The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is consulting on proposed measures to ease the financial implications of COVID-19 on consumers. The measures would be introduced via guidance issued by the FCA on areas of particular concern to consumers. The consultation, which is deliberately short given the unprecedented circumstances arising from the pandemic, is open until 9am on April 6, 2020 and, if confirmed, the measures will take effect from April 9, 2020.

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HM Treasury and the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority have published a joint statement welcoming the delay to implementation of certain aspects of the Basel III regulatory reforms, announced by the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision. The GHOS has delayed the deadlines for introducing certain Basel III standards by one year until 2023 (or, in the case of the output flow, 2028). The Treasury and PRA intend to work together to produce a U.K. implementation timetable that is consistent with the GHOS’s delay.

View the PRA's statement on the delayed implementation of Basel III.

View details of the GHOS's delays to the implementation of Basel III.

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

The European Banking Authority has published guidelines on legislative and non-legislative moratoria on loan repayments applied in light of the COVID-19 crisis. The Guidelines state that, where payment moratoria are based on national law or a private-sector initiative broadly applied by credit institutions in response to COVID-19, they will not be classified as forbearance or distressed restructuring measures. 

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The European Commission has acknowledged the U.K. Presidency's decision to postpone the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (commonly known as COP26) in order to focus efforts on containing COVID-19. The Commission's work to produce a plan to raise the EU's 2030 climate-change ambitions and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50-55% compared to 1990 levels is on track to be presented by September 2020.

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The Financial Action Task Force has published a statement on measures to combat illicit financing during the coronavirus pandemic. The key messages are that the FATF supports the use of the flexibility built into the risk-based approach to anti-money laundering and counter-financing terrorism. However, it warns financial institutions to remain vigilant to new and emerging finance risks arising due to COVID-19, such as frauds arising due to difficulties in customer due diligence in person or reductions of monitoring due to remote working, or due to possible risks of fraud in government cash handout schemes. It reminds firms that they should ensure that they continue to effectively mitigate risks and are able to detect and report suspicious activities. In addition, the FATF urges financial institutions to use responsible digital customer onboarding and the delivery of financial services wherever possible and refers institutions to the FATF's recently released Guidance on Digital ID. Furthermore, the FATF encourages countries and financial institutions to consider appropriate use of simplified due diligence measures to assist in the delivery of government benefits established in response to the pandemic.

View the FATF's statement.

View details of the FATF's Guidance on Digital ID.

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

The EU Single Resolution Board has written to Eurozone banks about potential COVID-19 relief measures. It is united with the European Supervisory Authorities and national regulators in aiming to alleviate operational burdens on banks to enable them to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. The SRB intends to apply a pragmatic and flexible approach to 2020 resolution plans and MREL decisions and will consider postponing less urgent information requests where necessary. It does, however, confirm that Eurozone banks still need to submit the following reports: Liability Data Report, Additional Liability Report and MREL quarterly template.

View the SRB's letter to Eurozone banks.

The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a statement supporting the decisions of the U.K.'s largest banks to suspend dividends and buybacks on ordinary shares until the end of 2020 and to cancel outstanding 2019 dividends. The PRA also makes it clear that it expects banks to refrain from paying cash bonuses to senior staff, including material risk takers. In parallel, the PRA has written to the CEOs of the largest U.K. banks (HSBC, Nationwide, Santander, Standard Chartered, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group), notifying them of the PRA's expectation that they should not pay cash bonuses to senior staff.

View the PRA's statement.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a Dear CEO letter addressed to firms providing services to retail investors on the actions they should be taking to protect consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Firms are expected to provide strong support and service to consumers, to be transparent with their customers and to report to the FCA immediately if they foresee themselves getting into financial difficulty.

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The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published two statements addressed to U.K. firms on the application of certain requirements of the EU Capital Requirements Regulation.
 
The first statement sets out the PRA's approach to calculating exposure under the internal models method for counterparty credit risk in light of the significant moves in counterparty credit risk exposures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Firms are reminded of their notification obligations in relation to any changes they make to their internal models method models as a result of the PRA's guidance.

