The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs have published draft recommendations for the second reading relating to the proposed Fourth Money Laundering Directive and the proposed Wire Transfer Regulation.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an updated version of its Q&A document on the implementation of the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
The new Q&As relate to the second level of the EMIR validation specifications to be commonly applied by trade repositories (TRs) to ensure that reporting is performed according to the EMIR regime. ESMA expects TRs to be able to implement the validation set out in the updated Q&As by the end of October 2015.
The FCA has published the following forms on its Mortgage Credit Directive webpage:
The forms are meant for second charge mortgage firms that have already submitted their applications to the FCA for authorisation to carry out consumer credit activities.
The FCA has published Handbook Notice 21.
This Handbook Notice introduces the FCA Handbook and other material made by the FCA Board under its legislative powers on 24 March, 4 April and 23 April 2015. 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.
On April 21, 2015, the Government of Canada tabled the federal budget, Economic Action Plan 2015 (Budget 2015) in the House of Commons. In Budget 2015, the Government promised a number of regulatory changes that will be relevant to financial institutions. The changes include:
The national private placement regime under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) is a mechanism that allows alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) to market alternative investment funds (AIFs) that are not allowed to be marketed under the AIFMD domestic marketing or passporting regimes. This principally relates to the marketing of non-EEA AIFs and any AIFs managed by non-EEA AIFMs. However, it also relates to the marketing of feeder AIFs where the master funds manager is a non-EEA AIFM or the master fund is a non-EEA AIF.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has agreed to remove certain national discretions from the Basel capital framework. The BCBS has agreed to remove the following national discretions from the Basel II capital framework:
The Consumer Rights Act 2015, which applies to consumer insurance contracts, received Royal Assent on March 26. The Act will reform and consolidate consumer law in the United Kingdom (UK). For insurers offering consumer products the main impact of the Act is likely to be seen in the new laws for digital content and ancillary contracts, unfair contract terms and the changes to the mechanisms for consumer redress. For most firms the new consumer law will not have a significant impact on their business. Many of the measures reflect much of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) best-practice in terms of policy wording and Treating Customers Fairly. But this is a major piece of legislative reform that does introduce some changes that insurers should be aware of. In particular firms should be aware of the introduction of rules to ensure that digital content (for example some ‘apps’ offered to policyholders) is fit for purpose, changes to consumer cancellation rights and the requirement to make all potentially onerous core terms ‘prominent’.
Recent enforcement action by ASIC against collapsed payday lender, the Cash Store Pty Ltd (TCS), has put the sale of consumer credit insurance (CCI) into sharp focus.
On 19 February 2015, the Federal Court awarded penalties against TCS and its loan funder, Assistive Finance Australia Pty Ltd (AFA) of
The Council of the EU has adopted its position at first reading on the draft Fourth Money Laundering Directive and the draft Regulation on Wire Transfers. The decision will enable the European Parliament, with which agreement was reached on 16 December 2014, to adopt the measures at second reading at a forthcoming plenary session.