The International Organization of Securities Commissions has launched a new roadmap for retail investor online safety. The strategic initiative aims to safeguard retail investors worldwide from fraud, excessive risk, and misinformation as digital trading and social media reshape the retail financial market.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has announced that it is revising the market cleanliness statistic used in its annual report to measure insider trading. In future, the FCA will: (i) detect abnormal price movements that happen on the same day as an announcement because the price information used is more frequent; (ii) introduce a market comparison test to ensure the statistic is less affected by market volatility, for example, that caused by the Covid pandemic or Russia's invasion of Ukraine; and (iii) include more announcements from firms with multiple takeover offers. The revised measure is higher, reflecting the scope of the statistic now including potential insider trading on the day of an announcement. In addition, the new methodology makes the statistic more robust to periods of market volatility. Based on the insights received from reports, alerts, and market intelligence, the FCA has not seen an increase in market abuse. The FCA welcomes feedback from the public, industry and academic community on these changes.

The Council of the European Union has adopted the proposed Regulation on ESG rating activities. The new rules aim to strengthen the reliability and comparability of ESG ratings by improving the transparency and integrity of the operations that ESG ratings providers carry out, and by preventing potential conflicts of interest. In particular, ESG rating providers established in the EU will need to be authorized and supervised by ESMA. They will have to comply with transparency requirements, in particular with regard to their methodology and sources of information. The Regulation introduces as a principle a separation of business and activities in order to prevent conflicts of interest. The European Parliament approved the proposed Regulation in October. The Regulation will now be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, enter into force 20 days later and apply 18 months after its entry into force.

The European Supervisory Authorities (European Securities and Markets Authority, European Banking Authority, and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) and the European Central Bank have published the results of the one-off "Fit-For-55" climate scenario analysis. The EU's Fit-for-55 package aims to stimulate investment and innovation in the transition to a green economy and plays a crucial role in the EU's goal to achieve an emissions' reduction of 55% by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. The climate stress test was conducted against three scenarios developed by the European Systemic Risk Board, with the support of the ECB. The scenarios incorporate transition risks as well as macroeconomic factors, under the assumption that the Fit-for-55 package is implemented as planned. Under the scenarios examined, transition risks alone are unlikely to threaten financial stability. However, when transition risks are combined with macroeconomic shocks, they can increase losses for financial institutions and may lead to disruptions. The report therefore calls for a coordinated policy approach to financing the green transition and the need for financial institutions to integrate climate risks into their risk management in a comprehensive and timely manner. The report notes that given the novelty of the methodological approaches and the data-related challenges, the results are subject to a large margin of uncertainty.

HM Treasury has updated its money laundering advisory notice on high-risk third countries. Under the U.K. Money Laundering Regulations, the U.K. regulated sector must apply enhanced customer due diligence in relation to high-risk third countries. This obligation is in addition to the requirement to apply enhanced customer due diligence where there is an assessed high risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, including geographic risk based on credible sources. High-risk third countries are those named by the Financial Action Task Force on either its "High-Risk Jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action" or "Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring" lists. On October 25, 2024, the FATF published its most recent update to its lists of jurisdictions, which firms are advised to consider.

The Bank of England has published a consultation on fundamental rules for financial market infrastructure firms. The BoE proposes to introduce a set of fundamental rules for FMIs incorporated in the U.K. The aim of the proposed rules is to increase the resilience of FMIs through providing a clear and transparent articulation of the desired outcomes of the BoE's policy framework. The BoE intends to support FMIs' compliance with the relevant regulatory regime and their supervisory engagement with the BoE, and so U.K. financial stability. For central counterparties and central securities depositories, the fundamental rules will take the form of rules made under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. For recognized payment service operators and specified service providers, they will take the form of a binding Code of Practice pursuant to the powers given to the BoE under Part 5 of the Banking Act 2009. The BoE intends to apply the fundamental rules to systemic stablecoins in due course. The fundamental rules will form the foundation of a broader BoE rulebook for FMIs, as the BoE uses its new rulemaking power over U.K. CCPs and CSDs to replace detailed firm-facing requirements currently in U.K. primary legislation. The deadline for comments is February 19, 2025. The BoE proposes a six-month implementation period between the publication of the final rules and their application. The BoE welcomes views on what an appropriate implementation period would be.

The Bank of England has updated its approach to financial market infrastructure supervision. The BoE states that its approach to supervision continues to be underpinned by four core principles: (i) its supervisors rely on judgement in taking decisions; (ii) the BoE assesses firms not just against current risks, but also against those that could plausibly arise further ahead; (iii) the BoE focuses on those issues and firms that are likely to pose the greatest risk to its objectives; and (iv) it applies proportionality to ensure that its interventions do not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve its objectives.

In light of experience, and the new powers and responsibilities set out in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the BoE has aimed to make its approach more risk-based and flexible, updated its potential impact and risk assessment frameworks so that they can better accommodate the current risk environment, made greater use of horizontal supervisory work to assess the risks posed across sectors, and continued to embed the use of horizon scanning to identify areas of potential vulnerability. The BoE sets out its processes for identifying and assessing risks posed by each FMI and its approach to supervising FMIs in practice, including the degree of intensity of supervision and the tools and legal and enforcement powers available to it.

