On 21 April 2021, the Bank of England published speeches from: Andrea Rosen (AR) – Opening remarks: meeting varied people. In her opening remarks AR briefly covers the BoE’s market intelligence activities and why pursuing diversity in the markets contacts is so important. In particular AR states that gathering the widest possible range of well-informed … Continue Reading
On 21 April 2021, the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation and Annex correcting Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 supplementing MiFID II (the MiFID II Delegated Regulation) as regards organisational requirements and operating conditions for investment firms and defined terms for the purposes of MiFID II. The Delegated Regulation amends Article 1 paragraph 1 of the … Continue Reading
On 19 April 2021, HM Treasury issued a press release regarding the comments that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP, made at the Fintech Week conference. Key points in the press release include: To support fintech firms to scale up, the FCA will take forward a ‘scale box’ – a package of measures to enhance its … Continue Reading
On 19 April 2021, HM Treasury issued a consultation document on the regulation of non-transferable debt securities (mini-bonds). Non-transferable debt securities (NTDS), commonly referred to as ‘mini-bonds’, are unlisted bonds typically issued by companies to retail investors in order to raise finance. As non-transferable securities, investors cannot sell their investment, which normally must be held … Continue Reading
On 19 April 2021, the Financial Ombudsman Service announced that Nausicaa Delfas had been appointed its interim Chief executive and chief ombudsman. Nausicaa succeeds Caroline Wayman, who has stepped down after seven years as Chief executive and chief ombudsman.… Continue Reading
On 14 April 2021, the PRA and FCA issued a joint statement regarding the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) peer review report on the United Kingdom. Key points in the statement include: The UK is the first FSB member to be assessed by peers on the effectiveness of its remuneration reforms in the financial sector since … Continue Reading
On 13 April 2021, the FCA published a speech by Nausicaa Delfas (Executive Director of International) entitled Regulating the UK as a global financial centre. Key points in the speech include: As a result of the UK leaving the EU, the FCA has a newfound position allowing it to have a new, more nimble approach … Continue Reading
On 13 April 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its response to an earlier letter it had received from the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) providing detailed views on the procyclical impact of downgrades of corporate bonds. In particular, the letter focuses on the transparency of credit rating agency (CRA) methodologies and … Continue Reading
Last month we hosted a webinar on anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) risk assessments. This was the first in our series of ABC compliance webinars marking the 10th Anniversary of the UK Bribery Act coming into force. You can listen to the audio recording of the webinar on-demand here. We have put together a selection of … Continue Reading
The latest issue of our Global Asset Management Quarterly publication is now available. In this issue we cover: Europe European update EU/UK regulatory roundup United Kingdom Asset managers and the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures UK funds regime review Germany German Draft Fund Jurisdiction Promotion Act Australia Greenwashing: International initiatives taken to address the … Continue Reading
A year ago we wrote about the risks and challenges of using of WhatsApp at work. Twelve months on and we have seen a number of developments including recent guidance from the FCA which stated that it has acted against individuals and firms for misconduct which involved the use of WhatsApp and other social media … Continue Reading
On 9 April 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a summary of conclusions following its meeting of board of supervisors on 23 February 2021. Among other things the summary refers to co-operation with the UK FCA and meeting its CEO Nikhil Rathi. The summary notes that there was an exchange of views … Continue Reading
On 8 April 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a final report on the functioning of Organised Trading Facilities (OTFs). The report contains proposals aimed at clarifying the MiFID II provisions relating to OTFs and, more generally, multilateral systems to ensure efficient EU market structures and to enhance the level playing field … Continue Reading
On 7 April 2021, there was published an official communique following the second meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors under the Italian G20 Presidency. During the meeting the discussion spanned from issues covering the global economy, efforts to push forward the economic recovery and promoting more sustainable growth, to supporting the most … Continue Reading
Throughout 2020 and 2021, financial services firms have had to respond and adapt to a number of regulatory challenges in an unprecedented fashion. Firms now have to navigate a diverging regulatory landscape as a result of Brexit, at the same time as continuing to respond to an array of pandemic-related risks that have arisen. Nevertheless, … Continue Reading
On 6 April 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its Q&As on reporting under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR). The updated Q&As complement ESMA’s guidance on reporting under the SFTR. The Q&As were updated to simplify reporting of SFTs when an external portfolio manager is used.… Continue Reading
On 6 April 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its Q&As on market structures issues under MiFID II and MiFIR. ESMA has introduced changes to one of its Q&As on tick sizes to reflect the amendment introduced in Article 49(1) of MiFID II which excludes Large in Scale transactions from the mandatory … Continue Reading
On 31 March 2021, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published the final report on its evaluation of the effects of too-big-to-fail (TBTF) reforms for systemically important banks (SIBs). The evaluation examines the extent to which the reforms have reduced the systemic and moral hazard risks associated with SIBs, as well as their broader effects on … Continue Reading
On 31 March 2021, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision issued Principles for operational resilience, designed to make banks better able to withstand, adapt to and recover from severe adverse events. The Basel Committee has also issued revisions to its Principles for the sound management of operational risks reflecting the natural relationship between operational resilience … Continue Reading
On 31 March 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a statement concerning the temporary suspension of the obligation on execution venues to make available to the public data related to the quality of execution of transactions on their venues. Directive (EU) 2021/3383 (amending Directive) is part of a package of EU legislative … Continue Reading
Introduction On 30 March 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a final report on the review of transaction and reference data reporting obligations under MiFIR. The final report is prepared in accordance with Article 26(10) of MiFIR that requires ESMA to submit a report to the European Commission assessing the functioning of … Continue Reading
On 2 December 2019, the PRA published Consultation Paper 29/19: Operational resilience: Impact tolerances for important business services (CP29/19). CP29/19 set out the PRA’s proposal for PRA rules, a Supervisory Statement and a Statement of Policy designed to improve the operational resilience of firms and protect the wider financial sector and UK economy from the … Continue Reading
In December 2019, the FCA published Consultation Paper 19/32: Building operational resilience: impact tolerances for important business services and feedback to DP 18/04 proposing changes to how firms approach their operational resilience. The proposals were built on the approach first outlined in Discussion Paper: Building the UK Financial Sector’s Operational Resilience published in July 2018. … Continue Reading
On 29 March 2021, the PRA published Policy Statement 7/21: Outsourcing and third party risk management (PS7/21). In PS7/21 the PRA provides feedback to responses to Consultation Paper 30/19: Outsourcing and third party risk management (CP30/19). It also contains the PRA’s final Supervisory Statement 2/21: Outsourcing and third party risk management (SS2/21). In CP30/19, the … Continue Reading
