April 2014

The Council of the EU has published a compromise proposal on the European Commission’s proposed Regulation on European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIF Regulation). The cover note to the compromise proposal indicates that additions and changes to the proposed ELTIF Regulation are denoted by bold underlining and deletions by strikethroughs.

The Council of the EU has published an information note from the General Secretariat of the Council to the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) concerning the outcome of the European Parliament’s first reading of the Regulation on improving securities settlement and central securities depositaries (the CSD Regulation).

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a recommendation for a Council Regulation which amends the Regulation concerning the powers of the ECB to impose sanctions (the Regulation). The ECB recommends the following changes be made:

  • a new article 1a should be inserted to define general principles applying to administrative penalties imposed by the ECB;
  • new articles 4a to 4c should be inserted in relation to the regime applicable to administrative penalties imposed by the ECB in the exercise of its supervisory tasks; and
  • additional amendments should be made to ensure that the principles and procedures governing the imposition of sanctions laid down in the Regulation are compatible with those in the Regulation establishing the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).

The Council of the EU has published an information note from the General Secretariat of the Council to the Permanent Representatives Committee concerning the outcome of the European Parliament’s first reading of the proposed Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD or RRD) on 15 April 2014. In the note, the secretariat explains that:

The Payments Council has published a new code of best practice for payment service providers (PSPs) on misdirected payments along with guidance on the code, which should be read in conjunction with one another. The code is voluntary and currently has a limited number of signatories although it is anticipated that this may increase. A misdirected payment is an electronic payment made by mistake to the wrong account, usually due to a customer entering the wrong payment information. The code is designed to prevent misdirected payments and increase transparency surrounding them.

The Council of the EU has published an information note from the General Secretariat of the Council to the Permanent Representatives Committee concerning the outcome of the European Parliament’s first reading of the proposed Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR). It states that the Parliament’s first reading reflects what had been previously agreed between the institutions and that the Council should therefore be in a position to approve the Parliament’s position. MiFIR can then be formally adopted using the wording corresponding to the Parliament’s position.