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
On 15 July 2019, there was published on the FCA website the final Prospectus Regulation Rules Instrument 2019. The instrument comes into force on 21 July 2019 and makes various changes to the FCA Handbook to align it with the EU Prospectus Regulation. Our blog on FCA Policy Statement 19/12: Changes to align the FCA … Continue Reading
On 12 July 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a public consultation on draft guidelines on disclosure requirements under the Prospectus Regulation (PR). The purpose of the draft guidelines is to ensure that market participants have a uniform understanding of the relevant disclosure required in the various annexes included in ‘Commission Delegated … Continue Reading
On 21 June 2019, there was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ): Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/979 of 14 March 2019 supplementing the Prospectus Regulation with regard to regulatory technical standards on key financial information in the summary of a prospectus, the publication and classification of prospectuses, advertisements for securities, supplements … Continue Reading
On 27 May 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published an updated version of its Q&As on the Securitisation Regulation. The updated Q&As contain multiple new and amended Q&As across various topics relating to the Securitisation Regulation.… Continue Reading
On 30 April 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published the official translations of its guidelines on internalised settlement reporting under Article 9 of the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR). The guidelines apply to Member State competent authorities (NCAs) designated under Article 11 of the CSDR and to settlement internalisers as defined in … Continue Reading
On 16 April 2019, the FCA published Primary Market Bulletin No.23. In this Bulletin the FCA finalises its guidance on periodic financial information and inside information, after consulting on updating Technical Note UKLA/TN/506.1 in Primary Market Bulletin No. 19. The FCA also outlines its findings and sets out its expectations on some of the issues … Continue Reading
On 29 March 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a final report containing guidelines on risk factors under the Prospectus Regulation (PR). ESMA is mandated to provide the guidelines under Article 16(4) of the PR to assist Member State competent authorities in their review of the specificity and materiality of risk factors … Continue Reading
On 25 March 2019, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published its annual work programme for 2019. The IOSCO Board has identified, amongst other things, five priority issues for 2019, namely: crypto-assets: In 2019, IOSCO will focus on how platforms where crypto-assets are traded are regulated and will also examine regulation of investment funds with … Continue Reading
The Prospectus Regulation does not apply to an offer of securities to the public with a total consideration in the EU of less than 1 million EUR calculated over a period of 12 months. Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Regulation also provides that Member States may decide to exempt offers of securities to the public … Continue Reading
On 1 February 2019, the FCA and PRA jointly published a direction under regulation 25 of the Securitisation Regulations 2018. The direction concerns the manner in which the originator, sponsor or securitisation special purpose entity (SSPE) of a private securitisation that is established in the United Kingdom must make the information under Article 7(1)(a) to … Continue Reading
On 1 February 2019, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published a consultation report on sustainable finance in emerging markets and the role of securities regulators (the Consultation). Based on analysis by IOSCO’s Growth and Emerging Markets Committee (GEMC), the Consultation proposes a set of 11 recommendations that member jurisdictions should consider when issuing … Continue Reading
On 31 January 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published the 29th updated version of its Q&As on Prospectuses. Two new Q&As have been inserted at Questions 103 and 104: Question 103 concerns the choice of Prospectus Directive home Member State for third country issuers in the event that the UK withdraws from … Continue Reading
On 28 January 2019, the FCA published Consultation Paper 19/6: Changes to align the FCA Handbook with the EU Prospectus Regulation (CP19/6). In CP19/6 the FCA sets out the changes that it plans to make to ensure that the Prospectus Rules sourcebook is consistent with the EU Prospectus Regulation (the Regulation). This mainly involves removing … Continue Reading