The European Central Bank has set out a series of upcoming decisions and publications, including new climate-related disclosures, changes to euro payment system hours and a timetable for harmonising bank statistics.
The ECB’s Governing Council authorised the publication of its fourth report on climate-related financial disclosures covering Eurosystem assets held for monetary policy purposes and the ECB’s foreign reserves on 21 May 2026, the ECB announced on Friday.
The report includes climate-related metrics and targets, plus information on governance, strategy and risk management for climate-related issues.
A second report — also in its fourth edition — will cover the ECB’s non-monetary policy portfolios, including its own funds portfolio and its staff pension fund.
Both reports, alongside a related statement and updated FAQs, are due to be published on the ECB’s website on 15 June 2026.
The Governing Council also approved the publication of an outcome report from a public consultation on extending the operating hours of T2.
T2 is the Eurosystem’s main system for settling large-value payments between banks in central bank money.
The consultation drew responses from 125 entities across 19 countries. Following the feedback, the Governing Council decided to approve a new short settlement window for liquidity management in T2 during most weekends — and potentially also on TARGET closing days — within the next two years.
Supervision and governance changes
The Governing Council appointed Roland Straub as Secretary for monetary policy with effect from 1 July 2026, the ECB said.
He will succeed Christophe Kamps, who had been acting in the role until a new Director General Monetary Policy was appointed to replace Massimo Rostagno after his retirement at the end of February 2026.
Separately, the ECB published a timeline for its Integrated Reporting Framework programme on 8 June 2026, which is intended to harmonise statistical reporting across euro area banks.
A public consultation on a draft IReF regulation is planned for the second half of 2027, followed by a one-year pilot reporting phase starting in the second quarter of 2030, with first official reporting of IReF data scheduled for 2031.
In banking supervision, the Governing Council did not object to notifying the European Banking Authority that, for significant banks under the ECB’s direct supervision, it intends to comply by 1 January 2027 with joint EU guidelines on incorporating environmental, social and governance risks into supervisory stress testing.
Stress tests are exercises used by supervisors to assess how well banks could cope with adverse scenarios.
