The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 has received Royal Assent. The Act is designed to increase transparency and enhance the U.K.'s mitigation of money laundering and sanctions evasion. The Act will establish a register for overseas entities and their beneficial owners who own land in the U.K., enhance the sanctions regime and reform measures on unexplained wealth orders. The government has also published a white paper, "Corporate Transparency and Register Reform", setting out its proposals for enhancing the Registrar's powers with a view to improving the transparency and accuracy of the Companies House Register.

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The U.K. Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has published a revised General License under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. The License was first published on February 25, 2022, and allows individuals and entities to wind down transactions involving VTB Bank, including by closing out any positions. In addition, the License permits regulated financial institutions (authorized banks and investment firms, authorized or registered payment services firms and e-money institutions) and financial market infrastructure (recognized U.K. CCPs and CSDs and U.K.-recognized overseas CCPs and CSDs) to take reasonably necessary steps to effect such wind-downs. The revised license expands the definition of "subsidiary of VTB Bank" from VTB Capital plc (and any entity owned or controlled by VTB Capital plc incorporated in the U.K.) to include "an entity owned or controlled by" VTB Bank.

The License took effect from February 25, 2022, and expires on March 27, 2022. HM Treasury has power to amend, vary or revoke the License. OFSI has the power to issue General Licenses for country sanctions regimes under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.

Following its consultation last year, HM Treasury has set out its policy approach to amending the U.K. Prospectus regime. The current U.K. Prospectus Regulation will be replaced by legislation when parliamentary time allows. The changes will, among other things, separate the regulation of public offers of securities from the regulation of admissions of securities to trading, as Lord Hill recommended. In addition, the Financial Conduct Authority will be granted greater responsibility for the detail of the new regime through rules. The complete set of reforms will only apply once those rules are implemented. The main changes are set out below.

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HM Treasury has published its consultation response to the Wholesale Markets Review, setting out summaries of responses received to its proposals and how changes will be progressed. There are certain areas that HM Treasury will not progress at this stage, and which will be subject to further consideration.

For the proposals that are being taken forward, implementation may be by legislation or pursuant to the Financial Conduct Authority's rules. HM Treasury states that legislation will be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows. In certain instances, where details are currently set out in legislation, but would sit better in regulatory rules, the government intends to legislate to delegate responsibility to the FCA for preparing detailed rules, which it states will be part of the implementation of the Future Regulatory Framework review. The FCA is expected to consult on its proposals for existing rule amendments in the first half of this year.

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The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill has been introduced into Parliament, following the initial publication yesterday. The Bill is designed to increase transparency and enhance the U.K.'s mitigation of money laundering and sanctions evasion. The Bill will establish a register for overseas entities and their beneficial owners who own land in the U.K., enhance the sanctions regime and reform measures on unexplained wealth orders. On the same day, the government published a white paper, "Corporate Transparency and Register Reform", setting out its proposals for enhancing the Registrar's powers with a view to improving the transparency and accuracy of the Companies House Register.

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The U.K. Payment Systems Regulator has issued a statement on the situation in Ukraine. The PSR encourages firms to reflect on how they are managing their risks related to the situation, in particular:

• the ability of the firm to bear an attack from a sophisticated state actor;
• whether staff are available to handle an elevated cyber risk from state sponsored and other actors; and
• implications of sanctions for third-party suppliers, and the resilience of those suppliers.

The PSR highlights the guidance issued by the National Cyber Security Centre on actions to take in response to the Ukraine situation, and it warns firms to remain vigilant of any cyber security threat.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a Dear CEO letter to Credit Rating Agencies setting out its expectations on the actions CRAs should undertake to minimize risks to consumers, market integrity and competition.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a Call for Evidence on climate risk stress testing for EU central counterparties. Responses should be submitted by April 21, 2022.

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The European Commission has published a proposed Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. The proposed Directive is designed to encourage the conduct of due diligence by major companies (including regulated financial institutions) on their value chains to identify risks linked to human rights or environmental impacts. This in turn is intended to support the objectives of the European Green Deal and assist in the transition to a climate-neutral and green economy.

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

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

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The Financial Stability Board has published a report on the risks that crypto-assets pose to global financial stability. The FSB observes that the crypto-assets market is growing rapidly and could reach a point where it poses a threat to global financial stability. The market's rapid evolution also raises the risk of regulatory gaps and the opportunity for arbitrage by market players.

