Recently, both the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) have taken steps to promote greater transparency in the U.S. fixed income markets. FINRA now publicly disseminates Rule 144A transaction data in corporate debt securities. In addition, SEC Chair Mary Jo White discussed the SEC’s plans to enhance disclosure
Volcker Rule FAQs and examination guidelines released
On June 10, 2014, the Federal Reserve Board staff, along with the other regulatory agencies responsible for the Volcker Rule regulatory implementation, issued a set of frequently asked questions and answers regarding the implementation of the Volcker Rule, covering areas such as data reporting dates, compliance conformance deadlines, and exemptions from the Volcker Rule, including
OTC Derivatives Regulators’ Group letter to FSB on barriers to reporting to trade repositories
There has been published a letter from the OTC Derivatives Regulators’ Group (the Group) to the Financial Stability Board (FSB) chairman, Mark Carney. The letter relates to the existence of barriers, including data protection laws, blocking statutes, state secrecy laws and bank secrecy laws, which can prevent reporting of counterparty-identifying information to trade repositories. The Group calls for urgent changes, which may include legislative changes, to remove these barriers.
FCA requests examples of retrospective application of regulatory rules
As part of its Project Innovate, the FCA has published a new webpage and response form requesting examples from firms of the retrospective application of regulatory rules. The intention behind this is for firms to highlight to the FCA if they thought a demanding standard or interpretation of the rules was applied, using the benefit of hindsight.
FCA clarifies view that Court of Appeal judgment in Fons case does not impact FSMA regulatory perimeter
The Financial Law Committee of the City of London Law Society (CLLS) has made available a letter from David Geale, FCA Head of Savings, Investment and Distribution, to Clare Dawson, Loan Market Association (LMA) Chief Executive, concerning the FCA’s consideration of the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Fons Hf v Corporal Ltd and another [2014] EWCA Civ 304 (20 March 2014).
EMIR reporting – is the industry ready?
The FCA has published a new web page following its review of firms’ preparations for the EMIR derivatives contracts reporting obligation and the EMIR collateral and valuation reporting obligation which came into effect on 12 February 2014 and 11 August 2014 respectively.
ECB identifies systemically important payments systems
The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a press release stating that it has identified four key payment systems that are now under the ECB Regulation on oversight requirements for systemically important payment systems (the Regulation). The four systems identified, which consist of the value of payments settled, market share, cross-border relevance and provision of services to other infrastructures, and which will be regularly assessed for compliance with the Regulation, are:
ECB decision on identification of TARGET2 as a systemically important payment system
There has been published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJ) a decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) on the identification of TARGET2 as a systemically important payment system (SIPS) pursuant to the Regulation on oversight requirements for systemically important payment systems (the Regulation). The Regulation lays down oversight requirements for operators of payment systems that have been identified by the ECB’s Governing Council as systemically important retail payment systems.
EBA final templates for 2014 EU-wide stress test
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published the final templates for the 2014 EU-wide stress test, with an accompanying press release. The templates, which encompass data from 124 banks that cover at least 50% of each national banking sector, will cover:
- composition of capital;
- risk weighted assets;
- profit and loss;
- exposures to sovereigns;
- credit risk; and
- securitisation.
UK banking industry to extend retry process from 1 September 2014
The Payments Council has published a press release, webpage and guide for consumers detailing that from 1 September 2014 there will be an extension to the retry process within the UK banking industry.