The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on October 22, 2015, that transactions to exchange a virtual currency such as bitcoin for another currency are not subject to the Value-Added Tax (VAT). Exchanges of Bitcoin for traditional currency is considered to fall within one of the currency exemptions to the VAT rules. We have issued
CMA provisional report on retail banking
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its provisional findings report, alongside 11 appendixes, following its retail banking market investigation into the supply of retail banking services to personal current account (PCA) customers and to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
As part of the investigation the CMA identified that:
- there are a number of
ESMA publishes responses to consultation on guidelines on sound remuneration policies
The European Securities and Markets Authority has published the responses to its consultation on the guidelines on sound remuneration policies under the UCITS V Directive and Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.
Respondents include:
- Alternative Investment Management Association;
- European Fund and Asset Management Association; and
- The Investment Association.
Consultation on the Decree implementing the UCITS V Directive
On 27 October 2015, the Dutch Minister of Finance published a first draft of the Decree implementing the UCITS V Directive (2014/91/EU) (Implementatiebesluit wijziging richtlijn icbe’s, the Implementation Decree) for consultation. The Implementation Decree will amend the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiële ondernemingen),
New US Department of Education rules will affect banks
On October 27, 2015, the US Department of Education issued final regulations regarding certain banking relationships between banks and college students. The regulations are effective July 1, 2016, with compliance dates for various sections stretching out to 2017. These rules add yet another regulator to the plethora of US and state government agencies regulating banks.
European Parliament adopts draft Regulation on securities financing transactions
The European Parliament has formally adopted the final text of the draft Regulation on transparency of securities financing transactions. The adopted text is substantially the same as the text agreed during trilogues but includes some technical drafting changes from lawyer linguists. A provisional version (still in amendment form) of the adopted text is set out in the link below.
The Council of the EU will now need to formally approve the text before its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Final publication is expected in December.
FCA consults on high-cost short-term credit
The FCA has published Consultation Paper 15/33: Consumer credit: proposals in response to the CMA’s recommendations on high-cost short-term credit (CP15/33).
CP15/33 follows the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) February 2015 report into payday lending which contained a number of recommendations to the FCA. Following the FCA’s review of those recommendations, it has published CP15/33
CMA speech on online platform regulation
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published a speech by Alex Chisholm, CMA Chief Executive, covering online platform regulation and the evolution of CMA tools and practices to meet the challenges of the digital economy.
In his speech Mr Chisholm describe how both antitrust and telecoms regulation ought to change, and gives his reasons
European Commission 2016 work programme
The European Commission (the Commission) has published a communication outlining its work programme for 2016, which reaffirms its commitment to the ten political priorities of its Political Guidelines published in October 2014 and set out 23 key initiatives, 20 intended withdrawals or modifications of pending proposals and 40 REFIT actions (i.e. the Commission programme for
PSR Policy Statement on regulatory fees for 2015/16
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published Policy Statement 15/26: PSR regulatory fees 2015/16 (PS15/16).
PS15/16 follows the PSR’s August 2015 consultation paper on changes to the fees calculation and collection method and sets out the responses and the PSR’s feedback, as well as the resulting FCA decisions and fees rules for the PSR.
Among