank’s IT system.

Case Study

CRR2 Support

The client, an international central securities depository, required assistance in the transition to the new regulatory reporting requirements (i.e. Capital Requirements Regulation 2 / CRR2) coming into force in June 2021. In particular, the reporting function needed support on the following topics.