The Financial Conduct Authority has published its Approach to Consumers alongside a discussion paper on the potential introduction of a new duty of care and possible alternative approaches. The Approach to Consumers forms part of a series of formal approach documents explaining the FCA's approach to regulation in more depth. It should be read alongside the FCA's Mission document, which was first published in October 2016 and most recently updated in November 2017.

The Approach to Consumers sets out the FCA's approach to regulating for retail customers. The document sets out the FCA's vision for well-functioning markets that work for consumers, the relevant regulatory and legal framework, when and how the regulator will act to protect consumers, the FCA's policy position on key issues and its strategy for ensuring that its consumer protection objective is advanced with the greatest impact.

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The draft Business Contract Terms (Assignment of Receivables) Regulations 2018 have been laid before Parliament. The draft Regulations will invalidate terms in business contracts that prohibit or restrict the assignment of receivables, including terms that prevent the enforcement of a receivable. A receivable in this context is a right to be paid under a contract for the supply of goods, services or intangible assets. The Regulations will not apply if the person to whom the receivable is owed is a large enterprise or a special purpose vehicle.

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The Financial Conduct Authority has published a consultation paper setting out proposals to introduce a new directory of financial services workers.

In the consultation paper, the FCA explains that one effect of the extension of the Senior Management and Certification Regimes to all financial services firms will be that the Financial Services Register will contain the details of fewer individuals. Currently the Financial Services Register contains details of individuals who have been approved by the FCA or PRA. This includes individuals in senior management roles, individuals approved to hold controlled functions and individuals who hold customer-facing roles. However, this will change following the extension of SM&CR to all firms, because Individuals in customer functions, for example, will need to be assessed as fit and proper by firms rather than being approved by the regulators. Only individuals in specified senior manager roles will be approved by the relevant regulators and entered on the Register.

Read more.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he had nominated Kathleen Kraninger to serve as Director of the U.S. Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.  Ms. Kraninger is nominated to replace former CFPB Director Richard Cordray, who resigned in November of 2017.  Mick Mulvaney currently serves as Acting Director of the CFPB.

View full White House press release.

John C. Williams became the 11th President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  President Williams replaces outgoing President William C. Dudley, whose last day as president was June 17, 2018.  In a statement given on his first day in office, President Williams noted that his goals as President included openness and transparency, objectivity and independence of thought and a commitment to the diverse needs of constituents across the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s District.

View President Williams’s full statement.

HM Treasury has announced the appointment, by the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, of two new external members of the Prudential Regulation Committee for a three-year term: Professor Julia Black and Jill May. In addition, Norval Bryson has been re-appointed to the PRC for a further three-year term.

View the announcement.

The European Central Bank has announced the appointment of Petra Senkovic as Director General, in the Directorate General Secretariat to the Supervisory Board, from July 1, 2018. Ms. Senkovic has been acting Director General since February 2018. The appointment follows the reorganization of the ECB's banking supervision division.

View the announcement.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs approved the nominations of the Honorable Richard Clarida to be a Member and Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and Ms. Michelle Bowman to be a Member of the Federal Reserve Board. The approved nominations will now advance to the full U.S. Senate for confirmation votes.

View further information regarding the nominations.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that it had selected Bao Nguyen and Ted Dowd to serve as Deputy Chief Counsels in the OCC’s Office of the Chief Counsel.  Mr. Nguyen will serve as the Principal Deputy Chief Counsel and the OCC Law Department’s chief operating officer.  Mr. Nguyen will also supervise the Bank Activities and Structure and the Community and Consumer Law divisions, and the Northeast district counsel office.  Mr. Dowd will supervise the OCC’s Legislative and Regulatory Activities and Securities and Corporate Practices divisions, and the Central and Western district counsel offices.

View full text of the OCC press release.

Jelena McWilliams was sworn in as the 21st Chair of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Chair McWilliams succeeds Martin J. Gruenberg, who served as Chairman of the FDIC since November of 2012 and as a Member of the FDIC Board of Directors since August of 2005.

View full text of the FDIC press release.

The Bank of England has announced the appointment of Bradley Fried as Chair of the Court of the BoE, replacing Sir Anthony Habgood, as of July 1, 2018. The Court is the BoE's governing body that manages its affairs except for the formulation of monetary policy. In addition, the BoE announced the appointment of Diana Noble and Anne Glover as non-executive directors to the Court and that Tim Frost had rotated off the Court, each as of May 31, 2018.

