On 6 July 2021, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published a report that gives a preliminary assessment of the impact of the implemented Basel reforms during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a broader review of their effectiveness. Overall, the report finds that the increased quality and higher levels of capital and liquidity in … Continue Reading
On 21 to 23 October 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held its final quarterly plenary of 2020 as a virtual event. The discussions over three days mostly focussed on Strategic Initiatives reacting to the Covid-19 pandemic and progress made on country specific processes. The FATF also provided an update on their strategic focus … Continue Reading
Financial institutions have had to deal with two challenges in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first challenge is financial – how to address and mitigate the sharp drop in the value of financial assets or loss of liquidity. The second challenge is operational – how to address the risk of failure of resources … Continue Reading
The Insurance Authority has issued a circular today extending Phase 2 of the temporary facilitative measures (TFMs), introduced in March 2020, by another three months (i.e. to 31 December 2020) in light of the current COVID-19 situation. The Phase 2 TFMs permit insurers and intermediaries to use non-face-to-face distribution methods for selling certain insurance products … Continue Reading
Further to the introduction of the Phase 2 temporary facilitative measures (TFMs) on 27 March 2020, the Insurance Authority (IA) has released a circular announcing that Phase 2 of the TFMs will be extended by three months in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Phase 2 TFMs (amongst other things) permit insurers and intermediaries to … Continue Reading
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has announced that the introduction of the initial margin (IM) requirements for non-centrally cleared OTC derivative transactions, initially scheduled to be phased-in from 1 September 2020, will be deferred by one year. To read our previous blog post on the SFC’s consultation conclusions on margin requirements for non-centrally cleared … Continue Reading
The Securities and Futures Commission (the SFC) has issued a circular to provide guidance to licensed corporations (LCs) on managing cybersecurity risks associated with remote working arrangements. The circular sets out some examples of controls and procedures that LCs can implement to protect their internal networks and data under remote working arrangements. The SFC expects … Continue Reading
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has launched a temporary liquidity facility under which US$10 billion will be made available (the Facility) to assist licensed banks with US dollar liquidity. The Facility will comprise of funds obtained through the US Federal Reserve’s FIMA Repo Facility (see our previous blog post here). US dollar liquidity will … Continue Reading
On 17 March 2020, the FCA published a new webpage containing information for firms regarding the COVID 19 outbreak. Key points include: the FCA is in regular contact with firms to assess their current position, and expects firms to be taking reasonable steps to ensure they are prepared to meet the challenges coronavirus could pose … Continue Reading
