As market volatility has increased in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, several competent authorities have imposed bans on short sales in certain shares. Approach taken by the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) To date, the FCA has introduced only temporary prohibitions on short selling in certain listed instruments, on the 13 and 17 … Continue Reading
On 31 March 2020, the FCA updated its statement on short selling bans and reporting as follows: “On 16 March 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a decision to temporarily amend the threshold for notifying net short positions to Competent Authorities under the SSR [Short Selling Regulation] from 0.2% of issued share … Continue Reading
On 27 March 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced that it had decided to keep the date of application of the transparency calculations for equity instruments of 1 April 2020 unchanged. ESMA has recently been asked by some stakeholders to postpone the date of application – required by MiFID II / MiFIR … Continue Reading
As market volatility has increased in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, several competent authorities have imposed bans on short sales in certain shares. Approach taken by the FCA To date, the FCA has introduced only temporary prohibitions on short selling in certain listed instruments, on the 13 and 17 March 2020, as set out … Continue Reading
On 19 March 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued official opinions agreeing to emergency net short positions prohibitions by the Financial Securities and Markets Authority (FSMA) of Belgium and the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) of Greece.… Continue Reading
On 18 March 2020, the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) and the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) published a letter sent to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) asking for a delay to the upcoming application of reporting obligations under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation ((EU) 2015/2365) (SFTR). Under Article 4 of the SFTR, … Continue Reading
Following the temporary ban last week, the FCA has again notified another temporary ban on the short selling of a list of instruments (set out below), effective immediately on 17 March 2020 and in force until the end of the trading day on 17 March 2020. The notification was again made under Articles 23 (1) … Continue Reading
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its decision of 16 March 2020 (Decision), which requires natural or legal persons who have net short positions in relation to a share admitted to trading on a regulated market to notify to a competent authority details of any such position if the position reaches or … Continue Reading
Following decisions by fellow European competent authorities, Borsa Italiana and Spain’s CNMV, the FCA has notified a temporary ban on the short selling of a list of instruments (set out below), effective immediately on 13 March 2020 and in force until the end of the trading day on 13 March 2020. The notification was made … Continue Reading
On 18 February 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its Q&As on the Prospectus Regulation. Two new Q&As have been added that provide clarification on: the number of additional pages that can be included in a summary where there is more than one guarantor; and the number of additional pages that can … Continue Reading
On 9 February 2020, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) published a revised version of its model equity selling restrictions to reflect the UK’s withdrawal from the EU until the end of the implementation period. The updated version of the equity selling restrictions are in substantially the same form as the version published … Continue Reading
On 10 February 2020, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) published the fourth in a series of legal guidelines for smart derivatives contracts. The ISDA Legal Guidelines for Smart Derivatives Contracts – Equities (2020): provide an overview of equity derivatives transactions and different product types; explain how equity derivatives transactions are documented under both … Continue Reading
On 10 February 2020, the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) submitted a letter to the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) regarding the Regulation on reporting and transparency of securities financing transactions (SFTR). Specifically the letter concerned the SFTR scope of non-EU alternative investment funds (non-EU AIFs), and its conflict in … Continue Reading
On 31 January 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a letter to the European Commission in response of its request for technical advice on general equivalence criteria for prospectuses drawn up under the laws of third countries under Article 29(3) of the Prospectus Regulation. After careful analysis of its mandate, ESMA concludes … Continue Reading
On 5 December 2019, the Council of the EU (Council) published a press release stating that the Council and the European Commission (Commission) have adopted a joint statement on stablecoins. The statement calls for a co-ordinated global response to tackle the challenges raised by global stablecoins and a emphasises the need to ensure legal clarity … Continue Reading
On 4 December 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its final report on the draft regulatory technical standard (RTS) amending the Prospectus RTS Regulation, which contains RTSs under the new Prospectus Regulation. The Prospectus RTS Regulation outlines the key financial information needed for the prospectus summary, the data for classification and publication … Continue Reading
On 4 December 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published an updated version of its Q&As on the Prospectus Regulation. The updated Q&As insert a new question and answer (13.2) clarifying that it is not possible to include a pro-forma summaries in base prospectuses. The updated Q&As also insert a new question and … Continue Reading
On 29 November 2019, the European Commission (Commission) adopted two Delegated Regulations containing regulatory technical standards (RTS) for securitisation repositories relating to mandates under the Securitisation Regulation: Commission Delegated Regulation on RTS on securitisation repository operational standards for data collection, aggregation, comparison, access and verification of completeness and consistency and Annex. Article 10(7)(a) and 17(2) … Continue Reading
On 26 November 2019, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published an updated version (dated 25 November 2019) of its regulatory framework for haircuts on non-centrally-cleared securities financing transactions (SFTs). The framework aims to address financial stability risks associated with SFTs. The framework includes numerical haircut floors to apply to non-bank-to-non-bank SFTs that were finalised after … Continue Reading
On 12 November 2019, the European Commission published a Delegated Regulation supplementing the Securitisation Regulation with respect to regulatory technical standards (RTS) specifying the information to be provided in accordance with the ‘Simple, Transparent and Standardised’ (STS) notification requirements, together with annexes. Article 27(6) of the Securitisation Regulation mandates the European Securities and Markets Authority … Continue Reading
On 4 November 2019, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) released a statement on a study of stablecoin initiatives with a potential global reach (Global Stablecoins). IOSCO’s FinTech Network (the Network), which is chaired by the FCA and was established in May 2018 to facilitate exchanges among IOSCO members on their experiences relating to … Continue Reading
On 16 October 2019, the European Commission (Commission) published a Delegated Regulation supplementing the Securitisation Regulation with regard to regulatory technical standards (RTS) specifying the information and the details of a securitisation to be made available by the originator, sponsor and securitisation special purpose entity (SSPE). Article 7(3) and (4) of the Securitisation Regulation mandates … Continue Reading
On 1 October 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its final guidelines on risk factors under the Prospectus Regulation. There are minor amendments to the draft guidelines published in March 2019 (see previous blog here) including the insertion of 1 December 2019 as the date from which the guidelines will apply, but otherwise … Continue Reading
On 26 July 2019, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) published a revised version of its model equity selling restrictions to reflect the application in full of the Prospectus Regulation that came into force on 21 July 2019. The updated version of the equity selling restrictions replaces references to the Prospective Directive with … Continue Reading
