The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a three-year Strategy on improving outcomes of regulation and its 2022/23 Business Plan. In the 2022-2025 Strategy, the FCA outlines its expectations of financial services across all sectors, with a view to the overall outcomes that firms should achieve. There are three outcomes for both the wholesale and retail markets, which are fair value, access and confidence. An additional outcome of suitability and treatment applies for the retail markets, to ensure that consumers are treated well and are sold products and services that are suitable for them. The 2022/23 Business Plan sets out the detailed work that the FCA will undertake over the next year to meet the commitments made in its Strategy.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has made three new appointments:
 

• Laura Dawes will be appointed to one of two newly created Director of Authorisations roles. The new Director roles are part of the FCA's commitment to create a more robust and efficient authorisation process, where more decisions will be made by individual senior managers as opposed to committees. Laura currently works within the FCA's Enforcement and Market Oversight Division.

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The Financial Stability Board has published a letter to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors outlining its work priorities for 2022, which are:
 

• Supporting financial market adjustment to a post-COVID-19 world: the FSB observes vulnerabilities in the financial system, such as embedded leverage in some parts of the system and rising real estate and other asset valuations, which could pose risks to stability in the event of tightening financial conditions. Uneven unwinding of pandemic support measures is also a risk and the FSB will prepare an interim report in July and final report in October on policy considerations to support a more even global pandemic recovery.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has appointed Richard Lloyd OBE as its interim Chair of the FCA. He will assume the position on June 1, 2022 and will continue until a permanent successor for former Chair Charles Randell takes up the position.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has opened a consultation in which it proposes to amend the requirements on EU CCPs relating to an additional charge related to the procyclicality of margin. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by March 31, 2022. The European Market Infrastructure Regulation requires CCPs to impose, call and collect margins to limit their credit exposures from clearing members. A CCP must also regularly monitor and, if necessary, revise the level of its margins to reflect current market conditions considering any potentially procyclical effects of those revisions. Procyclicality of margin is the term used to describe the fact that margin requirements for the same portfolio are higher in times of market stress and lower in calm conditions. Regulatory Technical Standards under EMIR set out requirements for CCPs to use at least one of three options to limit procyclicality to the extent that the financial soundness of the CCP is not negatively affected. Generally, the EU imposes higher (more costly) margin charges than most other jurisdictions, including the U.S. and other major financial centres, which have essentially no extra procyclicality charge for CCPs.

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HM Treasury has announced that Gwyneth Nurse has been appointed as Director General, Financial Services. She will replace Katharine Braddick from January 2022.

The Bank of England has written to the CEOs of all regulated U.K. financial market infrastructures notifying them that they are no longer expected to discuss prospective shareholder distributions with the BoE.

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HM Treasury has launched a consultation, the Financial Services Future Regulatory Framework Review: Proposals for Reform. The consultation paper presents the government's response to the feedback received to the October 2020 FRF Review consultation and numerous proposals to progress the approach. Responses to the consultation may be submitted until February 9, 2022. 

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An international consultation has been launched on the review of margining practices in the centrally and non-centrally cleared markets. The consultation is being run jointly by the Basel Committee for Banking Standards, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and the International Organization of Securities Commissions. In March 2020, around the start of the COVID pandemic, large increases in margin occurred in the centrally and non-centrally cleared markets, furthering the so-called "dash for cash".

The consultation is considering a range of potential changes to the international framework, such as:

• increasing transparency in the centrally cleared market;
• enhancing liquidity preparedness of market participants as well as liquidity disclosures;
• identifying data gaps in regulatory reporting;
• streamlining variation margin processes in centrally and non-centrally cleared markets;
• further work on evaluating the responsiveness of centrally cleared initial margin models to market stresses with a focus on impacts and implications for CCP resources and the wider financial system; and
• evaluating the responsiveness of non-centrally cleared initial margin models to market stresses.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has announced that Verena Ross will take up the position of Chair of ESMA from November 1, 2021. Ms. Ross will replace Steven Maijoor, the former Chair. Her appointment is for a five-year term, renewable once.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has issued a press release announcing that its current chair, Charles Randell CBE, will be resigning early from his position in Spring 2022. Mr. Randell wrote to the Chancellor informing him of the decision to step down as chair of the FCA and the Payment Systems Regulator. Mr. Randell has been Chair of the FCA and PSR since April 1, 2018. The resignation comes just 10 days after the FCA was provided with a preliminary report by the Financial Regulators Complaints Commission concerning the FCA's handling of the London Capital & Finance scandal, which is due to be published in the next month and has been reported by the press to be critical of the FCA.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a consultation paper on proposals to change its decision-making process. The objective of these proposals is to make the FCA a nimbler regulator that can make faster and more effective decisions. Responses to the consultation may be submitted until September 17, 2021. The FCA intends to publish a Policy Statement before the end of the year, likely in November, and envisages that the revised decision-making framework would start in November, too. Any cases that are being considered by the Regulatory Decisions Committee would remain with the RDC under the existing processes.