The Council of the European Union has adopted the Regulation amending the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, the Capital Requirements Regulation, and the Money Market Funds Regulation as regards measures to mitigate excessive exposures to third-country central counterparties and improve the efficiency of Union clearing markets (EMIR 3) and the Directive amending the UCITS Directive, the Capital Requirements Directive, and the Investment Firms Directive as regards the treatment of concentration risk arising from exposures towards central counterparties and of counterparty risk in centrally cleared derivative transactions. The legislation will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union before entering into force 20 days later. EMIR 3 will apply from that date, subject to certain provisions which will not apply until the date of entry into force of certain technical standards. Member States are expected to implement the amending Directive 18 months after the date it enters into force.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has finalized its technical advice for the European Commission on the Central Securities Depositories Regulation penalty mechanism. ESMA hopes to incentivize all actors in the settlement chain to improve settlement efficiency, also in view of the potential move to T+1 in the EU.

The report outlines ESMA's advice to improve the application of the CSDR penalty mechanism on three main aspects: (i) alternative parameters to calculate the penalties due to lack of cash, when the official interest rate for overnight credit charged by the central bank issuing the settlement currency is not available; (ii) the treatment of historical reference prices for the calculation of late matching fail penalties; and (iii) the design and level of the penalty rates for each asset class. ESMA proposes to maintain the design of the current penalty mechanism—for example, not introducing fundamental changes to the methods for calculating penalties—and to introduce an overall moderate increase of the penalty rates, in full alignment with the current types of settlement fails and targeting most asset classes. The Commission will take into account ESMA's technical advice when amending the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/389. The revised penalty mechanism will become applicable once the amended Commission Delegated Regulation has been adopted by the Commission, scrutinized by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The Financial Stability Board has published a letter sent to the G20 leaders ahead of their meeting on November 18, 2024, together with the FSB 2024 annual report. The letter warns of ongoing vulnerabilities within the global financial system, illustrated by recent episodes of market turmoil and the failure of several banks and non-banks in recent years. The letter stresses the importance of effective implementation of the FSB's policies, emphasizing that authorities must not only put policies into national laws and regulations, but also build the capacity to operationalize them.

In the annual report, the FSB provides an overview of its work in its key priority areas, which include: (i) addressing lessons from the March 2023 banking turmoil; (ii) enhancing the resilience of non-bank financial intermediation; (iii) addressing financial risks from climate change; (iv) improving cross-border payments; (v) responding to technological innovation; and (vi) enhancing the resolvability of central counterparties. Looking ahead, the FSB will continue to focus on these priority areas and will also place an emphasis on: (a) implementation monitoring of its recommendations on crypto-asset activities and global stablecoin arrangements; (b) further work on resolution reforms; and (c) regular monitoring and progress reports on financial stability issues.

For more information on the issues and developments relating to FinTech, see our blog A&O Shearman on fintech and digital assets.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a final report on its assessment of the shortening of the settlement cycle in the EU to T+1. The report highlights that the increased efficiency and resilience of post-trade processes that should be prompted by a move to T+1 would facilitate achieving the objective of further promoting settlement efficiency in the EU, contributing to market integration and to the Savings and Investment Union objectives. ESMA recommends that the migration to T+1 occurs simultaneously across all relevant instruments and that it is achieved in Q4 2027.

Considering the different elements assessed by ESMA, in particular the difficulties linked to the go-live of such a big project in November and December, and the challenges linked to the first Monday of October (just after the end of a quarter), ESMA recommends October 11, 2027, as the optimal date for the transition to T+1 in the EU. ESMA suggests following a coordinated approach with other jurisdictions in Europe.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Ombudsman Service have launched a joint call for input on modernizing the redress system. The two main concerns of the FCA and the FOS are mass redress events and FCA-FOS cooperation. Mass redress events occur when there are large numbers of complaints about the same issue. If mass redress events involve sudden and unexpected increases in complaints, this creates operational difficulties for both firms and the FOS and delays for the consumers. In some cases, they can lead to disorderly firm failures with costs absorbed by the rest of the industry through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy or, if there is no FSCS cover, by consumers in lost redress.

The FCA and the FOS are hoping to better understand: (i) how the current redress framework could be modernized; (ii) the problems that mass redress events and the redress system in general cause firms, consumers, and their representatives; (iii) what changes could be made to the redress framework to enable the FCA and the FOS to better identify and manage mass redress events to ensure better outcomes for consumers, firms, and the market; (iv) what changes could be made to how the FCA and the FOS work together to ensure their views on regulatory requirements are consistent; and (v) if there need to be any changes for complaints brought to the FOS by professional representatives such as complaints management companies. The call for input considers a number of short-, medium-, and long-term options that may address the issues identified. The deadline for responses is January 30, 2025. The FCA and the FOS intend to set out next steps in H1 2025.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published feedback to its December 2023 advice guidance boundary review. The review included a number of proposals to improve how people can access help with their pensions and retail investments.

The FCA highlights that: (i) most respondents agreed that the FCA's proposals are a positive step towards improving consumer outcomes and agreed with the proposals outlined in the paper; (ii) the Financial Services Consumer Panel challenged the FCA to realize the full ambition of this review and encouraged the FCA to keep an open mind on what may be needed to achieve the strategic aims of the review; and (iii) there was concern about the risks of developing new forms of regulated help, including the need to ensure people fully understood the support they were being offered and what protections would be provided.