View the announcement.

The U.S. Senate voted to confirm the nomination of Jelena McWilliams as Chair and Member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

View ​Information regarding Chair Mc Williams’s nomination.

View confirmation of Member of the Board of Directors.

The European Commission has published a package of legislative reforms on sustainable finance. The aim of the package of reforms, which form part of the Commission's broader Capital Markets Union initiative, is to ensure that environmental, social and governance considerations are consistently integrated into the investment and advisory process across sectors. The proposed measures comprise:

(i) a proposed Regulation on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment. This will establish an EU-wide classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities and ensure that investment strategies are oriented towards economic activities that genuinely contribute to achieving environmental objectives. The proposed Regulation will empower the European Commission to adopt delegated acts to specify technical screening criteria to assess the contribution of a given economic activity to a particular environmental objective as substantial. A list of six environmental objectives is set out in the proposed regulation, namely: climate change mitigation; climate change adaptation; sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources; transition to a circular economy, waste prevention and recycling; pollution prevention and control; and protection of healthy ecosystems (which includes biodiversity conservation).

Read more.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a bulletin encouraging banks to offer responsible short-term small-dollar loans to help meet the credit needs of their customers.  The OCC reminded banks, however, that any short-term small-dollar lending should be done in accordance with three core lending principles, including:  (i) that all bank products should be consistent with safe and sound banking, treat customers fairly and comply with applicable laws and regulations, (ii) that banks should effectively manage the risks associated with the products they offer, including credit, operational, compliance and reputational risk, and (iii) that all credit products should be underwritten based upon reasonable policies and practices, including guidelines governing the amounts borrowed, frequency of borrowing and repayment requirements.  The OCC bulletin also lists a number of policies and procedures topics specific to short-term small dollar lending, including with respect to loan pricing and repayment terms, effective management of credit risk, loan servicing and timely reporting of repayment activities to credit bureaus.  In addition, the OCC bulletin encourages banks to discuss their plans to offer short-term small-dollar lending products with their OCC portfolio manager or other OCC supervisory authority, especially if the offering of these products represents a substantial deviation from a bank’s existing business plan.

View ​full text of the OCC bulletin.

The Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements has announced the re-election of Jens Weidmann, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, as Chair of the BIS Board.

View the announcement.

Thomas M. Hoenig announced that, effective April 30, 2018, he was stepping down as Vice Chairman and Member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.  Mr. Hoenig served a full six-year term at the FDIC, since joining in April of 2012. Prior to his service with the FDIC, Mr. Hoenig served as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and was a member of the Federal Open Market Committee.

View full text of the FDIC press release.

The European Commission has published a proposal for a Directive on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law. Whistleblowers help prevent damage and detect threat or harm to the public interest that may otherwise remain hidden, but fear of retaliation can often discourage them from reporting concerns.

The importance of providing effective whistleblower protections for safeguarding the public interest has been acknowledged both at European and international level. At EU level, whistleblower protections are currently provided only for specific sectors and to varying degrees. This means that, in many situations, whistleblowers are not properly protected against retaliation. The proposed Directive will address this fragmentation by encompassing "the broadest possible range of categories of persons, who, by virtue of work-related activities (irrespective of the nature of these activities and whether they are paid or not), have privileged access to information about breaches." Areas covered include financial services, money laundering and terrorist financing.

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The U.S. Treasury Department and HM Treasury have issued a joint statement announcing the establishment of a Financial Regulatory Working Group. The Working Group will be a forum for treasury staff and financial regulatory authorities to exchange views on the regulatory relationship between the United States and the U.K. The objectives of the Working Group will be to further financial regulatory cooperation, improve transparency, reduce regulatory uncertainty, identify possible cross-border implementation issues, address regulatory arbitrage and work towards achieving compatibility of U.S. and U.K. laws and regulations.

View the statement.