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure and the International Organization of Securities Commissions has published a survey on margin calls as part of an investigation into liquidity shortfalls during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The combined effect of government measures to contain the pandemic in March 2020, together with market uncertainty, job losses and travel restrictions triggered a pullback in economic activity and stress on market liquidity. The non-bank financial intermediation sector was found to be particularly vulnerable to the liquidity shock.

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The U.K. Financial Services Bill has received Royal Assent from Her Majesty the Queen and has become an Act of Parliament, the Financial Services Act 2021. Some provisions of the Act came into force on the date of Royal Assent, with a limited number following on June 29, 2021. The majority of the Act will come into force on a date specified in regulations yet to be made by HM Treasury.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has appointed Sacha Sadan as its Director of Environment, Social and Governance, a new role which will develop the FCA's approach to sustainable finance domestically and internationally. Ms Sadan was formerly Director of Investment Stewardship at Legal and General Investment Management.

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The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority have published a joint Dear CEO letter addressed to CEOs of U.K. banks and building societies on the risks of accepting deposits from deposit aggregators.

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HM Treasury has published its response to the call for evidence on Phase I of the U.K. Financial Services Future Regulatory Framework Review. The FRF Review was announced in March 2019 and will assess whether the U.K. financial services regulatory framework is fit for purpose, taking into account the U.K.'s exit from the EU, climate change and other global and technological challenges. The call for evidence on Phase I of the Review focussed on how the Government and regulators work together to ensure the best outcome for the financial services sector.

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The FICC Markets Standards Board has appointed Ed Davey as its Chief Operating Officer. The FMSB is responsible for setting standards for the wholesale, fixed income, currencies and commodities markets.
 
View the FMSB's announcement.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has made four new appointments to its executive team:
 

• Stephanie Cohen will be the FCA's Chief Operating Officer, responsible for the FCA's operations and business performance, systems and infrastructure and finances;
• Jessica Rusu will be the FCA's Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer, leading the transformation of the FCA's data intelligence and information;
• Sarah Pritchard will be the FCA's Executive Director for Markets, delivering the FCA's statutory market integrity objective within the Supervision, Policy and Competition division; and
• Emily Sheppherd will be the Executive Director for Authorizations, overseeing authorizations for firms and individuals applying to undertake regulated financial services activity in the U.K.

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The Bank of England has published a plan to transform its ability to collect data from the financial services sector over the next decade. Three key principles of the plan are: (i) defining and adopting common data standards that are consistent across the financial sector; (ii) modernizing reporting instructions to improve how they are written and implemented; and (iii) integrating reporting to facilitate a more efficient approach to data collection. The Transformation Plan was prompted by Huw Van Steenis' 2019 report on the "Future of Finance", which highlighted the importance of data standards and protocols and the value of harnessing data. The BoE published a response to the "Future of Finance" report, in which it undertook to deliver a world-class data strategy.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a letter addressed to the CEOs of retail banks setting out the FCA's approach to retail bank supervision in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the letter, the FCA identifies the key risks of harm that retail banks' activities may pose over the next two years, sets out its expectations of the actions retail banks need to take to mitigate the risks and discusses the work that the FCA will undertake to ensure firms are meeting the expectations. The risks are grouped into the following four priority supervisory areas:
 

1. ensuring fair treatment of borrowers, including those in financial difficulties;
2. ensuring good governance and oversight of customer treatment and outcomes during business change over the next two years;
3. ensuring operational resilience over the next two years and beyond; and
4. minimizing fraud and other financial crime.

