Reports
AI's Impact on the Evolving Cyber Threat Landscape for Capital Markets
AFME and PwC UK convened over the summer of 2025 a series of roundtables with senior banking
executives representing wholesale capital markets, to explore emerging AI-related risks, the measures
banks are implementing, and the role of regulation in enabling AI adoption in a secure way. The following
paper, co-authored by PwC UK and AFME, summarises the key insights from these discussions, with
thanks to Clifford Chance for their assistance on the regulatory dimension.
Banking Union: Measuring Progress and Identifying Implementation Gaps
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has today published a report highlighting the critical barriers still limiting EU banking consolidation, including over €475 bn in capital and liquidity trapped by regulatory ringfencing, as well as the fact EU banks face higher funding costs versus global peers with stringent MREL requirements (28% of risk weighted assets) exceeding levels in the US (22%) creating a competitive disadvantage. Furthermore, our report finds EU Banking M&A is the slowest in the world with acquisitions taking 285 days on average – far longer than the US (219 days) delaying consolidation and weakening the sector’s efficiency.
