March 2015

The has been published on the legislation.gov.uk website the following statutory instruments relating to new macro-prudential powers for the Financial Policy Committee (FPC):

  • the Bank of England Act 1998 (Macro-prudential Measures) Order 2015 together with an explanatory memorandum and impact assessment. This Order allows the FPC to make directions on the owner-occupied mortgage markets relating to loan-to-value ratios and debt-to-income ratios; and
  • the Bank of England Act 1998 (Macro-prudential Measures) (No. 2) Order 2015 together with an explanatory memorandum and impact assessment. This Order enables the FPC to set maximum ratios of total unweighted liabilities to capital and to vary those ratios over time.

The European Systemic Risk Board has published its latest risk dashboard (issue 11).

The headlights in the risk dashboard include:

  • markets continued to perceive systemic risk as low;
  • financial market conditions remain buoyant;
  • risk aversion and volatility exceed their 2014 levels;
  • latest real GDP growth releases indicate a moderate economic expansion in the EU;
  • on

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HM Treasury has published its response to its July 2014 consultation on the UK transposition of the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD).

The document, which summarises the responses received and outlines the Government’s response, notes that HM Treasury intends to undertake further work with regard to:

  • whether the Bank of England should have additional

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The FCA has published Policy Statement 15/7: Feedback and policy statement on CP14/21 in relation to joint sponsor proposals (PS15/7).

In PS15/7 the FCA sets out the feedback, final rules and Technical Note in response to its September 2014 consultation on joint sponsors, confirms that it is retaining the joint sponsor regime and will be making minor changes to Listing Rule 8 (LR 8) where they affect joint sponsors.

The FCA has published Market Study 14/3.3: Retirement income market study: Final report – confirmed findings and remedies (MS14/3.3).

MS14/3.3 follows the FCA’s December 2014 interim report which found that competition in the retirement income market was not working well for consumers. MS14/3.3 summarises the responses received to the FCA’s consultation on its interim report and confirms that the FCA is making its provisional findings final and will be taking forward its remedy proposals.

There has been published on the legislation.gov.uk website the Mortgage Credit Order 2015 (the Order) together with an explanatory memorandum.

The Order makes a number of changes to UK legislation. Principally, these changes provide the FCA with the appropriate powers to design, supervise and enforce rules as required to achieve compliance with the Mortgage Credit Directive. In addition, the Order introduces a new legislative framework for the regulation of buy-to-let lending to consumers, and provides the FCA with the appropriate powers to supervise and enforce this framework.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a Regulation on reporting of supervisory financial information (the Regulation).

Credit institutions are subject to regular reporting requirements as set out in the Capital Requirements Regulation and the Commission Implementing Regulation laying down implementing technical standards with regard to supervisory reporting of institutions. The information reported is collected by the European Central Bank (ECB) under Decision ECB/2014/29. The Regulation now published complements the ECB’s earlier Decision by further specifying the requirements concerning the reporting of supervisory financial information.

HM Treasury has published a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the FCA, PRA, Bank of England (BoE) and the Payment Systems Regulator. The MoU outlines how these institutions will cooperate with one another in relation to the supervision of markets and market infrastructure.

Amongst other things, the MoU covers:

  • roles and responsibilities of the authorities;

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