View the FCA's letter.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published its final Approach to international firms, setting out its approach to authorization and supervision of international firms providing or seeking to provide financial services that require authorization in the U.K. The FCA has also published a feedback statement summarizing its response to the submissions received in response to its consultation last year. The Approach Document sets out the conditions against which a firm will be assessed and discusses the circumstances in which firms may present higher risks and how the risks could be mitigated. It generally proposes that U.K.-authorized firms should have a U.K. place of business, so would not result in any new regime for EU firms which are currently using the "temporary permissions regime".

The FCA's Approach Document is not relevant to firms that are operating in the U.K., but do not need authorization to do so, for example, those firms using the Overseas Persons Exclusion. It is not also not relevant for payment services firms, e-money institutions, depositaries, trustees and managers of U.K. authorized funds, international alternative investment fund managers and international benchmark administrators.

Firms that are or would be subject to dual regulation, should also consider the approach of the Prudential Regulation Authority to the supervision and authorization of firms.

View the FCA's Approach to International Firms.

View the FCA's feedback statement.

View details of the PRA's consultation on its approach to supervising international banks.

EU Regulatory Technical Standards postponing the implementation deadline of the settlement discipline regime under the Central Securities Depositories Regulation have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The RTS delay the application date of the settlement discipline rules from February 1, 2021 to February 1, 2022, by amending the existing RTS (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/1229). The settlement regime was originally due to apply from September 13, 2020. However, that date was changed to February 1, 2021, amid calls from industry associations and other stakeholders to delay the application date so that systems, procedures and measures could be put in place. The latest delay arises from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial services industry. The RTS cover measures for preventing settlement fails through automated matching, a hold and release mechanism and partial settlement. The RTS also provide measures for monitoring and addressing settlement fails, such as a mechanism for cash penalties and a buy-in process.

View the amending Delegated Regulation.

HM Treasury has opened a consultation on the proposed U.K. approach to crypto-assets and stablecoins, in particular a proposal to bring stablecoins into the U.K. regulatory perimeter. Responses to the consultation may be submitted until March 21, 2021. The government will consider the responses to the consultation and publish a response with further details on how the approach would be implemented in law. If the policy approach is followed, the regulators would consult further on rules for firms.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has renewed its decision requiring holders of net short positions in shares traded on an EU-regulated market to notify national regulators if the position reaches or exceeds 0.1% of issued share capital. ESMA originally introduced the requirement on March 16, 2020 for a period of three months and has extended it twice since then. This latest extension will apply the requirements from December 19, 2020 until March 19, 2021. The temporary transparency obligations are a response to perceived threats to market integrity arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. They apply to any natural or legal person, irrespective of their country of residence, but do not apply to shares admitted to trading on a regulated market where the principal venue for the trading of the shares is located in a third country, market making activities, or stabilization activities.

The European Free Trade Association's Surveillance Authority published a decision on the same day renewing its decision imposing the same transparency obligations for shares admitted to trading on an EEA regulated market. The renewed requirements also apply from December 19, 2020 until March 19, 2021.

View ESMA's decision.

View the EFTA decision.

HM Treasury has launched a call for evidence on the U.K.'s framework for cross-border financial services. HM Treasury is considering policy approaches for ensuring the U.K. framework is fit for the future given the U.K.'s exit from the EU, including consideration of how effective and proportionate regulation can support attracting investment and liquidity to the U.K. Responses to the consultation may be submitted until March 11, 2021.

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Following its consultation earlier this year, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published its final policy statement and rules to extend certain implementation deadlines for the Certification Regime and Conduct Rules. To assist firms impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.K. has made legislation—The Bank of England and Financial Services Act 2016 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2020— extending the deadline for completion of firms' first assessments of the fitness and propriety of their Certified Persons from December 9, 2020, to March 31, 2021. This applies only to solo-regulated firms (other than benchmark administrators).

In addition to extending that date, the FCA has also extended the following deadlines from December 9, 2020, to March 31, 2021:

• the date the Conduct Rules come into force for staff that are not Senior Managers, Certification Staff or board directors;
• the date by which relevant employees must receive training on the Conduct Rules; and
• the deadline for submission of information about Directory Persons to the FS Register.

The FCA has reiterated that firms that are able to certify staff and submit information for the FS Register before March 31, 2021, should do so.

View the FCA's policy statement and amended rules.