President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Michelle Bowman and Richard Clarida to serve as Members of the U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.  Ms. Bowman, currently the Kansas State Bank Commissioner, is to be nominated to serve as a Member of the Federal Reserve Board as the Community Bank Representative representing Region eight. She is being nominated to serve the remainder of a 14-year term that expires on January 31, 2020. Mr. Clarida, currently the Lowell Harriss Professor of Economics at Columbia University, is to be nominated to serve as Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board for a 4-year term, and to serve the remainder of a 14-year term as a Member of the Federal Reserve Board representing Region 1, expiring on January 31, 2022.

View full text of the White House press release.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that John E. Smith will be stepping down as director of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control in early May 2018.  Mr. Smith’s 11-year career with OFAC includes serving as Acting Director/Director of OFAC since February 2015, and previously serving as OFAC’s Deputy Director and as an Associate Director.  OFAC Deputy Director Andrea M. Gacki will serve as Acting Director upon Mr. Smith’s departure.

View the full text of the Treasury Department announcement.

The Financial Conduct Authority has published a discussion paper on its proposed approach to using ex post impact evaluation to assess the impact of its work on consumers, firms and markets. The consultation paper sets out what the FCA means by ex post impact evaluation, why it is important to the FCA, the scope of ex post impact evaluations, how the FCA will select which work to evaluate, how such evaluations will be conducted and the key challenges involved in ex post impact evaluations. The FCA is seeking feedback on its proposed approach.

Responses to the discussion paper should be submitted by July 9, 2018.

View the discussion paper. 

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that John C. Williams has been named its president and chief executive officer.  Mr. Williams currently serves as the president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, a position he has held since 2011.  Mr. Williams joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in 2002, and prior to his appointment as president, served as executive vice president and director of research.  Mr. Williams has also served as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.  Mr. Williams will begin as president and chief executive officer on June 18, 2018, succeeding current president William C. Dudley, who is retiring.

View Tte full text of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announcement.

Jerome Powell was sworn in as Chairman of the US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.  Mr. Powell also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee.

View the Federal Reserve Board press release.

The Financial Conduct Authority has appointed Nausicaa Delfas as Executive Directive of International. The appointment creates a new role at the FCA and highlights the importance of developing the FCA's strategy for international engagement, especially in the lead up to the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

View the FCA's press release.

The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing for three individuals whose nominations to US federal financial institution regulator positions are pending.  The nominees and their respective positions are:  Ms. Jelena McWilliams to be Chairperson and a Member of the Board of Directors of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Dr. Marvin Goodfriend to be a Member of the US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; and Mr. Thomas E. Workman to be a Member of the US Financial Stability Oversight Council.

View transcript of Ms. McWilliam’s prepared statement.

View transcript of Dr. Goodfriend’s prepared statement.

View transcript of Mr. Workman’s prepared statement.

The US Senate voted 84-13 in favor of confirming Jerome Powell as the next Chair of the US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.  During the confirmation vote, Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Mike Crapo, delivered a statement in favor of Mr. Powell’s nomination.  Mr. Crapo stressed the importance of the position of Federal Reserve Board Chair, and praised Mr. Powell for his prior experience, regulatory and market knowledge and track record.

View Mr. Crapo’s statement at Mr. Powell’s confirmation vote.

The US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System announced its 2018 chair and deputy chair appointments for Federal Reserve Banks. Each year, the Federal Reserve Board appoints one member from each Federal Reserve Bank’s nine-member board of directors to serve as chair, and one member to serve as deputy chair.

View the Federal Reserve Board press release announcing the appointments.

HM Treasury has announced that Charles Randell CBE will become chair of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator from April 1, 2018. He will replace the outgoing chair, John Griffith-Jones.

View HM Treasury's announcement.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that Norman Williams has been appointed Deputy Comptroller for Economic and Policy Analysis.  Mr. Williams, who joined the OCC in 2006, will succeed Gary Whalen who has retired, and will oversee the Industry and Regional Analysis, International Analysis and Banking Condition and Policy Analysis divisions at the OCC, which conduct research and analysis with respect to financial and economic risks faced by national banks and federal savings institutions.  Prior to his time at the OCC, Mr. Williams served as the Chief of the Economic Analysis Section at the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.  This appointment took effect on January 7, 2018.

View the announcement of Mr. Williams’s appointment.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has published two consultations, seeking feedback on draft documents setting out its regulatory approach to authorization and competition. The two documents, once finalized, will form part of a series of formal approach documents explaining the FCA's approach to regulation in more depth. They should be read alongside the FCA's Mission document, which was first published in October 2016 and most recently updated in November 2017.