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The European Banking Authority has published three statements providing clarity on measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the EU banking sector. The statements are: Statement on supervisory reporting and Pillar 3 disclosures in light of COVID-19: referring to its statement issued on March 12, 2020, the EBA outlines further details on actions that firms, national regulators and resolution authorities can take to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The EBA stresses the importance of firms providing reliable data for supervisory purposes, particularly given market fluctuations. However, the EBA reiterates that some leeway can be given to firms for certain areas and asks national regulators to consider the extent to which a delay to submission of data may be justified. In general, the EBA suggests that firms should be given an additional month to submit data (with an additional two months given for remittance of data on funding plans), but national regulators should confirm the precise requirements. The EBA excludes from the forbearance information on the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and reporting for resolution planning purposes. The EBA also encourages national regulators to be flexible about the deadline for firms to publish their Pillar 3 data. Firms should contact their regulator if they expect that there will be a delay to their Pillar 3 disclosures.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a statement encouraging national regulators to deprioritize supervisory actions against firms that fail to meet best execution reporting deadlines under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. The MiFID II best execution requirements oblige investment firms to obtain the best possible result for their clients when executing client orders, and require execution venues and investment firms to make data relating to the quality of execution of transactions publicly available.

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has delayed the implementation timeline for Basel III to allow firms to focus on tackling the challenges resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a statement in which it confirms that the existing date for the application of the equity transparency calculations will remain unchanged. The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation, which became effective on January 3, 2018, introduced pre- and post-trade transparency requirements for equity and non-equity financial instruments. On February 28, 2020, ESMA published the transparency calculations that will apply to new instruments from April 1, 2020 until March 31, 2021. Further calculations will be released ahead of that date once the data quality review for those instruments has been completed.

ESMA's statement confirms that the new calculations will apply from April 1, 2020, as intended, because firms have had to implement new transparency calculations in the past and so do not need to revise their IT systems to comply with the obligation. In addition, ESMA is of the view that a delay could negatively impact those firms that have planned for the new calculations.

View ESMA's statement.

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

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement emphasizing the responsibility of relevant Senior Managers or equivalent persons in prioritizing which of their firm's employees cannot work from home and need to travel into an office or business continuity site to perform their role. The FCA's statement is relevant to all FCA-regulated firms across the U.K. and is made in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The FCA states that it expects the number of individuals that need to travel into an office or other place of work to be considerably less than would be required for a business-as-usual basis. The FCA provides a list of roles that it considers are capable of being performed from home. These are: financial advisers, staff who can safely and securely trade shares and financial instruments from home, business support staff, claims management companies and those selling non-essential goods and credit.

View the FCA's statement.

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

The European Central Bank has published an updated Recommendation requiring the largest Eurozone-based banks to suspend the payment of any dividends and buyback of shares until at least October 1, 2020. The Recommendation is addressed to significant institutions that are directly prudentially supervised by the ECB. Eurozone national regulators of smaller banks are expected to apply the Recommendation, as deemed appropriate. The Recommendation applies to both 2019 and 2020 dividends, but does not retroactively apply to dividends that have already been paid for the 2019 financial year. Where a bank believes that it is legally obliged to make a dividend pay-out, it should explain the reasons to its joint supervisory team.

The purpose of the Recommendation is to ensure that banks are able to maintain their lending and therefore the support of businesses during the current global pandemic.

View the ECB recommendation here.

View the ECB press release here.

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

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published guidance for issuers on compliance with their financial reporting requirements in light of the challenges presented by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Under the EU Transparency Directive, issuers of debt securities or shares must publish annual and half-yearly financial reports within four months and three months, respectively, of the end of the relevant reporting period.

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UPDATE: Further to its statement published on March 18, 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority has published a clarifying statement to confirm that the regulatory forbearance granted for banks and investment firms subject to the upcoming reporting obligation under the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation also applies to securities financing transactions subject to the backloading requirement.

