2014

The European Commission has adopted a Delegated Regulation on the information to be provided by Member State competent authorities to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) pursuant to Article 67(3) of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).

Under Article 67(3) of the AIFMD, Member State competent authorities are required to report quarterly to ESMA information on alternative investment fund managers that are managing or marketing alternative investment funds under their supervision, either under the application of the passport regime or under their national regime.

The European Parliament has announced that it has reached a political agreement with the Council of the EU on the proposed Regulation on multilateral interchange fees for card-based payment transactions (MIF Regulation).

Before the proposed MIF Regulation can be put to a vote by the European Parliament in 2015 it must be endorsed by the Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee and the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published three consultation papers on implementing measures for a new settlement regime under the Regulation on improving securities settlement and regulating central securities depositories (CSDs) (the CSDR). The consultation papers concern:

The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Carrying on Regulated Activities by Way of Business) (Amendment) Order 2014 has been published on the legislation.gov.uk website.

The Order extends the effect of Article 5 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Carrying on Regulated Activity by Way of Business) Order 2001 until 1 January 2022. Article 5 provides that a person carrying on the activity of entering into a regulated sale and rent back agreement will be regarded as doing so by way of business unless the parties to the agreement are family members.

On 1 October 2014, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) sent the European Commission draft regulatory technical standards (draft RTS) on the clearing obligation for interest rate swaps (IRS) pursuant to Article 5 of EMIR.

The draft RTS lay down the classes of IRS that will be subject to mandatory clearing as well as…

The PRA has published Supervisory Statement 11/14 which sets out its expectations relating to firm’s compliance with the European Banking Authority’s guidelines on disclosure of encumbered and unencumbered assets published on 27 June 2014. The Supervisory Statement is relevant to firms to which the CRD IV Directive applies.

The definition under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) of when securities can be eligible as collateral refers to equities and convertible bonds that are constituents of a “main index” and to debt securities that are listed on a “recognised exchange”.

Article 197(8) CRR requires the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to produce draft implementing technical standards (ITS) that specify “the main indices” and “the recognised exchanges” to which reference is made in Article 197 and in other Articles of the CRR. ESMA published a consultation paper and draft ITS covering both issues on 29 September 2014.