The FCA plans to consult: (a) in December on targeted support for pensions savers; and (b) in H1 2025 on draft FCA rules to apply across retail investments and pensions. The FCA has also issued a joint statement with the Pensions Regulator and the Information Commissioner's Office to provide guidance to firms on communicating with their pensions and retail investments customers.

HM Treasury has published remits and recommendations for the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, set out in a letter sent from Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to Nikhil Rathi, FCA Chief Executive, and in a letter sent by Ms. Reeves to Andrew Bailey, Bank of England Governor.

The letter to Mr. Bailey formally relates to recommendations for the Prudential Regulation Committee, the BoE committee that exercises its functions as the PRA. Ms. Reeves calls for the regulators to fully embed the secondary competitiveness and growth objective and, while pursuing their respective primary objectives, to consider how they can enable informed and responsible risk-taking by authorized firms. Ms. Reeves outlines her priorities, which include ensuring that: (i) innovative new firms are supported to enter the market, and existing firms are enabled to innovate and invest in new technologies, including the safe adoption of AI; (ii) customers can access appropriate advice and products; (iii) U.K. financial services firms are supported to play a significant role in supporting the Net Zero transition globally; and (iv) firms have a positive experience of engaging with the regulators from the point of initial application or inquiry, and that administrative burdens on firms are streamlined as far as possible, while maintaining high regulatory standards and a reputation as responsive and agile regulators.

HM Treasury has published a letter from Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, setting out the remit and recommendations for the Financial Policy Committee for 2024/25.

In the letter, Ms. Reeves states that: (i) the FPC should continue to prioritize its work to address systemic vulnerabilities in market-based finance and ensure that the BoE continues to cooperate with relevant authorities and across jurisdictions to increase resilience in a way that is consistent with supporting sustainable economic growth; (ii) the FPC should continue to focus on cyber and operational risks, noting the evolving threat landscape, including how this might increase these risks, and other potential impacts for financial stability; and (iii) the FPC should assess and identify areas where there is potential to increase the ability of the financial system to contribute to sustainable economic growth without undermining financial stability.

The letter sets out: (a) the matters that the FPC should regard as relevant to the BoE's financial stability objective, and the responsibility of the FPC in relation to the achievement of that objective; (b) the responsibility of the FPC in relation to support for the U.K. government's economic policy; and (c) matters to which the FPC should have regard in exercising its functions. The FPC must respond to the government, describing any action it has taken or intends to take in response to a specific recommendation.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has issued a discussion paper on potential options for improving the U.K. transaction reporting regime. The FCA has two primary objectives: to improve the usefulness of transaction reporting data through better data quality and to support the competitiveness of U.K. markets by ensuring requirements remain proportionate for firms. The discussion paper asks firms to consider: (i) the overall shape of the transaction reporting regime, seeking feedback on the relative merits of simplification against the cost of change. The FCA is also seeking feedback on areas of the regime that are most burdensome for firms, as well as the role it could play in accommodating the development of new and existing technologies; (ii) the scope of firms subject to transaction reporting obligations and the scope of financial instruments captured by the requirements. The FCA considers the scope of reporting obligations for over-the-counter derivatives and identifiers for these instruments; and (iii) potential changes to the fields contained in RTS 22 to improve data quality. The FCA considers where it could add new fields to improve use of data, where existing fields could be removed to streamline reporting, and trading scenarios where clearer guidance may be needed to improve outcomes. The deadline for comments is February 14, 2025.

The U.K. Financial Ombudsman Service published a feedback statement to its consultation on its proposals to charge fees to claims management companies and other professional representatives. The statement summarizes the feedback and provides a high-level summary of the FOS's response to the feedback received.

The FOS proposes to, broadly as consulted on: (i) continue with the option to implement a fee of £250 per case, reducing to £75 where the case is determined in favor of the complainant represented by the CMC; (ii) avoid vested financial interest in the outcome of any individual complaint by reducing the fee payable by the respondent firm by £175 where the complaint is not successfully upheld against them. The FOS would retain £75 in every case, regardless of outcome, as this broadly equates to the cost of setting the case up on its systems; (iii) increase the free case limit from three to ten per financial year for each CMC, so they could test cases raising new issues and learn from them; with a view to this informing their own due diligence for subsequent cases of that type which they may wish to bring; (iv) utilize fees gathered to improve its outreach and engagement; and (v) implement the arrangements as soon as possible, subject to Parliamentary and U.K. Financial Conduct Authority stages, which the FOS now accepts is likely to be early 2025. The recent General Election means that the FOS is still awaiting the necessary secondary legislation to advance proposals. Depending on the outcome of the relevant approvals required, the FOS will publish a separate policy statement in due course, upon further development of the affirmative procedure by Parliament and appropriate final consideration by the FCA. On November 19, 2024 the FOS published a letter sent to the FCA to confirm the FO's position.

