November 2015

Transparency International, an international organisation focusing on combatting corruption around the world, has published a research report recommending radical overhaul of the UK’s anti-money laundering system. The report makes 20 specific recommendations to strengthen the UK’s ability to stem the flow of corrupt money. Principal among them is that the UK should review its supervisory arrangements and evaluate options for consolidating the number of anti-money laundering supervisors.

Christian Bittar was a trader holding the position of Manager of a bank’s Money Markets Derivatives (MMD) desk in London during the relevant period.

On 23 April 2015, the FCA published a Final Notice imposing a penalty on the bank for misconduct, including the attempted manipulation of the LIBOR and EURIBOR benchmarks (…

The European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) is mandated under the Regulation establishing it, to collect and analyse information for the macro-prudential oversight of the financial system within the EU, in order to contribute to the prevention or mitigation of systemic risks to the EU’s financial stability arising from developments within the financial system. Under the…

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has updated its Q&A on the Single Rulebook to include new questions and answers relating to the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR).

Specifically, the new Q&A relate to:

  • application of the top-down approach based on expected loss calibration (Article 160(2) CRR) (ID: 2015_2023);
  • definition of disputed margin call under Article 285(4)

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The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a report which assesses the compliance of institutions’ disclosures in their 2014 annual Pillar 3 disclosure reports with the disclosure requirements in Part Eight of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), which forms the EU’s implementation of the Basel Pillar 3 disclosure framework.

Overall, following an assessment of 17…

Commendably, South Africa’s new Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill proposes that we take a bold step ahead of contemporary laws across Africa and beyond. Pertinently, clause 19(1) of the Bill proscribes the novel concept of cyberlaundering.

Cyberlaundering is the use of a computer to perform or assist an unlawful financial transaction or a relationship involving property…

The European Parliament’s MiFID II negotiating team has informed the European Commission on its stance on a potential delay of the entry into force of MiFID II. Markus Ferber, the European Parliament’s Rapporteur for MiFID II, stated:

“The European Parliament’s negotiation team has informed the European Commission that we are ready to accept a one-year delay of the entry into force of MiFID II. However, this only applies if the Commission finalises the implementing legislation swiftly and thereby takes into account the European Parliament’s priorities. Furthermore, the Commission and ESMA need to come up with a clear roadmap on the implementation work and especially for setting up the IT-systems.”

The FCA has published a “Dear CEO” letter sent by Jonathan Davidson, FCA Director of Supervision (Retail and Authorisations), to debt management firms setting out the FCA’s expectations when customers or customer information is transferred.

Among other things, the FCA’s expectations include the following:

  • transfers must be lawful and compliant with FCA rules and principles.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that it entered into with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to allow the exchange of information on derivative contracts held in trade repositories.

Unlike the MoUs entered into between ESMA and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission in…