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The U.K. Financial Regulators' Complaints Commissioner has published its final report upholding complaints from over 400 complainants concerning: (i) the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's failures of regulation concerning London Capital & Finance; and (ii) the FCA's subsequent refusal to compensate bondholders for its role in their losses.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has secured changes to the contracts of four Buy Now, Pay Later firms – Clearypay, Klarna, Laybuy and Openpay. Certain terms, including contract cancellations, continuous payment authorities and right of set-off terms, will be made fairer and easier to understand. This was done under the FCA's powers as an unfair terms regulator under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to ensure that firms comply with consumer protection legislation. Clearpay, Laybuy and Openpay have also offered voluntarily to refund customers who were inappropriately charged late payment fees (Klarna does not charge late payment fees so no refunds were due). 

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HM Treasury has published a summary of responses to its consultation on the U.K. funds regime. The consultation forms part of the U.K. Government's plans to make the U.K. a more attractive location for asset management.

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The U.K. Payment Systems Regulator has announced a phase-out of the Phase 1 technical environment that enables certain U.K. payment services providers to provide confirmation of payee services. The PSR's Specific Direction 11, which comes into effect on February 11, 2022, requires existing Phase 1 CoP participants to operate within the Phase 2 technical environment from May 1, 2022. The Phase 1 technical environment will then permanently close on May 31, 2022. Phase 1 participants are expected to provide information, including their intended switchover date and a description of their progress towards achieving switchover, to Pay.UK, the body responsible for maintaining Phase 1 standards, on a monthly basis.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its Sustainable Finance Roadmap for 2022-2024. The Roadmap sets out ESMA's priorities for sustainable finance over the next two years, which include: (i) tackling greenwashing and promoting transparency; (ii) building the capacity of national regulators and ESMA to understand and address the supervisory implications of new legislation and market practices; and (iii) monitoring emerging trends in environmental, social and governance markets and related risks and vulnerabilities.

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

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An EU Commission Implementing Decision extending the equivalence of U.K. CCPs to June 2025 has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The equivalence decision applies to U.K. CCPs already established and authorized in the U.K. on December 31, 2020 and will apply from July 1, 2022, which is when the existing equivalence decision expires. Andrew Bailey, in his speech at TheCityUK Annual Dinner in February 2022, questioned why the equivalence decisions are time-limited. Most equivalence decisions for CCPs in other jurisdictions are not time-limited, although the EU is able to revoke a decision if a jurisdiction is deemed not to maintain equivalence with the EU regime.

The Decision follows the announcement yesterday by the Commission on the extension and the launch of a targeted consultation on the review of the central clearing framework in the EU. The consultation is seeking views on ways to improve the competitiveness of EU CCPs and clearing activities while also ensuring the appropriate supervision of their risks. The consultation closes on March 8, 2022.

The European Supervisory Authorities (the European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and the European Banking Authority) have published a joint report on digital finance and related issues, in response to the European Commission's Call for Advice on digital finance, which was published in February 2021. The Call for Advice sought input to advance the EU Digital Finance Strategy, which was launched in September 2020 and set out the EU's plan to review the EU financial services legislative framework in light of developments in digital finance in order to safeguard financial stability and protect consumers. 

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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that a "Brexit Freedoms Bill" will be put before Parliament. Upon Brexit taking effect, all then in force EU Regulations were "on-shored" automatically into U.K. laws, pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, and then subject to (mostly only technical) amendments. The new bill is intended to make it easier to amend or remove retained EU laws, to better suit the U.K.'s circumstances and policies. The EUWA also replicated the then-status quo, that EU laws prevailed over conflicting national laws. The government is now also seeking to remove the supremacy of EU laws. At the same time, the government published a policy paper on the benefits of Brexit.

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

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The European Systemic Risk Board has published a Recommendation on a pan-European systemic cyber incident coordination framework for EU national regulators. The ESRB observes that major cyber incidents may pose a systemic risk to the financial system, as they are capable of disrupting critical financial services and operations. This could in turn lead to contagion or an erosion of confidence in the financial system. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought the threat of cyber incidents to the fore, as the number of cyber incidents reported to the ECB increased by 54% between 2019 and 2020. The Recommendation aims to build on the proposed roles of the European Supervisory Authorities under the EU's proposed Regulation on digital operational resilience for the financial sector. DORA is intended to strengthen digital operational resilience considering the risks arising from the increase in digital opportunities within the financial sector.