ESMA published its initial public statement on steps it is taking to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the EU financial markets. ESMA is granting regulatory forbearance for banks and investment firms subject to the upcoming reporting obligation under the SFTR. Banks and investment banks were due to start reporting SFTs from April 13, 2020. EU banks and investment firms have been rolling out necessary diligence to categorize their clients and confidentiality waivers ahead of the launch, as well as installing new IT systems to report. ESMA's regulatory forbearance delays the reporting obligation for banks and investment firms from April 13, 2020 to July 13, 2020, which is the date from which CCPs and central securities depositories must begin reporting SFTs. Other Financial Counterparties must report from October 12, 2020 and Non-Financial Counterparties from January 11, 2021.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement reminding firms that they are able to use capital and liquidity buffers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The FCA also stated that firms should plan ahead and ensure that any potential exit from the market is conducted in an orderly manner. The statement is relevant for firms that are solo-regulated by the FCA.

Firms are encouraged to contact the FCA if they are unable to meet their capital requirements.

View the FCA announcement.

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

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, the Financial Reporting Council and the Prudential Regulation Authority have announced a number of measures and initiatives to assist firms during the current global coronavirus pandemic. These include:

• a statement from the FCA on the publishing of audited financial reports for listed companies;
• guidance from the FRC for companies preparing financial statements to be read in conjunction with PRA guidance on assessing expected loss under IFRS9; and
• guidance from the FRC for audit firms.

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On March 25, 2020, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority confirmed that COVID-19 is not expected to affect LIBOR preparations and the target date for LIBOR cessation of the end of 2021 still stands. The FCA does acknowledge, however, that some interim LIBOR milestones may not be met as a result of the pandemic, and it will continue to monitor the impact on such timelines carefully.
 
View the FCA's statement on COVID-19 and LIBOR.
 
Details of other regulatory responses to COVID-19 are available at our COVID-19 Research Center.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a statement to ensure the consistent application by issuers of International Financial Reporting Standards within the European Union. In particular, it addresses the requirement for consistent application of IFRS 9 related to the classification of financial assets and liabilities. ESMA considers a range of accounting implications that may arise for Issuers as a result of national governments' and EU bodies' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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The European Banking Authority has released two separate statements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first covering bank prudential regulation and the second dealing with consumer protection and payment services.

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In order to ensure that banks are able to focus on key operations throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic, the European Banking Authority has announced a postponement and extension of certain activities.

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The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee met on March 9 and 19, 2020, a time when the COVID-19 pandemic dominated the news and in turn presented challenges for markets.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement confirming that, in the wake to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is working with regulators in the U.S., the EU and elsewhere to ensure that the financial markets can remain orderly and open. Noting the recent volatility in the financial markets, the FCA confirms that the U.K. has not imposed a short selling ban and neither has the U.S. or any other major financial market. The EU has however temporarily reduced the threshold for the reporting of short positions. Net short position holders are required to notify the relevant national regulator of any net short position of 0.1% of the issued share capital of a company and of each 0.1% above that threshold. This also applies to listed shares on UK markets.  It is not necessary to notify existing positions above the new lower threshold that were not previously notifiable, until new trading takes place.

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HM Treasury has published the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Exemption) (Amendment) Order 2020, exempting the COVID Corporate Financing Facility from the U.K.'s regulated activity regime. The Order will come into effect from March 23, 2020. The exemption means that the COVID Corporate Financing Facility is not subject to the U.K. prohibition on conducting regulated activities in the U.K. under section 19 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. 

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The Financial Stability Board is coordinating with its members to support coordinated action required to preserve global financial stability. National regulators and financial institutions are encouraged to take advantage of regulatory flexibility to protect funding for market participants and the real economy, and international standard setting bodies are working together, including with reference to financial policy responses in their respective jurisdictions, to ensure the financial system can continue to finance growth.
 
View the FSB's announcement.

The European Securities and Markets Authority expects national regulators to de-prioritize their supervision of the new tick-size regime for systematic internalizers under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation in light of the challenges posed by COVID-19. Amendments to the MiFIR tick-size regime were introduced by the Investment Firms Regulation and are due to come into effect on March 26, 2020. ESMA's statement demands that national regulators do not prioritize supervisory actions in relation to the new regime from March 26, 2020 until June 26, 2020.
 
View ESMA's statement on regulatory forbearance for new tick-size regime.
 
View details of the Investment Firms Regulation.

