The FCA has published Handbook Notice 15.
This Handbook Notice introduces the Handbook and other material made by the FCA board under its legislative powers on 25 September 2014. It also contains information about other publications relating to the FCA Handbook and, if appropriate, lists minor corrections made to previous instruments made by the FCA board.
The FCA has published a speech by Hannah Nixon (Managing Director of the Payment Systems Regulator) entitled The future of payment systems – and the PSR.
The FCA has published a speech given by William Amos (Director of Wholesale Banking and Investment Management, FCA) entitled Getting the right investor outcomes.
The FCA has published Policy Statement 14/13: Changes to regulatory reporting: Adviser charging and product sales data, including feedback to CP14/5 and final rules (PS14/13).
In PS14/13 the FCA summarises the feedback it received on its earlier consultation which proposed changes to section K of the Retail Mediation Activities Return (RMAR) and the product sales
The Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial Institutions (the Key Attributes) were published by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in November 2011. They are the international standard for resolution regimes for financial institutions and are an important component of the policy framework to address the moral hazard and systemic risks associated with institutions that are too big to fail.
Recent concerns about the integrity of trading around the setting of FX benchmarks were first aired publicly in June 2013. This was followed by increased media interest and the launch of investigations by a number of regulators into alleged misconduct in the FX market. In early 2014 the Financial Stability Board (FSB) formed a working group whose mandate was to undertake an analysis of the FX market structure and incentives that may promote particular types of trading activity around the benchmark fixings.
On 14 February 2014, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) wrote to Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, to highlight its concerns that an inconsistent application of the definitions of FX and physically settled commodity forwards could have a significant detrimental effect on the consistent application of EMIR and considered that it was essential that references to the MiFID definitions in the context of EMIR be clarified. On 26 February 2014, the Commission responded to ESMA and invited it to consider issuing guidelines on the application of the definitions of C6 and C7 of Annex 1 of MiFID.
The Capital Requirements Regulation requires the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to define the concepts of “main indices” and “recognised exchanges”. These concepts are important as they are used inter alia in the specification of “eligible collateral” which in turn is important for the calculation of credit risk by the credit institutions and investment firms to which the CRR applies.
On September 3, 2014, the US banking agencies (the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency), along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), issued for comment a proposed rule that would implement the sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
The Omnibus II Directive entered into force on 23 May 2014 and requires the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to submit draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on procedures for approval of prospectuses, incorporation by reference of information, publication of prospectuses and dissemination of advertisements relating to offers to the public and admissions to trading to the European Commission by 1 July 2015. ESMA has now published a consultation paper setting out proposals for these RTS. The deadline for comments on the consultation paper is 19 December 2014.