On 11 April 2024, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) issued a press release confirming that the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) will launch, in May, the voluntary exercise of the collection of the registers of information of contractual arrangements on the use of ICT third party service providers by the financial entities. This … Continue Reading
On 3 April 2024, the Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) Verena Ross, wrote a letter to Mairead McGuinness (European Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets), Irene Tinagli (Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs) and Vincent van Peteghem (President of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council … Continue Reading
On 13 March 2024, the European Commission adopted: It is now for European Parliament and the Council of the EU to scrutinise and adopt the delegated acts. Our previous blog on the above delegated acts are here.… Continue Reading
On 13 March 2024, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a final report containing draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) to specify the requirements, templates and procedures for handling complaints received by issuers of asset reference tokens (ARTs) under Article 31 of the Regulation on markets in crypto-assets (MiCAR). The draft RTS set out: The draft … Continue Reading
In our 2024 FinTech Outlook, our lawyers from across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US share their insights on what to expect across the regulatory landscape in relation to FinTech and cryptoassets in 2024.… Continue Reading
On 22 February 2024, the European Commission (Commission) adopted two Delegated Regulations supplementing the Regulation on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA): Both Delegated Regulations enter into force on the twentieth day following their publication in the Official Journal of the EU. They shall be directly applicable in all Member States.… Continue Reading
On 22 February 2024, the European Commission (Commission) adopted the following Delegated Regulations under the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR): The Council of the EU and the European Parliament will scrutinise the Delegated Regulations. If neither the Council of the EU nor the European Parliament objects, the Delegated Regulations will be published in the … Continue Reading
On 30 January 2024, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a speech by its chair José Manuel Campa on digital finance, as well as confidence and resilience as a foundation of well-functioning financial markets. Before exploring digital finance, Mr Campa shared some observations on the theme of competitiveness. He emphasised that competitiveness equates to the … Continue Reading
On 1 February 2024, the European Banking Authority published a report on 2023 stocktaking of BigTech direct financial services provision in the EU. In 2023 the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) conducted a cross sectoral stocktake of BigTech subsidiaries carrying out financial services in the EU, through the European Forum for Innovation Facilitators (EFIF). The work … Continue Reading
On 29 January 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched public consultations on two sets of guidelines it is mandated to develop for the purpose of the application of the Regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCAR). The draft guidelines cover reverse solicitation and the qualification of crypto-assets as financial instruments. The following provides … Continue Reading
On 23 January 2024, the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) Innovation Hub announced its first six projects for its 2024 work programme. The projects focus on safety and security, green finance and next generation financial infrastructures. Additional work on advanced data analytics and tokenisation are also planned. Head of the BIS Innovation Hub Cecilia Skingsley … Continue Reading
On 19 December 2023, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published a final report with policy recommendations to address market integrity and investor protection issues in decentralised finance (DeFi). The policy recommendations, which are principles-based and outcomes-focused, are addressed to relevant authorities and complement IOSCO’s policy recommendations for crypto and digital assets markets issued … Continue Reading
On 14 December 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a Discussion Paper on MiFID II investor protection topics linked to digitalisation. The Discussion Paper discusses the main trends in digitalisation that are linked to the MiFID II investor protection topics. MiFID II aims at being technology neutral. This means that market participants … Continue Reading
On 11 December 2023, the European Banking Authority (EBA), European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) – together, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – published a report on ‘innovation facilitators’, a term that encompasses innovation hubs and regulatory sandboxes. The report identifies several benefits and challenges relating to … Continue Reading
On 8 December 2023 the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) launched public consultation on a second package of technical standards under Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). This includes the following draft regulatory technical standards (RTS), implementing technical standards (ITS) and guidelines: RTS and ITS on content, timelines and templates on incident reporting By way of background, … Continue Reading
On 24 November 2023, the European Banking Authority (EBA) issued a public consultation on new guidelines on preventing the abuse of funds and certain crypto-asset transfers for money laundering and terrorist financing purposes. Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets recasts Regulation (EU) 2015/847 and extends its scope to the … Continue Reading
On 15 November 2023, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision issued a discussion paper which provides a high-level assessment of the supervisory and financial stability implications of digital fraud for the global banking system. It is structured around three broad sets of questions: The discussion paper does not make a formal distinction between retail and … Continue Reading
On 9 November 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced that it is changing its Union strategic supervisory priorities (USSPs) to focus on cyber risk and digital resilience alongside ESG disclosures. With this new priority, EU supervisors will put greater emphasis on reinforcing firms’ information communication technology risk management through close monitoring and … Continue Reading
On 20 October 2023, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published for consultation two draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) that it is mandated to develop under the Regulation on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA): Draft RTS the minimum content of the governance arrangements on the remuneration policy By way of background, MiCA requires issuers of significant ARTs … Continue Reading
On 17 October 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a speech by Verena Ross, Chair, at OPTIC 2023, Brussels. The speech was entitled ‘Being ready for the digital age’ and focusses on technological developments and their impact on the operations of financial institutions. Key points in the speech include:… Continue Reading
Every month we provide the Global Blockchain Business Council’s Post-Trade Distributed Ledger group with a global regulatory FinTech updater, the latest version of which can be found here. Post Trade Distributed Ledger (PTDL) Group is composed of over 40 prominent market infrastructure stakeholders whose shared vision of the use of distributed ledger technology has brought … Continue Reading
On 4 July 2023, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a speech by Jose Manuel Campa, Chairperson of the EBA, at the Central Bank of Cyprus, where he discussed FinTech and the future of financial intermediation. In his speech, Mr Manuel Campa made the following remarks:… Continue Reading
On 22 June 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a speech delivered by Verena Ross, ESMA Chair, at the ISLA 30th annual securities finance and collateral management conference on building safe digital financial markets: a collective effort. In her speech, Ms Ross addresses the following: Current market conditions MiCA DLT Pilot CSDR… Continue Reading
On 22 June 2023, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a consultative document on enhancing third-party risk management and oversight: a toolkit for financial institutions and financial authorities. The toolkit has been developed against a backdrop of digitalisation of the financial services sector and growing reliance of financial institutions on third-party service providers for a … Continue Reading