The U.K. Government has published a Financial Services Bill setting out a proposed regulatory framework for the financial services industry following the U.K.'s exit from the EU. The Bill is part of the U.K.'s wider initiative under the Future Regulatory Framework Review to re-frame its regulatory framework. Although Brexit has brought challenges to the financial sector, there may also be post-Brexit opportunities for the U.K. to seize. The aim of these reforms is to cement the U.K.'s position as a global financial centre of excellence. A core piece of that will be to set conditions that continue attracting business to the U.K. and to look for opportunities to cut "red tape" whilst at the same time maintaining the U.K.'s globally recognized high regulatory standards.

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HM Treasury has launched a consultation on Phase II of the U.K.'s Financial Services Future Regulatory Framework Review. Phase II focuses on how the U.K.'s financial services regulatory framework must be adapted to be fit for the future given the U.K.'s exit from the EU. The first part of Phase II, to which this consultation relates, seeks to establish a blueprint for financial services regulation. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by February 19, 2021. The second part of Phase II will constitute a final package of proposals and will be consulted on later in 2021.

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The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee has published its latest Policy Summary and the minutes of its meeting held on September 30, 2020. The FPC notes a range of near-term risks that could impact the U.K. economy, including the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, post-Brexit trading arrangements between the U.K. and EU and various other geopolitical risks. 

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The European Commission has published a Communication to EU bodies on its Capital Markets Union Action Plan. The CMU is an EU initiative which aims to enhance and further integrate the capital markets of EU Member States. An action plan to develop the initiative was first adopted in 2015 and has been commented upon and updated since then. The Commission's Communication sets out the latest Action Plan, and is accompanied by a Q&A. It follows the recommendations of the High-Level Forum on the CMU, which proposed 17 key recommendations for the CMU, and the Commission's Roadmap on the CMU which set out details of the Commission's proposed Action Plan for comments by interested parties.

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The European Commission has published a Communication on its EU digital finance strategy for the coming years. The global economy has been transformed by digital innovation, and this includes financial services. The Commission's strategic objective is to embrace digital finance for the benefit of consumers and businesses while ensuring digital transformation is soundly regulated. To achieve this objective, the Commission sets out four priorities for the digital transformation of the EU financial sector over the next four years and the actions it will take to achieve them.

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The European Banking Authority has confirmed that it will phase out its Guidelines on legislative and non-legislative payment moratoria in accordance with its September 30, 2020 deadline. The EBA originally published the Guidelines in April 2020, stipulating that, for a period of three months, banks should not class payment moratoria that were based on national law or private-sector initiatives as forbearance or distressed restructuring practices, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Guidelines were extended for a further three months on June 30, 2020 but the EBA now intends to comply with the September 30, 2020 phase out deadline in light of the success of the temporary moratoria and the need to return to the usual rescheduling of loans on a case-by-case approach.  The treatment described in the Guidelines will continue to apply to payment holidays granted prior to September 30, 2020.

View the EBA's statement on the phase-out of its Guidelines.

View details of the EBA's Guidelines.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions has published guidance on how to address potential conflicts of interest and associated conduct risks for intermediaries involved in the issuance of debt securities. Intermediaries may perform a variety of roles on a debt capital raising transaction and may also have a proprietary interest in the transaction itself.  In 2017, the IOSCO Board decided to examine conflicts of interest and other conduct risks in the capital raising process. IOSCO published guidance for the equity capital raising process in September 2018.

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The European Central Bank has published a Decision in the Official Journal of the European Union temporarily excluding certain central bank exposures from significant Eurozone banks' leverage ratio calculations for the purposes of the EU Capital Requirements Regulation. The Decision will enter into force on September 26, 2020 and the exclusion will apply until June 27, 2021.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has renewed its decision requiring holders of net short positions in shares traded on an EU-regulated market to notify national regulators if the position reaches or exceeds 0.1% of issued share capital. ESMA originally introduced the requirement on March 16, 2020 for a period of three months, extending it for a further three months on June 17, 2020. ESMA's latest decision means the measure will now apply from September 18, 2020 until December 18, 2020.

