On 9 July 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published an explanatory statement under Article 28a(9) of the UK Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (UK MiFIR) relating to the FCA direction on the derivatives trading obligation (UK DTO).
Background
On 31 December 2024, the FCA issued a new direction
On 8 July 2026, the Bank of England issued a Policy Statement setting out its 2026/27 fee rates for financial market supervision.
Table B of the Policy Statement sets out the expected charge for each category of financial market infrastructure for the 2026/27 fee year.
Invoices are expected to be issued before the end of
In this latest episode of our Split the Difference podcast series, where we look into regulatory divergence in the markets space, we examine the commodity derivatives regime and the growing divergence between the UK and EU frameworks focussing on five critical areas: the position limits regime, position management controls, exemptions, position reporting and the ancillary
On 3 July 2026, there was published a draft statutory instrument (SI) The Over-the-Counter Derivatives (Intragroup Transactions) Regulations 2026.
Background
As part of the EU exit process, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) became part of UK assimilated law in the UK European Market Infrastructure Regulation (UK EMIR).
On 19 June 2026, the Bank of England (BoE) published a report setting out its findings and observations from the 2025 central counterparties (CCP) Global Default Simulation (CIDS) exercise and identified areas for consideration in the development of CCPs’ default management processes and future exercises.
Background
In November 2025
On 22 April 2026, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) announced proposals to “transform” Ofgem’s role and powers to strengthen protections for energy consumers. While much of the detail is still to follow, the announcement highlighted three areas where Ofgem’s remit could be materially expanded. Each has clear parallels with
Since the outbreak of hostilities in Iran and the surrounding region on February 28, 2026, the conflict has introduced notable volatility into global energy markets. Crude oil and refined product prices have experienced sharp dislocations, natural gas benchmarks have come under pressure and physical supply chains across the region and beyond have faced material disruption.
On 7 April 2026, the Dutch Minister of Finance submitted a further report regarding the proposed amendment to the Dutch Financial Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht, AFS) implementing the amended Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).
The Dutch
In the latest edition of our podcast series, Split the Difference, Mark Highman, Stephan Ariyan, Hannah Meakin and Simon Lovegrove compare the US and UK regulatory approaches to Prediction Markets and Events Contracts.
Listen to this episode here.
On March 12, 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission took two significant actions furthering the development of a regulatory framework for prediction markets. First, the CFTC issued a staff advisory outlining current regulatory expectations for listing and trading event contracts on prediction markets. Second, the CFTC published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, signaling the