The Financial Stability Board has published a report outlining recent developments in the adoption of AI in finance and their potential implications for financial stability. The report notes that AI offers benefits from improved operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, personalised financial products, and advanced data analytics. However, AI may also amplify certain financial sector vulnerabilities and thereby pose risks to financial stability. According to the FSB, AI-related vulnerabilities with the potential to increase systemic risk include: (i) third-party dependencies and service provider concentration; (ii) market correlations; (iii) cyber risks; and (iv) model risk, data quality, and governance. In addition, GenAI could increase financial fraud and disinformation in financial markets. Misaligned AI systems that are not calibrated to operate within legal, regulatory, and ethical boundaries can also engage in behaviour that harms financial stability. From a longer-term perspective, AI uptake could drive changes in market structure, macroeconomic conditions, and energy use that may have implications for financial markets and institutions.

The report notes that existing regulatory and supervisory frameworks address many of the vulnerabilities associated with AI adoption. However, more work may be needed to ensure that these frameworks are sufficiently comprehensive.

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The European Banking Authority has finalized two sets of guidelines setting common standards on the governance arrangements and the policies, procedures, and controls that financial institutions should have in place to be able to comply with EU and national restrictive measures. Restrictive measures applicable to financial institutions comprise targeted financial sanctions and sectoral measures, e.g., economic and financial measures. Both sets of guidelines will apply from December 30, 2025.

The first set of guidelines is addressed to all institutions within the EBA's supervisory remit, i.e., those regulated and supervised under the Capital Requirements Directive, the Payment Services Directive, and the Electronic Money Directive. These guidelines set out the governance and risk management systems that financial institutions should implement to address the risk of potentially breaching or evading restrictive measures.

The second set of guidelines is specific to restrictive measures under the Wire and Cryptoasset Transfer Regulation. The guidelines specify what payment service providers and crypto-asset service providers should do to be able to comply with restrictive measures when performing transfers of funds or crypto-assets.

The U.K. High Court has handed down judgement in the civil case of London Capital & Finance Plc (in administration) and others v Michael Andrew Thomson and others [2024] EWHC 2894 (Ch). London Capital & Finance was an investment firm regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It was also registered as an ISA manager with HM Revenue and Customs. LCF collapsed into administration in 2019, resulting in losses of around £237 million to around 11,500 mostly retail investors. LCF and its administrators brought a civil claim against those responsible for running and administering LCF's business, alleging (among other things) that: (i) representations made to LCF bondholders regarding LCF's activities were false; (ii) the defendants misappropriated sums of over £136 million from LCF and/or associated companies; and (iii) LCF was operated as a Ponzi scheme and as a result, the defendants were knowingly party to fraudulent trading and should be liable to compensate the claimants for their losses.

The court found for that: (i) LCF had made misrepresentations which amounted to fraudulent conduct of business; (ii) there had been fraudulent misappropriation of LCF's assets; and (iii) LCF had been operated fraudulently as a Ponzi scheme. As a result, the defendants were liable to LCF for knowing participation in the fraudulent conduct of LCF's business and LCF and its administrators had established equitable proprietary claims against certain of the defendants. A subsequent hearing will be held to decide the level of compensation payable by the defendants.

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The following legislation that comprises the EU Listing Act package has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union:

• Regulation (EU) 2024/2809 amending the EU Prospectus Regulation, the EU MAR and EU MiFIR (the "Listing Regulation");
• Directive (EU) 2024/2811 amending MiFID II and repealing Directive 2001/34/EC (the "Listing Directive"); and
• Directive (EU) 2024/2810 on multiple-vote share structures (the "Multiple-Vote Shares Directive").

The Listing Regulation and Directive aim to streamline the rules applicable to companies, particularly SMEs, going through a listing process or companies already listed on EU public markets, by alleviating administrative burdens and costs, while preserving a sufficient degree of transparency, investor protection and market integrity. The Listing Directive also amends the EU requirements on how payments are made for investment research. EU firms will be permitted to choose whether to make joint or separate payments for third-party research and execution services. This follows the U.K. change to its rules, which took effect in August. We discuss the EU and U.K. changes in our note, "UK allows bundled payments for third-party research and trading commissions."

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The International Organization of Securities Commissions has finalized a report on promoting the financial integrity and orderly functioning of the Voluntary Carbon Markets. The final report includes a set of 21 good practices for Voluntary Carbon Markets to support the financial integrity of carbon credits and carbon markets as Voluntary Carbon Markets continue to develop, with the aim that carbon markets should be fair and orderly, economically sound as to pricing and information flow, and structurally resilient. The good practices address transparency, liquidity, and price discovery, as well as potential fraud or greenwashing, based on IOSCO's objectives of investor protection, fair, efficient, and transparent markets, and reducing systemic risk. The good practices are directed at: (i) relevant regulators and authorities interested in carbon credit markets in their jurisdictions that function with integrity; (ii) trading venues interested in listing and trading high-quality spot carbon credits or carbon credit derivative products; and (iii) relevant market participants.

Rachel Reeves, the U.K. Chancellor has set out a package of reforms in her Mansion House speech. The reforms aim to drive growth and competitiveness in financial services. Ms. Reeves stated that the regulatory changes post-financial crisis created a system which sought to eliminate risk-taking that 'has gone too far' and has led to unintended consequences. Ms. Reeves hopes to maintain the U.K.'s high regulatory standards while rebalancing elements of the regulatory system to drive economic growth and competitiveness. 