In the consultation on its approach to authorization, the FCA explains the public value and purpose of requiring authorization to conduct regulated financial services activities and the FCA's current approach to authorizing firms and individuals. The FCA seeks feedback on four questions: (i) understanding of the Threshold Conditions that firms and individuals must meet for authorization, and any areas where the FCA might be more specific; (ii) how the FCA might improve its approach to supporting firms and individuals to meet the minimum standards and how the FCA might better promote competition; (iii) whether the FCA has suggested the correct commitments to firms making authorization applications and what other commitments could be made; and (iv) whether the FCA has prioritized the right strategic goals, and, if not, what additional goals could add the most public value to the FCA's work.

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The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced the appointment by the Federal Reserve Board of Dr. Rosa Gil as a Class C director of the FRBNY.

View the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond press release regarding the appointment.
 

The Federal Reserve Board announced that it was appointing Kenneth Montgomery as its payment security strategy leader. In this role, Mr. Montgomery will chair the Secure Payments Task Force, and lead the Federal Reserve’s efforts to increase security and safety of the U.S. Payments system.

View Federal Reserve press release regarding the appointment.
 

The Financial Conduct Authority has published a Policy Statement setting out new Handbook rules and guidance to implement some of the recommendations arising from the Financial Advice Market Review launched by the FCA jointly with HM Treasury in August 2015.

Read more.

Senate Banking Committee overwhelmingly approved the nomination of Jerome Powell as Fed Chairman by a vote of 22-1, with only Sen. Elizabeth Warren in opposition. The nomination now goes to the full Senate.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond named Thomas Barkin as its President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Barkin’s appointment will take effect on January 1, 2018. Mr. Barkin was appointed by the eligible directors of the Richmond Fed, and approved by the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Barkin had previously served as a member of the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2009 to 2014.

View the Federal Reserve Bank of New York  press release regarding the appointment.

Following its 2015 Call for Evidence on the EU regulatory framework for financial services, the Commission has issued a report on progress on the targeted follow-up measures to the Call for Evidence, which was set out in a November 2016 Communication. Alongside the progress report, the European Commission has launched a consultation on supervisory reporting requirements. Some of the respondents to the Call for Evidence had highlighted overlaps and inconsistencies between reporting requirements in certain pieces of financial legislation, a reportedly excessive number of requirements, as well as, at times, insufficient clarity as to what needs to be reported and an insufficient use of international standards. Other respondents also highlighted the costs (including IT costs) of implementing reporting requirements and a number of respondents had mentioned that many EU Member States gold-plate the requirements.

The consultation seeks feedback in a number of areas, with the aim of gaining evidence on the cost of compliance with existing EU level supervisory reporting requirements, as well as on the consistency, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and added value of those requirements. The feedback from the consultation will provide important guidance to the Commission when preparing, if considered appropriate, a formal Commission proposal.

Comments on the consultation are invited by February 28, 2018.

View the Consultation Paper.

View Progress Report on the Call for Evidence.

View the November 2016 Communication.

View Press Release.

The Trump Administration announced that Marvin Goodfriend has been nominated as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Goodfriend is nominated to fill the vacancy from the resignation of Sarah Bloom Raskin, and if confirmed, Dr. Goodfriend would serve a 14 year term.

View the White House press release regarding Dr. Goodfriend’s nomination.

Joseph Otting was sworn in by Secretary of the US Department of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin as the 31st Comptroller of the Currency. Comptroller Otting was previously confirmed by the US Senate on November 16, 2017. Comptroller Otting replaces Keith Noreika, who had been serving as Acting Comptroller of the Currency since May 2017.

View the OCC press release regarding Comptroller Otting.

Janet Yellen, Chair of the Federal Reserve Board submitted her resignation as Chair and as a Member of the Federal Reserve Board. Chair Yellen’s resignation will become effective upon the swearing in of the new Chair.

View the Federal Reserve press release regarding Chair Yellen’s announcement.

The US Senate voted to confirm (54-43) the nomination of Joseph Otting as Comptroller of the Currency. Once officially sworn in, Otting will replace Acting Comptroller Keith Noreika.