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The European Banking Authority has published final draft Implementing Technical Standards on Pillar 3 prudential disclosures of environmental, social and governance risks under the EU Capital Requirements Regulation. The ITS specify the type and format of information to be published in accordance with the new CRR requirements on disclosure of prudential information on ESG risks.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the financial promotion rules. The proposals range from rules relating to the approval by authorized firms of financial promotions of unauthorized firms and the new regime for qualifying crypto-assets and other high-risk investments. Many of this suite of changes address or build upon recommendations of the Gloster Report or are otherwise related to the fall-out from the London Capital & Finance plc scandal. Responses to the consultation may be submitted until March 23, 2022. The FCA intends to publish its final rules in Summer 2022.

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Following its July 2020 consultation, HM Treasury has published a consultation response on its proposals to amend the U.K.'s financial promotion rules. These include changes to subject unregulated crypto-assets to the financial promotions regime. The response summarizes the feedback to the consultation and outlines how relevant crypto-asset promotions will be regulated. The government is proceeding with its proposal to bring qualifying crypto-assets within the scope of the Financial Promotion Order as controlled investments. Qualifying crypto-assets will be fungible (freely replaceable by another of a similar nature or kind) and transferable (which excludes crypto-assets in closed systems). E-money and central bank digital currencies will be excluded from the definition. In a change from the original proposal, the government has decided to remove the reference to distributed ledger technology from the definition of a qualifying crypto-asset. The aim of this change is to future-proof the definition for technological innovation.

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HM Treasury has released a further consultation under the Future Regulatory Framework Review concerning the regulation of central counterparties and central securities depositories. The Future Regulatory Framework Review is designed to assess whether the U.K. financial services regulatory framework is fit for purpose, considering the U.K.'s exit from the EU, climate change and other global and technological challenges. HM Treasury has published a series of consultations on different aspects of the future framework, including the Phase II consultation in October 2020 and the Proposals for Reform paper published in November 2021. Responses to HM Treasury's latest consultation on CCPs and CSDs may be submitted until February 28, 2022.

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A Commission Delegated Regulation, published in the Official Journal of the European Union, amends the EU Short Selling Regulation to make permanent the lower notification threshold for notifying national regulators of net short positions held in the shares of companies traded on EU regulated markets. The threshold for notification will be 0.1% of the issued share capital of the company in question and each 0.1% above that. The lower threshold will apply from January 31, 2022.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a feedback statement relating to the call for input on accessing and using wholesale data. In the feedback statement, the FCA summarizes the responses received and the FCA's findings on whether data are being priced and sold competitively. The FCA confirms that it will undertake the following work to gain a deeper understanding of the potential harm and, where appropriate, take steps to mitigate any harm. In particular, the FCA will focus on the following:
 

1. Trading data: in Spring 2022, the FCA will run an information gathering and analysis exercise that concentrates on the pricing of trading data, underlying costs and the terms for the sale of trading data. The FCA's findings will be published later in 2022.
2. Benchmarks: in Summer 2022, the FCA will launch a market study into how competition operates between benchmarks, which will include the pricing of benchmarks, contractual terms and obstacles to switching between benchmarks.
3. Credit Rating Agencies: by the end of 2022, the FCA will begin a market study on the competition in the sale of credit rating data, including pricing, contractual relationships, difficulties in entry to the credit rating data market and innovation.
4. Alternative data and advanced analytics: the FCA has commissioned research on the nature and scale of alternative data.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its final Market Abuse Guidelines on the disclosure of inside information and interactions with national prudential regulators under the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The final guidelines implement the changes to the existing guidelines as proposed in ESMA's July 2021 consultation, with minor amendments.

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The European Banking Authority has published an Opinion and related report on the detrimental impact of financial institutions' "de-risking" decisions under the EU Fourth Money Laundering Directive. De-risking involves financial institutions refusing to enter into, or terminating, business relationships with counterparties who are associated with higher money laundering or terrorist financing risk, in order to comply with requirements under MLD4. MLD4 mandates that financial institutions should establish policies and procedures to manage the risks to which they are exposed, including ML/TF risks. However, the EBA has found evidence of de-risking of entire categories of customers, without considering individual risk profiles. This can have detrimental effects, including on the EU's objectives on fighting financial crime and the stability of financial systems of EU Member States, as well as reducing financial inclusion.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a call for evidence on the need to amend existing Regulatory Technical Standards under the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation to accommodate the upcoming distributed ledger technology pilot regime, which is expected to be published in spring 2022 and will begin to apply 9 months after its publication (i.e. the beginning of 2023). Responses to the call for evidence should be submitted by March 4, 2022.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published new Guidelines on the appropriateness and execution-only requirements under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. The appropriateness requirements under MiFID II require investment firms providing investment advice to assess a potential client's knowledge and experience in the investment field, to ascertain whether a particular service or product is appropriate for the client. There are exemptions from these requirements under the execution-only framework, subject to certain conditions being met. ESMA's new Guidelines are designed to enhance convergence across the EU on the application of these requirements.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's new rules permitting legacy use of certain synthetic sterling and yen LIBOR settings enter into force today. The FCA has published its final notice confirming that ICE Benchmark Administration will publish synthetic 1-month, 3-month and 6-month sterling and Japanese yen LIBOR rates until the end of 2022. These synthetic rates will not be representative of the market or economic reality previously measured by the benchmark. No substantive changes have been made to the draft version of the FCA's notice, which was published in November 2021. The synthetic rates will be permitted to be used for legacy LIBOR-referencing contracts, other than cleared derivatives, that have not been changed or updated ahead of December 31, 2021. They may not be used by U.K.-supervised entities in new regulated financial contracts, instruments and/or investment fund performance measurement.