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HM Treasury has published a policy paper announcing further reforms to the U.K.'s wholesale markets framework, a key part of the latest Mansion House reforms HM Treasury has committed to legislate to amend the Markets in Financial Instruments legislative package to achieve these changes. Where the changes involve revoking existing legislation and placing it in the Financial Conduct Authority's Handbook, the revocation will coincide with the regulator's rules taking effect.

Firstly, the FCA will be given enhanced powers of direction regarding the reporting of OTC positions. This is intended to address issues that arose in the Nickel market in 2022 by empowering the FCA to ensure that exchanges receive the right transparency about OTC positions and enable exchanges to operate their position management obligations effectively. The FCA will be able to intervene where it considers there is a risk to market stability.

Second, legislation will be introduced revoking the transaction reporting provisions in MiFIR and delegating to the FCA the responsibility for establishing rules for the regime. It is envisaged that the FCA will be in a better position to consider long-term solutions to the challenges facing firms in complying with the existing regime.

Finally, the detailed firm-facing requirements contained in the MiFID Org Regulation will be revoked and replaced in the FCA's Handbook. This will give the FCA more flexibility to adjust to changing conditions requiring the standards to be updated.

HM Treasury has published a call for evidence on credit union common bond reform, which is part of the latest Mansion House reforms. The government is seeking views on the merits of and considerations for changing parts of the common bond requirement for membership of a credit union in Great Britain, under the Credit Unions Act 1979. The call for evidence is motivated by a wish to help credit unions grow sustainably and ensure that this aspect of the legislative framework for credit unions is fit for the 21st century. The call for evidence only seeks views on the common bond for credit unions in England, Wales, and Scotland. This is because responsibility for credit unions in Northern Ireland is a devolved matter for the Northern Ireland Executive. Responses may be submitted until March 6, 2025. Following the call for evidence, HM Treasury plans to publish a summary of responses and its proposed next steps, which may include a consultation on specific proposals.

HM Treasury has published a consultation response, policy note and draft legislation to deliver its commitment to establish the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES), a new innovative market for trading private company shares. The documents describe how the PISCES regime, which is a key part of the latest Mansion House reforms, will be established, reflecting the policy decisions and design choices of the government.

In its consultation response, the government notes that the proposal to establish a PISCES Sandbox was well received as an appropriate way to develop and test this new regulatory regime. The government confirms that it will proceed to establish PISCES in a sandbox, granting the Financial Conduct Authority the relevant powers to implement and operate it. The sandbox will run for five years. Firms that want to operate a PISCES platform will need to apply to the FCA for approval and those trading on such a platform will be subject to modified regulations. Future measures to make PISCES permanent will depend on the outcomes of the sandbox.

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HM Treasury has published a consultation on developing a U.K. Green Taxonomy to classify sustainable economic activities, with the aim of increasing sustainable investment and reducing greenwashing risk. Responses to the consultation may be submitted until February 6, 2025.

The consultation seeks views on the use cases for a taxonomy, including complementing the U.K.'s other green initiatives, supporting the development of sustainability-focused financial products and the potential application to investment fund and investment portfolio product disclosures. It further seeks input on whether the taxonomy could support the mobilization of transition finance, following the U.K.'s Transition Finance Market Review (discussed in our blog post, "UK Transition Finance Market Review Publishes Recommendations"). The consultation also sets out proposed design features to maximize the usability of any such taxonomy, including: (i) its interoperability with other international taxonomy regimes; (ii) the environmental objectives and sectoral scope of the U.K. Taxonomy; (iii) the best way to incorporate the "do no significant harm" principle; and (iv) the desired level of governance and oversight to ensure credibility of the regime.

HM Treasury has published the National Payments Vision, outlining the government's plans for bolstering the U.K. payments sector. The Vision, which is an integral part of the latest Mansion House reforms, responds to the findings of the independent Future of Payments Review 2023, led by Joe Garner, and takes action to address key issues across the landscape.

The Vision aims to "strengthen the foundations of today" by ensuring that the regulatory framework is clear, predictable and proportionate. To support this, the government has outlined its priorities for U.K. payments through a joint remit letter to the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payments Systems Regulator and welcomes the regulators' commitment to revise their existing memorandum of understanding on cooperation in relation to payments regulation. Another significant objective is ensuring infrastructure is resilient. The government has concluded that the New Payments Architecture program is not sufficiently agile. It is therefore establishing a Payments Vision Delivery Committee which will, through work led by the Bank of England and PSR, clarify the upgrades required to the existing Faster Payments System, assess longer-term requirements and the appropriate funding and governance arrangements needed to deliver this—including proposals to reform Pay.UK.

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HM Treasury has published two letters from Tulip Siddiq, Economic Secretary to the Treasury sent to the CEOs of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority requesting a report on the current mutuals landscape before the end of 2025. Ms. Siddiq explains that the request is part of the government's commitment to unlock the full potential of the mutual and cooperative sector in the U.K. and the importance of effective and proportional regulation in supporting this. She explains that the reports will aid the government and regulators' consideration of how best to support the mutuals sector to drive inclusive growth across the U.K., a key part of the latest Mansion House reforms. The letters also request a response from the regulators setting out their next steps in engaging with the request.

