Tracks financial services regulatory developments and provides insight and commentary
On 3 February 2026, the Bank of England (BoE) published a letter from Ruth Smith (Executive Director, Resolution Directorate) to CFOs of the major UK banks, on firms’ preparations for the third Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF) assessment.
The letter provides information, ahead of the third RAF assessment, to support firms with…
On January 28, 2026, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (‘BaFin’) has published its report “Risks in BaFin´s Focus 2026””. In BaFin´s view, the positive mood in the financial markets is marked by obscuring factors that can impact financial stability such as geopolitical turmoil and advancing digitalisation which is not only increasing the operational…
On 2 February 2026, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published a speech by Rebecca Jackson (Executive Director, Authorisations, Regulatory Technology and International Supervision) entitled Frenemies at the gates.
The speech focuses on a changing market landscape, shaped by rapid advances in new technologies and the growing importance of specialist electronic market makers…
On 30 January 2026, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/264 (the Amending Regulation), which contains amendments to regulatory technical standards (RTS) supplementing the Benchmarks Regulation ((EU) 2016/1011) (BMR) on third country administrator recognition applications, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (the OJ).
The Amending Regulation makes…
On 30 January 2026, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Providing Targeted Support) (Amendment) Order 2026 (SI 2026/74) (the Order) was published on legislation.gov.uk, together with an explanatory memorandum.
The Order amends the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (RAO) to create a new regulated activity…
On 28 January 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its first enforcement newsletter – Enforcement Watch 1 – which aims to cover the FCA’s insights and themes from its enforcement work as part of the FCA’s move towards greater transparency in this area.
The newsletter provides an update on the following three…
On 30 January 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued Handbook Notice No. 137.
This Handbook Notice describes the changes to the FCA Handbook and other material made by the FCA Board under their legislative and other statutory powers on 29 January 2026.
On this date, the FCA Board approved the Collective…
On 30 January 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a consultation paper setting out proposals to evolve its rules in relation to listed companies’ sustainability disclosures (CP26/5).
Background
The FCA highlight in CP26/5 that there are already rules for listed companies’ sustainability disclosures that are aligned with the Task Force…
On 28 January 20206, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a webpage with the official translations of its guidelines setting out the criteria to assess knowledge and competence under the Regulation on markets in cryptoassets ((EU) 2023/1114) (MiCA), the final report on which was published in July 2025.
Summary…
On 29 December 2026, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a draft of its 2027-2029 Single Programming Document (SPD), which sets out the EBA’s planning of activities and corresponding resource requirements at a three-year horizon.
The EBA explains in the SPD that it will be focusing on three priorities in 2027-2029…