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The Financial Stability Board has announced delays to the implementation of minimum haircut standards for non-centrally cleared securities financing transactions. SFTs involve the use of securities to borrow cash or other higher investment-grade securities, or vice versa. Such transactions can include repurchase transactions, securities lending and sell/buy backs. In 2015, the FSB published its regulatory framework and recommendations for haircuts on uncleared SFTs, which included timelines for the implementation of the recommendations by FSB member jurisdictions. The deadline for implementation was extended in July 2019 by the FSB because of the delay to implementation of the Basel III framework, including the minimum haircut standards on bank-to-non-bank SFTs, which was postponed to January 2022. In March 2020, a further delay to the implementation of the Basel framework to 2023 was announced, with the objective of relieving the operational burden on banks impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The FSB has decided to delay its framework again because it is expected to be implemented by many jurisdictions through the Basel III framework.

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The U.K. Government has launched a consultation on its future international regulatory cooperation strategy. The consultation has been prompted by a report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In its report, the OECD set out 25 recommendations for how the U.K. can improve its policies and practices in shaping and complying with international agreements and collaborating with international counterparts when designing and enforcing regulations. The report is intended to cover regulatory practices in general, meaning banking regulation falls within the scope of the recommendations. With the U.K. having left the EU on January 31, 2020, and the end of the U.K.'s transitional period due to end on December 31, 2020, the U.K. Government believes there is an opportunity to build new regulatory practices that support the future prosperity of the U.K.

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A U.K. statutory instrument—The Bank of England and Financial Services Act 2016 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2020—has been published. This extends from December 9, 2020, to March 31, 2021, for solo-regulated firms (other than benchmark administrators) the deadline for completion of firms' first assessments of the fitness and propriety of their Certified Persons. HM Treasury agreed to the extension to assist firms impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Financial Conduct Authority recently consulted on extending certain other implementation deadlines for the Certification Regime and Conduct Rules and intends to publish its Policy Statement in October 2020.

View The Bank of England and Financial Services Act 2016 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2020.

View details of the FCA's consultation.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a final report and final draft Regulatory Technical Standards to further postpone the securities settlement discipline rules under the Central Securities Depositories Regulation to February 2022. ESMA announced on July 28, 2020 that it was preparing the draft RTS in response to a request from the European Commission to consider whether a further delay was needed due to the impact of COVID-19. The EU has already postponed the application date of the settlement discipline rules from September 13, 2020 to February 1, 2021 due to industry feedback that more time was needed to put in place the operational requirements for implementation of the rules. The draft RTS published today by ESMA would further delay the application date by a year from February 1, 2021 to February 1, 2022.

View the final report and final draft RTS.

View details of the amending RTS delaying the rules to February 2021.

The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a statement confirming that, following its review of the temporary approach that allows firms to offset increases in VAR back-testing exceptions through a reduction in risks-not-in-VAR capital requirements, it has decided to terminate the temporary approach from September 30, 2020. The PRA has made this decision because of the changes introduced to the EU Capital Requirements Regulation (known as the CRR Quick Fix package), which has applied directly across the EU since June 27, 2020.

From October 1, 2020, firms should no longer apply any commensurate reduction in risks-not-in-VAR capital requirements. Firms should apply to the PRA to exclude back-testing options that do not result from deficiencies in their internal model occurring between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021.

View the PRA's statement.

View details of CRR Quick Fix.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a statement confirming that the 2019 Guidelines on stress test scenarios under the Money Market Funds Regulation will be updated by the end of 2020 to reflect COVID-19 market developments. The MMF Regulation has applied directly across the EU since July 21, 2018. MMFs are fund vehicles that invest in highly liquid short-term debt instruments, such as government bonds, and are often regarded as a short-term cash management function alternative to bank deposits. The MMF Regulation requires MMFs and MMF managers to measure the impact of the common reference stress test scenarios, as specified by ESMA in its guidelines, and to report the outcomes to their national regulators. ESMA is required to assess annually whether the Guidelines should be updated to reflect market developments. ESMA states that it intends to update the Guidelines published in July 2019 to reflect the impact of COVID-19 on the market, in particular, the liquidity challenges faced by MMFs. The 2019 Guidelines will continue to apply until the revised Guidelines apply—ESMA intends to publish the updated Guidelines in Q4 2020, following which they will be translated into EU national languages. The updated Guidelines will apply two months after the translations are published.

View ESMA's statement.