Following its consultation, HM Treasury has published its response to the consultation on the future regulatory regime for ESG ratings providers, along with the draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2024. HM Treasury confirms that it will be proceeding with its proposal to bring the provision of ESG ratings within the scope of the U.K. regulatory perimeter. The government welcomes technical comments on the draft regulation by January 14, 2025. The government plans to finalize the legislation in 2025, at which point the Financial Conduct Authority will consult on the specific requirements. HM Treasury expects the overall process of designing, developing and commencing the ESG ratings regulatory regime to take approximately four years.

As part of the design of the future regulatory framework for ESG ratings provision, the FCA is also considering its approach to overseas ESG ratings providers applying for U.K. authorization. This includes exploring whether, according to size, significance, or market impact in the U.K., an ESG ratings provider would be expected to be incorporated in the U.K. HM Treasury is also exploring creating overseas regimes and other access routes into the U.K. market for overseas providers, including a possible market access or overseas regime for ratings issued in overseas jurisdictions.

HM Treasury has launched a call for evidence on a proposed Financial Services Growth & Competitiveness Strategy, a key part of the latest Mansion House reforms. Once developed, the Strategy will serve as the central guiding framework for the next ten years through which the government aims to deliver sustainable, inclusive growth for the financial services sector and secure the U.K.'s competitiveness as an international financial center. To meet its objectives, the proposed strategy sets out five core policy pillars central to sustainable growth: innovation and technology, regulatory environment, regional growth, skills and access to talent, and international partnerships and trade. The proposed strategy also identified five priority growth areas within the financial services sector: fintech, sustainable finance, capital markets (including retail investment), insurance and reinsurance markets, and asset management and wholesale services. Responses to the call for evidence may be submitted is December 12, 2024. HM Treasury intends to publish the strategy in Spring 2025.

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The Financial Stability Board has published a statement on the importance of resolution planning and loss-absorbing capacity for banks systemic in failure. The FSB aims to clarify the importance of resolution preparedness for all banks, recognising that the principles outlined are already established for G-SIBs. The statement includes considerations to inform jurisdictions' regulatory and policy frameworks for the resolution preparedness of banks:

• authorities should assess which banks may be systemically significant or critical if they fail, including ensuring they have sufficient information to make this assessment in normal times and in a crisis. This includes banks that were not explicitly designated as systemically significant or critical prior to their failure.
• authorities and banks deemed systemic in failure should be prepared for resolution – banks systemic in failure should ensure they are resolvable in a way that protects their critical functions without severe systemic disruption.
• authorities should consider the need for loss-absorbing capacity. The FSB advises that some of the total loss-absorbing capacity principles applicable to G-SIBs are relevant also for other banks. The FSB sets out the TLAC principles that tend to be reflected in existing loss-absorbing capacity jurisdictional frameworks for non-G-SIB banks. The FSB also highlights the importance for considering the cross-border spillover effects of a bank systemic in failure.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions has published a report on transition plan disclosures. The report sets out how transition plan disclosures can support the objectives of investor protection and market integrity, and shares challenges. The report also discusses key findings, which point towards a series of coordinated actions for IOSCO and other stakeholders to consider in the future, which concern four main aspects: (i) where transition plans are published, encouraging consistency and comparability through guidance on transition plan disclosures; (ii) promoting assurance of transition plan disclosures; (iii) enhancing legal and regulatory clarity and oversight; and (iv) building capacity.

IOSCO's report welcomes the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation's plan to develop educational material on transition plan disclosures and, if needed, application guidance to support transition plans disclosures that provide investors with the information needed to make informed decisions about risks and opportunities. IOSCO encourages the International Sustainability Standards Board to maintain a high level of interoperability of the International Financial Reporting Standards Sustainability Disclosure Standards with key jurisdictional standards as they develop this educational material. To enhance clarity, IOSCO also encourages relevant standard setters to consider providing markers on what would constitute forward-looking information, in accordance with their standards and governance processes. This can support reporting entities in managing potential liability risks while disclosing much needed forward-looking, climate-related, information.

The European Commission has published a set of FAQs to clarify the interpretation of certain provisions on sustainability reporting introduced by: (i) the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive into the Accounting Directive, the Audit Directive, the Audit Regulation, and the Transparency Directive; (ii) the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation; and (iii) the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards.

The Bank of England has published a policy statement on its approach to enforcement and an updated Statement of Policy And Procedure on its approach to enforcement. The update follows the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 which expanded existing, as well as introduced new, regulator enforcement powers. A number of changes have been made to policy as consulted on. The updated Statements of Policy And Procedure took effect on November 12, 2024. The BoE (including, where applicable, the Prudential Regulation Authority) will have regard to the policies on exercising its enforcement powers in force at the time of any breach. Consequently, when conduct which would have amounted to a breach under the updated Statement of Policy And Procedure begins before November 12, 2024 and continues after that date, the new regime applies only to the conduct from November 12, 2024 onwards.