The Bank of England has announced a series of supervisory and policy measures designed to help firms prudentially regulated by the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority (banks, building societies, insurers and large investment firms) and BoE-regulated financial market infrastructures (CCPs, central securities depositories and recognized payment systems) with the impact of COVID-19. 

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has announced that it is extending the consultation response dates to assist market participants as they implement arrangements to ensure business continuity during the coronavirus outbreak.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a statement on the telephone recording obligations in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. MiFID II requires records to be kept of all services, activities and transactions undertaken by an investment firm, including recordings of telephone conversations or electronic communications relating to: (i) transactions concluded when a firm deals on own account (proprietary trading); and (ii) the provision of client order services that relate to the reception, transmission and execution of client orders. Firms are also required to implement and maintain a policy for the recording of these telephone conversations.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has announced a Decision to lower the threshold for disclosing short positions in shares. Effective March 16, 2020, all holders of net short positions in shares traded on an EU regulated market (i.e., exchange) must notify the relevant national regulator if the position reaches or exceeds 0.1% of the issued share capital. Net short position holders must notify the relevant national regulator of any net short position of 0.1% of the issued share capital of a company and of each 0.1% above that threshold.

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The EU Single Resolution Board has announced that SRB staff will commence teleworking from March 16, 2020, following relevant decisions from the European Commission and Belgian government. SRB staff remain contactable via email or phone.

View the SRB's announcement. 

The European Central Bank has announced a series of measures designed to support banks to continue their vital role of funding the real economy in the wake of COVID-19. Banks will be permitted temporarily to operate below the level of capital required by Pillar 2 Guidance, the capital conservation buffer and the liquidity ratio. They will also be permitted partially to use capital instruments that do not qualify as Common Equity Tier 1 capital to meet Pillar 2 Requirements. The ECB hopes that, together with EU national regulators' relaxation of the countercyclical capital buffer, these measures will provide significant capital relief to banks.

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The European Banking Authority has published a statement on actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the EU banking sector. In the statement, the EBA states that it is working with the European Central Bank and EU national regulators to ease the immediate operational burden on EU banks and recommends that national regulators should use, where appropriate, the flexibility embedded in the regulatory framework.

The EBA views supporting banks' focus on core operations as a priority and has decided to postpone the EU-wide stress test to 2021. However, the EBA will conduct an additional EU-wide transparency exercise to provide updated information on banks' exposures and asset quality. The EBA also recommends that national regulators grant some flexibility on the remittance dates for supervisory reporting by banks.

The EBA states that banks should adopt prudent dividend and other distribution policies, including variable remuneration.

View the EBA's statement.

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

The European Systemic Risk Board has appointed Jan Reinder De Carpentier as its new Vice Chair. New board members Pedro Machado and Jesús Saurina have also been appointed. The new appointees will take up their positions on March 1, 2020 and will hold them for five years.
 
View the SRB's announcement.
 
View the Council Implementing Decision giving effect to the appointments of the Vice-Chair and Board Members.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published an opinion supporting the Italian Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa’s (Consob) revised accepted market practice on liquidity contracts for the purposes of the Market Abuse Regulation. The Market Abuse Regulation provides certain prohibitions against market manipulation but allows “accepted market practices” (AMPs) as a defense against allegations of market manipulation. To benefit from the defense, it is necessary to establish that a relevant transaction was conducted for legitimate reasons and in accordance with a formally accepted AMP. AMPs must be established by national regulators and notified to ESMA. ESMA will then issue an opinion on the compatibility of the AMP with MAR and whether its establishment would threaten market confidence.
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Christopher Woolard has been appointed Interim Chief Executive of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority from March 16, 2020. Mr. Woolard is currently the Executive Director of Strategy and Competition and an Executive member of the FCA's Board. He will take on the role when the current FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey becomes Governor of the Bank of England. HM Treasury will be running an open process for the role of permanent CEO in due course.

View the announcement.