The FCA has also published a notice to ICE Benchmark Administration confirming the methodology to be adopted in calculating the synthetic rates.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement in which it confirms that it will amend the Technical Standards and related Handbook provisions to align with the extended exemption from the requirements of the U.K. Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation for investment companies and persons advising on, or selling, units in UCITS from December 31, 2021, to December 31, 2026. The FCA states that it will not take enforcement action against firms that offer UCITS funds to U.K. retail investors and that provide either a key information document under the PRIIPs Regulation or a UCITS key investor information document. Following the government's announcement in June 2021, the Financial Services Act 2021 extended the exemption for UCITS.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement confirming its approach to supervising commodity derivatives position limits. The statement follows the FCA's Supervisory Statement on the operation of the Markets in Financial Instruments regime after the end of the EU withdrawal period published in December 2020 in which the regulator stated that until January 1, 2022, it would not take any supervisory or enforcement action for positions that exceed limits where the position is held by a liquidity provider to fulfill its obligations on a trading venue. In its latest statement, the FCA confirms that it will extend that approach pending the outcome of HM Treasury's Wholesale Market Review and subject to any indications of market abuse arising. The FCA states that firms should make their own assessment of whether the positions they take are positions resulting from their actions as a liquidity provider. Firms do not need to report their assessments to the FCA; however, a firm may need to explain an assessment to the FCA on request.

An EU Commission Delegated Regulation (2021/2268) amending the Regulatory Technical Standards supplementing the EU Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance-based Products Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The amending RTS include provisions to:

• Introduce new methodologies to calculate appropriate performance scenarios and a revised presentation of these scenarios.
• Revise the summary cost indicators and changes to the content and presentation of information on the costs of PRIIPs.
• Modify the methodology to calculate transaction costs.
• Clarify the rules for PRIIPs offering a range of options for investment (known as MOPs), in particular, to identify the products' full cost implications.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a public statement on the supervisory approach to the implementation of the buy-in regime under the EU Central Securities Depositories Regulation. The EU CSDR provides a harmonized regulatory and prudential regime for central securities depositories and increases the robustness and resilience of securities settlement arrangements. The settlement discipline regime is set out in EU Regulatory Technical Standards. The RTS cover measures for preventing settlement fails through automated matching, a hold and release mechanism and partial settlement. CSDR and the RTS also provide measures for monitoring and addressing settlement fails, such as a mechanism for cash penalties and a mandatory buy-in process. The application date of the settlement discipline rules has been postponed several times, most recently, citing the coronavirus pandemic, to delay the application date to February 1, 2022.

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

The FCA has published two policy statements introducing new rules and guidance on climate-related disclosures for standard listed issuers and certain other FCA-regulated firms. The Policy Statements mirror the rule imposed under the FCA's Policy Statement on climate-related disclosures for premium listed issuers.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a statement in which it states that EU national regulators should not, from January 3, 2022, prioritize supervisory action for any failures by firms to comply with the mandatory clearing obligation under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, for interest rate derivatives referencing EONIA, GBP LIBOR, JPY LIBOR or USD LIBOR and the derivatives trading obligation for IRD classes referencing GBP LIBOR or USD LIBOR. On November 18, 2021, ESMA submitted final draft Regulatory Technical Standards to amend the EU clearing and trading derivative obligations in support of the benchmark transition to risk-free rates. However, ESMA is aware of the time that the approval process may take and therefore considers that regulatory forbearance is appropriate.

HM Treasury has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the financial promotion exemptions for high net worth individuals and sophisticated investors. The aim of the proposals is to mitigate the misuse of the exemptions by some firms marketing inappropriate products to ordinary retail customers and to update certain aspects that were introduced about 20 years ago. The Treasury Select Committee's report on the failure of London Capital & Finance recommended that the exemptions be rethought to ensure greater consumer protection. The consultation closes on March 9, 2022.