The BoE has also published an updated version of its Enforcement Decision Making Committee's Procedures. The remit of the Enforcement Decision Making Committee's Procedures encompasses decisions in enforcement cases concerning exercise of those powers. The Enforcement Decision Making Committee's Procedures were created by the Court of the BoE to help the BoE discharge its responsibilities and strengthen its enforcement processes by ensuring a functional separation between the BoE's investigation teams and the BoE's decision makers in contested enforcement. The procedures were first published in 2018.

The Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority have published a joint policy statement on operational resilience for critical third parties (CTPs) in the U.K. financial sector, which includes their final rules for CTPs. The overall objective of the final policy is to manage risks to the stability of, or confidence in, the U.K. financial system that may arise due to a failure in, or disruption to, the services that a CTP provides to one or more authorised persons, relevant service providers and/or financial market infrastructure entities.

The rules will take effect from January 1, 2025, but will only apply to individual CTPs from the date their HM Treasury CTP designations come into force. HM Treasury has not yet made any such CTP designations.

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The International Organization of Securities Commissions has published a consultation report on its proposed revised recommendations for liquidity risk management for collective investment schemes. The Liquidity Risk Management Recommendations For Collective Investment Schemes were originally published in 2018. The revised recommendations take into consideration the Financial Stability Board's revised recommendations to address structural vulnerabilities from liquidity mismatch in open-ended funds, published in December 2023. The recommendations also take account of recent market events such as the COVID-19-induced market volatility and the conflict in Ukraine. Responses to the consultation may be submitted until February 11, 2025. IOSCO aims to publish its final report in the first half of 2025.

The proposals consist of 17 recommendations organised into a revised structure with six sections, namely: (i) the collective investment scheme design process; (ii) liquidity management tools and measures; (iii) day-to-day liquidity management practices; (iv) stress testing; (v) governance; and (vi) disclosures to investors and authorities.

The accompanying Implementation Guidance, also for consultation, sets out technical elements focusing on open-ended funds, such as the determination of asset and portfolio liquidity and considerations relating to the calibration and activation of liquidity management tools and other liquidity management measures.

An updated draft version of the Short Selling Regulations 2024, alongside an explanatory memorandum and de minimis impact assessment, have been laid before Parliament. The draft Regulations establish a new legislative framework for the regulation of short selling, creating designated activities for short selling, giving the Financial Conduct Authority rulemaking powers related to these activities and powers to intervene in exceptional circumstances. The updated draft Regulations do not include any requirements for short positions in sovereign debt or sovereign CDS, including the related reporting requirements. This maintains the policy approach previously announced of revoking the short-selling regime for these instruments, for business-as-usual reporting. Sovereign debt and sovereign CDS will, however, be in scope of the FCA's powers in exceptional circumstances.

The updated draft Regulations amend some of the provisions in the original draft SSR and add new provisions.

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A draft version of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Designated Activities) (Supervision and Enforcement) Regulations 2024, together with an explanatory memorandum, have been laid before Parliament. The designated activities regime is a new U.K. concept to give the Financial Conduct Authority rulemaking powers over financial sector activities, such as public offers and listing, which are not necessarily carried out by regulated firms such as banks. We discussed the DAR in our bulletin, "Financial Services and Markets Bill: The Designated Activities Regime in the UK".

The Regulations will amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 with regard to the FCA's supervision and enforcement of DAR requirements. They enable the FCA to supervise designated activities by gathering information and launching investigations into persons carrying out designated activities, and to enforce its designated activity rules by publicly censuring or imposing financial penalties on persons that breach them. They also set out the procedures that will apply to the FCA giving directions concerning designated activities. The Regulations have been laid before Parliament and will enter into force on the day after they are made.

HM Treasury has published a response to its consultation on the near-term reforms relating to the bank ring-fencing regime. Overall, there was widespread support for the proposed reforms. However, a number of policy and legal issues were identified by respondents which the government has sought to address.

• as proposed, the threshold for banks to be within scope of the regime is being raised from £25 billion to £35 billion in "core deposits."
• HM Treasury is maintaining the proposal that banks that do not have major investment banking operations will be removed from the ring-fencing regime entirely. Retail-focused banks with trading assets of less than ten percent of Tier 1 capital will be exempt from the regime, except where they are part of a Global Systemically Important Bank.
• as proposed, a de minimis threshold is being introduced to allow ring-fenced banks to incur an exposure of up to £100,000 to a single "relevant financial institution" (e.g., another bank, certain insurers or an investment firm) at any one time. HM Treasury is clarifying that where an RFB's counterparty becomes a relevant financial institution, the twelve-month grace period in article 19B of the FSMA 2000 (Excluded Activities and Prohibitions) Order 2014 (EAPO) only applies where no other exemption applies.

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A European Commission notice has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union on the interpretation and implementation of certain legal provisions of the Disclosures Delegated Act on the reporting of Taxonomy-eligible and Taxonomy-aligned economic activities and assets. The Disclosures Delegated Act supplements the EU Regulation on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, known as the Taxonomy Regulation.

