On 5 March 2024, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office published a post-legislative scrutiny memorandum on the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA). The memorandum provides a summary and preliminary assessment of the provisions and implementation of the SAMLA. SAMLA, which received Royal Assent on 23rd May 2018, was enacted to provide new legal … Continue Reading
On 5 March 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its response to the super-complaint it received from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in December 2023, regarding the use of personal guarantees (PGs) by lenders to support loans to certain small businesses. In the response, the FCA committed to investigate these practices. The super-complaint … Continue Reading
On 4 March 2024, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a Consultation Paper on its draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR3) relating to the allocation of off-balance sheet items under the standardised approach of credit risk. The draft RTS set out: The RTS form part of phase 1 of the EBA … Continue Reading
On 4 March 2024, the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) published a draft report on the legislative proposal for a Regulation establishing a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS Regulation). The draft report contains a draft European Parliament legislative resolution setting out suggested changes to the proposed EDIS Regulation. The European Commission first … Continue Reading
On 4 March 2024, the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report examining whether the Bank of England (BoE) has efficient and effective systems and processes to manage risks of non-compliance with legal, ethical and staff policy requirements (referred to as ‘compliance risks’ in the report). The report focuses on compliance risks within these areas … Continue Reading
On 29 February 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a report on the use of its power under Article 23D of the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR) for 3 month synthetic sterling LIBOR. The report sets out the results of the FCA’s review of whether the use of its power under Article 23D(2) of the BMR … Continue Reading
On 29 February 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its final report on the Wholesale Data Market Study (MS23/1.5), which was launched in March 2023 to investigate persistent user concerns about how well wholesale data markets are working. The FCA highlights in its report the important role that wholesale data plays in wholesale financial … Continue Reading
On 29 February 2024, the Bank of England Levy (Amount of Levy Payable) Regulations 2024 were made and published on legislation.gov.uk. This statutory instrument (SI) makes provision for which eligible institutions will be liable to pay the Bank of England levy in respect of a levy year, and the proportion of the levy that each … Continue Reading
On 29 February 2024, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 5) Regulations 2024 were made and published on legislation.gov.uk. This statutory instrument (SI) contains the fifth set of commencement regulations made under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (FSMA 2023). The explanatory note to the SI provides further information on those … Continue Reading
On 28 February 2024, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR)’s Managing Director, Chris Hemsley, delivered a speech at the Fraud Leader’s Summit in which he discussed the new requirements the PSR is bringing in later this year to tackle authorised push payment (APP) scams. Mr Hemsley opened the speech by outlining how the ubiquity, speed and … Continue Reading
On 28 February 2024, the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) published its response to the FCA Consultation Paper CP23/31 on the Primary Markets Effectiveness Review. The response overall welcomes the FCA’s proposals for widening the sponsor competency requirements in the new listing regime. However, it flags that the proposals would benefit from being more extensive so … Continue Reading
On 28 February 2024, a statutory instrument (SI) – the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (Regulations) 2024 – was published on legislation.gov.uk. The SI amends the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. The SI was published alongside an explanatory memorandum, which notes that the legislation will ban the import of Russian diamonds processed in … Continue Reading
On 20 February 2024, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Order 2024 (the Order) was published, along with an explanatory memorandum. The Order amends the regulatory framework, to make operating a pension dashboard service which connects to the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) dashboards digital architecture a regulated activity. Such dashboards … Continue Reading
On 26 February 2024, a draft statutory instrument (SI) – the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Disapplication or Modification of Financial Regulator Rules in Individual Cases) Regulations 2024 – was published on legislation.gov.uk, along with a draft explanatory memorandum. One of the tools introduced by Financial Services Markets Act 2023 (FSMA 2023) is new … Continue Reading
On 21 February 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a webpage outlining its working group on interest-only (IO) mortgages. The FCA is working with 12 mortgage lenders and administrators to continue its work in the interest-only mortgage market. The group’s primary purpose is to support and inform the FCA’s review of its existing IO … Continue Reading
On 22 February 2024, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published Policy Statement PS4/24, which provides feedback to responses to Consultation Paper CP11/23 on its proposed approach to reviewing its rules. PS4/24 also contains the PRA’s final statement on the review of rules, which the PRA is required to publish under section 3RB of the Financial … Continue Reading
On 21 February 2024, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fair Business Banking published a report on de-banking. The report was commissioned to explore the extent of the problem of de-banking and then, if problems were identified, to suggest remedies. The work was prompted by a growing number of individuals, companies and trade organisations approaching … Continue Reading
On 21 February 2024, UK Finance published a blog on how to assess fair value under the Consumer Duty. As 2024 will see the first annual Consumer Duty board reports delivered, as well as the implementation deadline of the Duty for closed products (the deadline for both is 31 July 2024), the FCA has … Continue Reading
On 21 February 2024, Ashley Alder, Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), delivered a speech on ‘Open regulators and open markets’. The speech centred around the importance of effective global cooperation in enabling the FCA to manage the considerable risks that accompany extremely large volumes of cross-border financial activity. This includes activity between the … Continue Reading
On 20 February 2024, Sheldon Mills, FCA Executive Director of Consumers and Competition delivered a speech on the progress of the Consumer Duty since it came into force just over half a year ago. The speech identified the progress firms have made in these six months, whilst also identifying some challenges and looking ahead to … Continue Reading
On 20 February 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published guidance on what firms are doing well, and what could be improved, in relation to their implementation of the Consumer Duty. The Consumer Duty came into force for open products and services on 31 July 2023 and while the FCA welcomes the improvements made by … Continue Reading
On 14 February 2024, William van de Voorde, Chair of the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council of the EU wrote a letter to the European Parliament’s Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, which states that the Permanent Representatives Committee have reached agreement, except for one item, on the final compromise text … Continue Reading
On 16 February 2024, the Government published correspondence from the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan, and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister, Bim Afolami, asking a set of regulators to publish an update on their strategic approach to artificial intelligence (AI). The correspondence included letters to the … Continue Reading
On 15 February 2024, the FCA published the key findings of its multi-firm review of Claims Management Companies (CMCs) carrying out unregulated claims, to assess whether firms were using their FCA authorisation to legitimise services that are not regulated. This stemmed from the FCA’s concerns that consumers may mistakenly assume that all the services CMCs … Continue Reading