The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a further statement on IFRS 9 and capital requirements in the context of COVID-19. In line with the Financial Conduct Authority's guidance in relation to mortgage payments, firms should consider tailored forbearance arrangements where, at the end of the COVID-19 payment deferral period, a borrower is unable to resume payments in full immediately, with all deferred sums either paid in full or capitalized. The PRA states that the tailored forbearance arrangements may be as good an indicator of significant increases in credit risk, credit impairments or defaults as forbearance before the pandemic. Any loans subject to tailored forbearance should not be automatically treated as having experienced SICR or become credit impaired or in default, and firms will need to exercise judgment where the position is not clear.

The PRA also states that some of the guidance in its statement on March 26, and June 4, 2020 continues to be relevant, depending on the circumstances.

View the PRA's statement.

View details of the PRA's June statement.

View details of the PRA's March statement.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has announced that it is preparing new Regulatory Technical Standards to further postpone the securities settlement discipline rules under the Central Securities Depositories Regulation. The move follows a request from the European Commission for ESMA to consider whether a further delay is needed in light of the impact of COVID-19. The Commission has adopted the draft RTS prepared by ESMA that will delay the application date of the settlement discipline rules from September 13, 2020 to February 1, 2021. Those RTS are now subject to scrutiny by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union and will only come into force once published in the Official Journal of the European Union. ESMA's announcement relates to a proposal for an additional delay until February 2022.

Read more.

The European Banking Authority has published an updated work program as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic. According to the EBA, it has only launched consultations that are critical, has kept interactions with industry to a minimum and has progressed work on technical standards according to the expected implementation timeline and degree of finalization.

View the EBA’s updated 2020 work program.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a Dear CEO letter sent to U.K.-regulated firms providing non-discretionary investment services. The FCA letter makes clear that, where firms’ clients have increased the level of client money held with a firm, the firm should return client money that is unlikely to be reinvested in the short term. Many firms have reported an increase in client money levels as clients respond to the COVID-19 situation. The FCA states that senior management at firms should consider whether it would be in the best interest of their clients to return money that isn’t likely to be reinvested in the short term.

View the Dear CEO letter.

Details of other regulatory responses to COVID-19 are available on our COVID-19 Research Center.

The European Banking Authority has published guidance on the impact on supervisory reporting and disclosure of the EU's CRR Quick Fix adjustments, which were made in response to COVID-19. The CRR Quick Fix introduced changes to a broad range of requirements on firms under the Capital Requirements Regulation. It has applied directly across the EU since June 27, 2020. The EBA's guidance consists of:
 

1. Guidelines on supervisory reporting and disclosure requirements in compliance with the CRR "quick fix" in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic (EBA/GL/2020/11). These Guidelines aim to clarify how firms should report the Implementing Technical Standards on supervisory reporting versions 2.9 and 2.10, and on the existing ITS on disclosure of leverage ratio.

Read more.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has opened a consultation on proposed principles for operational resilience and updated Principles for the Sound Management of Operational Risk (PSMOR). The consultation closes on November 6, 2020.

Read more.

The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a Policy Statement and final rules on the temporary high balances coverage extension under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The PRA has decided to implement the proposal, made in July this year and in response to the coronavirus pandemic, to extend coverage under the FSCS for temporary high balances, from six months to 12 months from the date of the deposit or the first date the balance becomes legally transferrable to the depositor. The change will be effected by changes to the PRA's depositor protection rules and the Statement of Policy on the Deposit Guarantee Scheme. The change will take effect from August 6, 2020. The coverage will revert to six months from February 1, 2021.

View the Policy Statement, updated rules and Statement of Policy.

HM Treasury has launched a call for evidence on the U.K.'s payments landscape, which is the first stage of the Payments Landscape Review announced in June 2019. The government is seeking input on the opportunities, gaps and risks that need to be addressed to support the U.K.'s position as being at the forefront of payments technology. Responses may be submitted until October 20, 2020. The government will publish a summary of the responses it receives and set out next steps for the review.

In the call for evidence, the government sets out the steps taken to achieve the aims that were published in 2012 to support the high-level strategy of ensuring that end user consumers and businesses benefit from the U.K. payment networks. Feedback is sought on the extent to which those aims have been achieved.

HM Treasury also discusses the main incentives for new payment systems and services, covering the New Payments Architecture, Faster Payments, the impact of Open Banking on how the systems are used, trends towards new service providers and payment chains and development in cross-border payments. The call for evidence also reflects on the wider work being undertaken on crypto-assets and stablecoins.

View the call for evidence on the U.K.'s payments landscape.