The purpose of this notice is to provide further interpretative and implementation guidance in the form of replies to FAQs to financial undertakings on the reporting of their KPIs under the Disclosures Delegated Act. Through this notice, the Commission intends to facilitate the compliance of stakeholders with the regulatory requirements in a cost-effective way and to ensure the usability and comparability of the reported information for scaling up sustainable finance. The FAQs cover scope of covered entities, scope of the consolidation of disclosures, taxonomy-assessment of exposures to individual undertakings, taxonomy-assessment of groups, taxonomy-assessment of specific exposures, verification/assurance/evidence of compliance with the technical screening criteria, and compliance with minimum safeguards. There are also separate questions related specifically to credit institutions and insurance and reinsurance undertakings.

The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024 have been published, with an accompanying explanatory memorandum. Regulations 3 to 7 make consequential amendments in connection with the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 8) Regulations 2024, which bring into force several paragraphs of Schedule 2 to FSMA 2023, granting the Financial Conduct Authority the power to make rules in relation to pre- and post-trade transparency obligations and systematic internalisers.

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The U.K.'s Home Office has published guidance on the new corporate criminal offense of failure to prevent fraud under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. Under the offense, large organizations may be held criminally liable where an employee, agent, subsidiary, or other "associated person" commits a fraud intending to benefit the organization. In the event of prosecution, an organization would have to demonstrate to the court that it had reasonable fraud prevention measures in place at the time that the fraud was committed. The offense applies to all large, incorporated bodies and partnerships (including partnerships that are not bodies corporate).

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The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2024 have been published. The Regulations bring into force certain provisions of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. Regulation 2 brings measures relating to civil recovery of crypto-assets, which are already in force in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but only partially in force in Scotland, fully into force on November 7, 2024. Regulation 3 brings into force measures creating a new offense of failure to prevent fraud on September 1, 2025.

For more information on the issues and developments relating to FinTech, see our blog A&O Shearman on fintech and digital assets.

The Financial Conduct Authority has opened a consultation on extending the new payment optionality for investment research to pooled funds. This proposal will allow asset managers to use the new payment optionality that was confirmed for MiFID firms earlier this year, in line with the recommendation made by the U.K. Investment Research Review. We discussed the new rules for MiFID firms in "UK allows bundled payments for third-party research and trading commissions."

The proposals apply to UCITS and AIF managers and residual collective investment scheme operators. Managers who take up the option will need to meet various requirements, including: (i) having a written policy on the approach of joint payments; (ii) establishing a research budget based on the expected amount of third-party research; (iii) having a cost allocation structure among research providers; (iv) assessing the price and value of research periodically; (v) allocating cost of research fairly; (vi) responsibility for operating and administering any research payment accounts; and (vii) investor disclosure.

The deadline for comments is December 16, 2024. If the FCA decides to proceed, it aims to publish any rules or guidance in the first half of 2025.

The Network for Greening the Financial System has published the fifth phase of its long-term climate macro-financial scenarios for climate risks assessments. The main development is an updated assessment of physical risk. It now incorporates a new damage function, resulting in more substantial physical impacts from climate change. The Network for Greening the Financial System scenarios have been updated with new economic and climate data, policy commitments, and model versions.

Alongside the updated scenarios, the NGFS has published: (i) a high-level overview of the updates in the publication package, with a specific focus on the new damage function used for (chronic) physical risk assessment; (ii) a more detailed explanatory note on the new damage function; and (iii) updated technical documentation that discusses the NGFS modeling framework and assumptions behind the scenarios.

Following its consultation earlier this year, the Financial Conduct Authority has published a policy statement setting out its final position on the new U.K. bond and derivative transparency regime. In response to feedback, the FCA has made multiple changes to its proposals, including:

• Modifying the post-trade deferral durations for bonds;
• Refining the grouping criteria for bonds; and
• Removing systems relying on negotiation from the scope of pre-trade transparency entirely.

Read more.

The Treasury Committee has launched a call for evidence as it examines whether rules are needed to govern the acceptance of physical cash in the U.K. The Committee explains that the Bank of England has noted that the decline in cash usage is increasing the infrastructure costs of retaining physical cash as a viable payment method, which could lead to disruption for businesses and consumers. Meanwhile, there is a concern that cash is still being used by and is essential for certain vulnerable groups to make payments, and that the U.K. becoming over reliant on digital payments could have an impact on financial stability.

Questions in the call for evidence include:

• Whether there are groups in society that disproportionately rely on using cash.
• What practical challenges and costs businesses may face from a requirement to accept cash.
• Whether any sectors would face problems by a decline in cash acceptance.

The deadline for responses is December 2, 2024.

The Financial Conduct Authority has launched a questionnaire on the current and future uses of AI in U.K. financial services and the financial services regulatory framework. The initiative is part of the FCA's AI Input Zone, which will help shape its future regulatory approach. Views are sought on: (i) what AI use cases firms are considering and what barriers are preventing any current or future adoption; (ii) whether current regulation is sufficient to support firms in embracing the benefits of AI in a safe and responsible way; and (iii) whether there are any specific changes to the regulatory regime or additional guidance that would be useful. The deadline for responses is January 31, 2025.

The FCA has also opened applications for the first AI Sprint, which will be taking place in January 2025.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has set out good and poor practice examples to assist firms in meeting the pre-contractual disclosure requirements under the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and investment labels regime. The examples cover a selection of labels, but the FCA considers that much of the practice will be relevant across all investment labels. The SDR and investment labels regime enters into force on December 2, 2024, although firms have been able to use investment labels since July 31, 2024.