US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray sent a memo to his staff announcing that he plans to leave his position by the end of the month. An interim or permanent successor has not yet been named although it has been widely reported that President Trump is considering naming OMB Director Mick Mulvaney as interim CFPB Director.

The US Department of the Treasury announced Kenneth A. Blanco as Director of FinCEN, a bureau in Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Blanco has 28 years of prosecutorial service, most recently serving as acting assistant attorney general of the US Department of Justice Criminal Division. FinCEN has been led by an acting director since Jennifer Shasky Calvery stepped down in May 2016. Blanco is expected to transition to his new role within the next month.
 

The US Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that President and Chief Executive Officer William C. Dudley plans to retire in mid-2018, to ensure that a successor is appointed before his term ends  in January 2019.  Dudley joined the FRBNY in 2007 as executive vice president and head of the Markets Group, and was named the 10th president and CEO of the FRBNY on January 27, 2009. He was appointed for his first full term as president and CEO in 2011 and reappointed in 2016. The President of the FRBNY is limited to a ten-year term, and contemporaneously serves as Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve’s top policy-making body, the Federal Open Market Committee.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that Richard Berner, director of the Office of Financial Research, will step down effective December 31, 2017, one year ahead of the expiration of his term.  Berner was the first director of the agency, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act with the mission of collecting and analyzing data across financial agency jurisdictions. Berner was confirmed by the Senate on January 1, 2013, for a six-year term. Berner’s successor has not yet been named.

Randal K. Quarles was ceremonially sworn in as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and as Vice Chair for Supervision.  Following confirmation by the Senate, Vice Chair Quarles took office on October 13, 2017, to fill an unexpired term ending on January 31, 2018. His term as Vice Chair for Supervision ends on October 13, 2021.

On October 11, 2017, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation was granted permission by the Court of Appeal to appeal the High Court's ruling articulating a significant restriction on the scope of legal professional privilege (in particular, litigation privilege). The Law Society of England & Wales - which has expressed concern about the High Court's ruling and its implication for when and how companies and their employees are protected by privilege - has since announced that it has applied to the Court for permission to intervene in the appeal.

Although the ENRC case was brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office, the High Court's ruling - and the future decision by the Court of Appeal - will impact upon the way investigations are conducted in the context of (prospective) criminal prosecutions by the UK Financial Conduct Authority as well.

Read more. 

The European Commission has published legislative proposals designed to strengthen and further integrate the supervisory framework of the European Union. The proposals build on contributions to the Commission's public consultation in autumn 2016 on the European Systemic Risk Board and its public consultation in spring 2017 on the European Supervisory Authorities – the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority.

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The European Commission has launched a consultation seeking views about the current state of post-trade markets, the main trends and challenges faced by post-trade services providers and their users, the existence and scale of remaining or new barriers to post-trade services used in financial transactions, the risks associated with such barriers and the best ways to address them.

Alongside the consultation, the Commission has published the report of the European Post-Trade Forum (EPTF), an expert group established by the Commission in early 2016 to assess the evolution of the EU post-trade landscape and the progress made in removing the "Giovannini barriers" to post-trade services. The EPTF report identifies those Giovannini barriers that have been successfully addressed since 2001 but cites further barriers that have arisen due to technological and market developments in the intervening fifteen years, in particular developments in derivatives markets, securities finance activities, collateral management and post-trade reporting.

The Commission consultation seeks stakeholders' views on a wide ranging set of questions, including: the relative importance of trends in post-trade in the EU; technological advances (such as distributed ledger technology and other FinTech developments); financial stability concerns arising from the susceptibility of post-trade areas to systemic risk; the means by which EU post-trade markets could become more attractive internationally; the near and longer term strategy for EU post-trade services and the challenges the markets are likely to face.

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The European Securities Markets Authority has published a consultation on proposed guidelines to ensure common, uniform and consistent application of the provisions of the Central Securities Depositaries Regulation that apply to internalized settlement reporting and to the exchange of information between ESMA and national regulators.

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The G20 Leaders met in Hamburg, Germany on July 7-8, 2017 and have published a Leaders' Declaration and an Action Plan setting out the G20's strategy for achieving strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. The Action Plan includes ongoing and planned work on financial sector regulation and development.

Read more.