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

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

View the FATF's statement.

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

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

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

View the SRB's letter to Eurozone banks.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has launched a consultation on the forms, templates and procedures that national regulators should use to publish information on their websites to facilitate cross-border distribution of funds. The Regulation on facilitating cross-border distribution of funds aims to increase transparency on the rules and procedures applicable to cross-border marketing of investment funds and regulatory fees and charges levied by national regulators. It was brought in at the same time amendments were made to the Directive on Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive through an amending Directive. Member states are required to transpose the amending Directive into national laws by, and apply those laws from, August 2, 2021. Certain provisions of the Regulation applied directly across the EU from August 1, 2019, while the remaining provisions will apply from August 2, 2021.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its final technical advice to the European Commission on procedural rules for imposing fines and penalties on third-country CCPs and trade repositories. The technical advice also covers the alignment of the rules with those applicable to EU credit rating agencies, which ESMA directly supervises. The European Commission mandated ESMA to produce the technical advice in response to changes made to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation by EMIR Refit and EMIR 2.2. EMIR Refit updated (amongst other things) the requirements applicable to trade repositories, including with respect to fines and penalties. EMIR 2.2 introduced investigatory and supervisory powers over CCPs for ESMA to ensure compliance with the new requirements, including the ability to request information from CCPs, appoint an independent investigation officer to investigate any possible infringements under EMIR 2.2 and impose fines.

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

View the PRA's statement.

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

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

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

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

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a call for evidence on credit rating information and data, the purpose of which is to understand the activities of those who use credit ratings.
 
In doing so ESMA wants to identify each users' requirements of credit ratings information, including:
 

• the format of the information;
• the frequency with which the information is required; and
• the scope.

 
ESMA also aims to understand why users prefer to rely on paid-for third-party providers, rather than rely on the freely published information provided by the European Rating Platform.

Read more.

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

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

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

View ESMA's statement.

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

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

View the FCA's statement.

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

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

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

View the ECB recommendation here.

View the ECB press release here.

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

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

Read more.

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

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

Read more.

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

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

View the FCA announcement.

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

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

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

Read more.

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

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

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

Read more.

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

Read more.

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

Read more.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions has published a report analyzing the regulatory issues arising from the use of global stablecoins and setting out how the existing IOSCO principles would apply to a global stablecoin, depending on its structure. IOSCO states that global stablecoins, depending on how they are set up, share features with regulated securities and other regulated financial instruments and services. Using a hypothetical global stablecoin case, the report analyzes how the IOSCO Principles and Standards would apply and also considers some of the broader implications. The report also includes an analysis, jointly conducted by IOSCO and the Committee on Payment and Market Infrastructures, of the applicability of the CPMI-IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures. The conclusion is that the PFMI will apply to global stablecoin arrangements involving the performance of systemically important payment system functions or other FMI functions.

View IOSCO's report on global stablecoin initiatives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The U.K. Joint Money Laundering Steering Group has launched a consultation on its proposed new Guidance on how the U.K. Money Laundering Regulations apply to crypto-asset exchange providers and custodian wallet providers. The proposed Guidance will form a new Sector 22 section in Part II of the existing JMLSG Guidance. Comments on the proposed Guidance should be submitted by May 18, 2020.

Read more.

The European Commission has published a draft of the proposed agreement between the U.K. and the EU to govern the future relationship between the two, including provisions on financial services. The list of in-scope services includes all services under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, the EU Capital Requirements legislation, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and other legislation. Other provisions of the draft bring market developments in scope and ensure that U.K. financial institutions can provide, subject to certain conditions being met, new services and products in the EU. Notably, the Commission’s draft text provides a carve-out that allows either side to adopt prudential measures for financial stability reasons or for the protection of investors, depositors, policy-holders or persons to whom a fiduciary duty is owed by a financial service supplier. The draft text also includes a commitment by both the EU and U.K. to implement internationally-agreed standards for financial services regulation and supervision, anti-money laundering and counter terrorism and tax evasion.

View the European Commission's Draft Text of the Agreement on the New Partnership with the United Kingdom.

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

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The EU Working Group on Risk-Free Rates has launched a consultation on a proposed recommendation for voluntary compensation for legacy swaptions impacted by the CCP discounting transition to Euro Short-Term Rate (€STR). A Swaption is a type of interest-rate derivative contract. The CCP discounting switch from EONIA to €STR is planned for June 2020. The Working Group has identified that if the exercise date of swaptions is after the CCP transition date, the valuation of the products may change because of the discounting switch from EONIA to €STR. However, because the contracts are bilateral, the CCP compensation mechanism will not apply. The Working Group is seeking feedback on whether it should issue recommendations on the voluntary exchange of a cash compensation between bilateral counterparties to swaption contracts.

The consultation closes on April 3, 2020.

View the consultation paper.

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

View the SRB's announcement. 

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

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

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

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

View the EBA's statement.

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

The Bank of England has published a Discussion Paper on central bank digital currency opportunities, challenges and design. The BoE is one of several banks exploring introducing a CBDC. The Discussion Paper describes a platform model of CBDC that demonstrates the issues raised by the concept of a CBDC, highlighting both the risks and opportunities. The BoE stresses that the model does not represent any decision by the BoE on the design of a CBDC and is merely intended to aid the overall discussion. Indeed, the BoE emphasizes that no decision has been made on whether to introduce a CBDC and that it would need to ensure that the benefits outweigh any risks. If a CBDC were to be introduced in the U.K. it would be denominated in pounds sterling and would exist alongside cash and commercial bank deposits.