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The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a feedback statement to the discussion paper published earlier this year in which it proposed introducing a "strong and simple" prudential framework for non-systemic banks and building societies that are not internationally active. The discussion paper concerned the possibility of introducing a graduated framework for U.K. prudential supervision with simple rules applying to the smallest firms. The applicable rules would increase in sophistication as the size and complexity of firms increased. The PRA discussed the possible approaches to identifying firms that would be in scope of the first threshold by looking at, for example, their activities, cross-border business and risk exposures. The introduction of such a framework would represent a major policy change for the U.K.

The feedback statement summarizes the responses to the discussion paper and sets out broad themes emerging. Overall, respondents were supportive of the idea to introduce a strong and simple framework, although concerns were expressed about the number of layers that the framework would involve. The PRA would welcome any comments on the feedback statement. Further consultations on the potential framework will follow in 2022 and/or 2023.

Following its call for evidence earlier this year, HM Treasury has published its report on the review of the U.K. Securitization Regulation. HM Treasury was required to conduct a review of the functioning of the Regulation and report to Parliament on its findings by January 2022. The Securitization Regulation provides the criteria for identifying which securitizations will be designated as "simple, transparent and standardized" (STS) securitizations, a system to monitor the application of those criteria as well as common requirements on risk retention, due diligence and disclosure. Related provisions under the Capital Requirements Regulation set out the regulatory treatment of exposures to securitizations that are deemed to be STS securitizations.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a consultation paper on proposed improvements to the Appointed Representatives regime. The AR regime allows authorized firms to appoint third parties to conduct certain regulated activities on their behalf. The FCA has identified shortcomings in principals' use of the regime, including a lack of proper oversight over ARs and poor controls over the regulated activities for which ARs had accepted responsibility. The collapse of Greensill Capital (UK) Limited in 2021 highlighted some of these issues, as one of Greensill's subsidiaries had acted as an appointed representative for another firm and its business had arguably grown to be far more substantial than was intended under the AR regime.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a Policy Statement and final changes to the Listing Rules following its Primary Market Effectiveness Review consultation. The changes become effective on December 3, 2021 and mark a significant step in the reform of the U.K.'s listing regime. The amendments follow on from the changes to the listing rules made in August 2021 to remove from SPACs the automatic suspension of listing that they previously faced when undertaking their de-SPAC transaction. The amendments follow the Lord Hill Listing Review and Kalifa FinTech Review, both of which urged the U.K. Government implement significant reform to the U.K.'s listing regime, to make it more attractive to issuers (especially tech startups) and investors and to bring it into line with recent changes and the capital markets flexibility that its competitors - in Asia and the U.S. - already offer. We discussed the broad range of the Listing and FinTech Reviews' proposals in our UK Listing Regime Reform briefing.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published feedback and a further consultation on its new proposed Consumer Duty. The FCA's previous consultation was published in May 2021 and set out the FCA's proposed rules for a new duty of care that firms would owe to retail clients when conducting regulated activities. The proposed duty will consist of an overarching Consumer Principle, three cross-cutting rules and four outcomes that firms should aim to achieve when conducting regulated activities. The latest consultation responds to feedback received on the original consultation and seeks input on the FCA's proposed final version of the rules.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a policy statement setting out its new approach to issuing statutory notices, which will take effect from November 26, 2021. The FCA publishes statutory notices when exercising certain enforcement and supervisory powers, such as varying or cancelling a firm’s authorization, refusing an application for authorization or approval of an individual, and imposing requirements on firms.

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The European Commission has published legislative proposals to amend the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation. The proposals are part of the Commission's package of proposals to enhance the availability of information on trading and companies for investors. The main changes are set out in the proposed regulation to amend MiFIR. Some of the proposed changes are similar to those that the U.K. has made or is contemplating making as part of the Wholesale Markets Review.

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The Law Commission has concluded that the existing law of England and Wales can accommodate smart contracts and there is no need for legislative reform. It has published advice to the U.K. Government and a separate summary of its conclusions on the subject. The Law Commission commenced its investigation into the ability of English law to accommodate both smart contracts and digital assets in September 2020. It has published a separate interim update on the digital assets project, which sets out the status and timing of the digital assets project. It anticipates publishing its digital assets consultation paper in mid-2022 as opposed to end-2021, as originally proposed.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a report and discussion paper seeking feedback on its review of the clearing thresholds under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation. Responses should be submitted by January 19, 2022.

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