Mark Carney, the outgoing Governor of the Bank of England, has been appointed as Finance Adviser for COP26. The role will be to assist the U.K. Government to build a sustainable financial system that supports the transition to a net zero economy. Andrew Bailey will replace Mr. Carney as the Governor of the Bank of England from March 16, 2020.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its Strategic Orientation for 2020-2022, setting out its longer-term objectives for regulating financial markets. The previous Strategic Orientation covered the period from 2016-2020 and so is coming to an end this year. Looking forward, ESMA aims to:

• develop the EU Capital Markets Union by encouraging wider retail investor participation, which would assist with the diversification of funding sources and efficiency of capital markets;
• promote sustainable finance and long-term oriented capital markets as part of the EU's commitment to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030;
• examine the opportunities and risks of digitalization and technology for market participants and regulators;
• guarantee the EU's voice in financial markets, aiming to maintain the openness of EU financial markets and develop EU co-operation with third-country authorities to ensure investor protection and financial stability; and
• encourage proportionality, particularly with respect to SMEs and innovative companies, where ESMA may need to tailor its initiatives to meet its objectives.

View ESMA 2020-2022 Strategic Orientation.

An EU Regulation has been published amending the European Supervisory Authorities' powers under various pieces of EU legislation. The Regulation grants ESMA additional powers to monitor market data and authorize benchmark administrators under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation and the Benchmarks Regulation, respectively. It also amends the legislation founding the European Banking Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority, granting them additional powers to facilitate their supervisory duties. The Regulation will enter into force on December 30, 2019. The provisions regarding ESMA's enhanced supervisory powers over market data and benchmarks will apply from January 1, 2022. All other provisions regarding the European Supervisory Authorities' enhanced powers will apply from January 1, 2020.

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The European Parliament has published a resolution on relationships between the EU and third countries concerning financial services regulation and supervision. The resolution follows the publication of a report in August 2018 by the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs setting out its proposal for the European Parliament’s resolution, which comes in the wake of the U.K.’s upcoming exit from the EU. The key factors prompting the resolution include the need to mitigate risks to financial stability arising from a possible no-deal Brexit, the need for clarification of the relationship between third-country markets and the EU’s single market in the interests of broader financial stability and the fact that existing third-country equivalence rules are not currently subject to a single framework.

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The U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, has announced the appointment of Andrew Bailey as the new Governor of the Bank of England. 

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The International Organization of Securities Commissions has launched a consultation on methods of addressing potential conflicts of interest and other conduct risks that arise from market intermediaries’ participation in the debt capital raising process. Responses should be submitted by February 16, 2020.

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The EU Expert Group on Regulatory Obstacles to Financial Innovation (or ROFIEG) has published a set of Recommendations and a Q&A on the establishment of an accommodative framework for FinTech in the EU. The ROFIEG was established by the European Commission in 2018 to provide expertise on technology in the financial services sector and, in particular, to review the EU’s legal and regulatory FinTech framework.

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A new Regulation amending the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, Market Abuse Regulation and Prospectus Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, introducing changes to support small- and medium-sized enterprise growth markets as trading venues. 

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The Financial Stability Board has published two reports on: (i) BigTech in finance and (ii) third-party dependencies on cloud services. The reports form part of the FSB’s ongoing work to analyze structural changes within the financial system in order to harness benefits and mitigate risks.

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The new EU Investment Firms Regulation and Investment Firms Directive have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The new legislation aims to create a more tailored regulatory regime for many EU investment firms that reflects the risks inherent in the diverse activities those firms undertake.

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The U.K. FICC Market Standards Board is consulting on its draft Statement of Good Practice for Participation in Sovereign and Supranational Auctions in Fixed Income Markets. The FMSB is a standards setting body operated by wholesale market participants that was established in 2015. It is mandated to issue Standards that improve conduct in the wholesale Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities markets. FMSB Member Firms are expected to consider their practices in light of the Standards, but the Standards are not binding and non-compliance will not affect whether a firm is deemed to have met its regulatory obligations.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a consultation paper seeking feedback on its proposals for the extension of the Senior Managers’ Regime to benchmark administrators. The FCA’s SMR was originally implemented for banks in 2016 and was extended to all authorized investment firms in December 2019. Benchmark administrators were only obliged to become FCA-authorized by the end of 2019 pursuant to the EU Benchmark Regulation, and so were granted a one-year extension from the roll-out of the SMR.

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