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HM Treasury has published a policy statement on its proposals for the prudential standards in the U.K.'s upcoming Financial Services Bill. The Financial Services Bill will set out a proposed regulatory framework for the financial services industry following the U.K.'s exit from the EU. The U.K. has historically wished and repeatedly sought to impose higher capital requirements on banks and investment firms than the EU has accepted, in part driven by the better capitalization of U.K. banks compared to some EU institutions. The new policy statement establishes four overarching principles which will govern HM Treasury's approach to prudential standards: (i) financial stability and high international standards; (ii) supporting growth, competition and competitiveness; (iii) giving U.K. regulators a central role in designing technical prudential requirements; and (iv) flexibility, allowing the U.K. to maintain its relationship with the EU and take account of U.K.-specific requirements.

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The Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates has published two documents relevant to the transition away from the use of LIBOR. The first is a statement on bond market conventions and the second is a path for discontinuation of new GBP LIBOR lending by the end of Q3 2020.

Read more.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a call for input on accessing and using wholesale data. The FCA has launched the call for input to assess the use and value of data and advanced analytics in wholesale financial markets. The regulator would like to know if there are concerns about access to data and how it is priced and sold because the market may be causing harm to investors. The focus of the call for input is benchmarks, trading data and market data vendor services. However, the FCA welcomes input on whether there are other areas where data access is giving rise to issues. Responses to the call for input may be submitted until January 7, 2021 (extended in response to the impact of COVID-19). The FCA will publish a feedback statement setting out its analysis and next steps.

The European Commission has published a final Taxonomy report of the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. The EU Taxonomy is the EU's classification system of sustainable activities, the legal basis of which is set out in the proposed Taxonomy Regulation (agreed at political level in December 2019). The proposed Taxonomy Regulation sets the environment objectives for the Taxonomy and imposes new obligations for market participants, large companies, the EU and EU Member States. The Taxonomy Regulation will be supplemented by secondary legislation that will set out detailed technical screening criteria to establish when an economic activity can be considered sustainable. The Taxonomy Report provides the TEG's final recommendations to the European Commission on certain content for much of that secondary legislation and replaces the earlier reports of the TEG. 

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The Financial Action Task Force has published Guidance on how digital identification technologies can be used to conduct some aspects of customer due diligence for anti-money laundering purposes. The FATF presents a risk-based approach to the use of digital ID software, relying on a set of open source, consensus-driven assurance frameworks and technical standards for digital ID systems. In addition, the FATF sets out a series of recommendations for relevant authorities, regulated entities (meaning financial institutions, virtual asset service providers and designated non-financial businesses and professions) and digital ID services providers. The Guidance is non-binding, however, it clarifies the FATF's standards.

View the FATF's Guidance on digital ID.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a consultation paper on proposals to enhance climate-related disclosures by listed issuers and to clarify the existing disclosure obligations of issuers in relation to climate, environmental, social and governance matters. The FCA proposals would implement the disclosure recommendations of the Financial Stability Board's Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Responses to the consultation may be submitted until October 1, 2020. 

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The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a letter addressed to the chairpersons of banks, large investment firms and insurance companies on board diversity. The letter is intended to remind firms of the importance of board diversity in achieving effective challenge and improving decision-making and of the need to comply with the PRA's rules. The European Banking Authority published a report on benchmarking of diversity practices in February 2020. The report shows a huge improvement in board diversity in banks and investment firms since 2015. However, the PRA notes that compliance is not comprehensive.

The PRA asks chairs of all firms subject to its diversity requirements to ensure that their firm is in compliance and to take remedial action if not.

View the PRA's letter on board diversity.

The U.K. government has published a document setting out its negotiating proposals for a future relationship with the EU. The U.K. left the EU on January 31, 2020 and is no longer an EU member state. However, during an agreed transitional period (currently scheduled to end on December 31, 2020), EU laws and regulations will continue to apply in the U.K. The EU and U.K. will be negotiating during that period on their future relationship.

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The outgoing Governor of the Bank of England has announced the launch of the COP26 Private Finance Agenda. In January this year, Mark Carney was appointed as Finance Adviser for COP26 to assist the U.K. Government to build a sustainable financial system that supports the transition to a net zero emissions economy. Andrew Bailey will replace Mr. Carney as the Governor of the Bank of England from March 16, 2020. The objective of the COP26 Private Finance Agenda is for every professional financial decision to take climate change into account.

View the Bank of England's press release of the launch.

View Mark Carney's speech to launch the COP26 Private Finance Agenda.

Andrew Hauser, the Executive Directive of Markets at the Bank of England, today announced the launch of two significant initiatives to boost the U.K.’s transition away from sterling LIBOR. Firstly, the BoE intends to begin publishing a compounded Sterling Overnight Index Average index from July 2020, enabling market participants to construct compounded SONIA rates which can be used as a replacement reference rate for term LIBOR-linked instruments. Secondly, from October 2020, the BoE will progressively increase the haircuts applied to LIBOR-linked collateral placed with the BoE as security against central bank loans, with a final haircut of 100% by the end of 2021.

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