The G20 has published a leaders’ communiqué following their Antalya summit on 15 and 16 November 2015.
Among other things the communiqué notes that the G20 leaders:
HM Treasury has published an advisory notice on money laundering and terrorist financing controls in overseas jurisdictions.
The advisory notice follows the Financial Action Task Force’s October 2015 statements identifying jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing regimes.
In the advisory notice HM Treasury advises firms to:
HM Treasury has published a summary of the responses it received to its summer consultation on implementing the Payment Accounts Directive (PAD), together with an impact assessment and draft version of the Payment Accounts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations).
The Government needs to implement the PAD by 18 September 2016, thus requiring the Government to make
The Council of the EU has adopted the proposed Directive repealing and replacing the Payment Services Directive (PSD2).
By incorporating and repealing the Payment Services Directive, the PSD2 adapts the rules to cater for emerging and innovative payment services, including internet and mobile payments. It sets out to ensure a more secure environment for payments, in particular for those using remote channels.
The PSD2 will next be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force 20 days thereafter. Member states will have two years to transpose the PSD2 into their national laws and regulations.
The Council of the EU has adopted the proposed Regulation on reporting and transparency of securities financing transactions (SFT Regulation).
By introducing binding and reporting requirements, the SFT Regulation will discourage banks and other financial intermediaries from shifting transactions to the less-regulated shadow banking sector. It will ensure that information on securities financing transactions is efficiently reported to trade repositories and investors in collective investment undertakings.
The SFT Regulation will next be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force 20 days thereafter.
On 23 October 2015, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published a circular on the progress of Registered Institutions’ implementation of the enhanced competency framework (ECF) for private wealth management practitioners, following the HKMA’s survey on private banks’ implementation progress and plans for the ECF. The ECF was launched in June 2014 and the initial
On 13 November 2015, the Government published in the Gazette the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Ordinance (Amendment Ordinance), which amends the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571) (Ordinance) with immediate effect.
The Amendment Ordinance follows on from the consultation conclusions published on 5 June 2015 in response to the consultation paper issued on 19 December
The Securities and Futures Commission published a circular on 22 October 2015 to update the market on the implementation of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives regulatory regime (OTC Regime) in Hong Kong.
The OTC Regime constitutes a new framework for introducing, reporting, clearing and trading requirements through subsidiary legislation and also:
The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau have recently stated that as an international banking and financial centre, Hong Kong supports the consistent implementation of international standards across all Basel Committee member jurisdictions. The statement was made in relation to the gazetting of the Banking (Capital) (Amendment) Rules 2015 on 23 October 2015 which introduced
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) released a national exam program risk alert concerning investment advisers and funds that outsource their chief compliance officers (“CCOs”). Rule 206(4)-7 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) and Rule 38a-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Investment Company Act”) require