The European Securities and Markets Authority has published draft Implementing Technical Standards amending the existing ITS that establish the standards for the main indices and recognized exchanges that can hold securities eligible as collateral under the revised Capital Requirements Regulation (or “CRR II”).

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its final report on its proposed Regulatory Technical Standards on costs disclosure requirements for European Long-Term Investment Fund Managers.

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The European Systemic Risk Board has published a Recommendation on the exchange and collection of information for macroprudential purposes by national regulators about branches of banks (credit institutions) that have their head office in another Member State or in a third country. 

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The European Commission has published a Regulation amending the EU Benchmarks Regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union. The amending Regulation aims to introduce minimum requirements for EU Climate Transition Benchmarks and EU Paris-aligned Benchmarks to improve the accuracy and integrity of those benchmarks for their users. 

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A new Regulation on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Regulation is intended to encourage the financial services sector to disclose information about their approaches to sustainability risk and consideration of adverse sustainability impacts in the course of their businesses, as part of wider EU efforts to combat climate change and other sustainability-related issues. Climate change and sustainable finance are particular areas of focus for the EU.  

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The European Commission’s Implementing Technical Standards amending the existing Implementing Regulation on closely correlated currencies has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

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The European Banking Authority has published its final report on an update of its guidelines on harmonized definitions and templates for banks (credit institutions) to report their funding plans in accordance with the European Systemic Risk Board’s Recommendation on the funding of banks. The Guidelines apply to national regulators and banks that report their funding plans to national regulators in accordance with the local implementation of the European Systemic Risk Board’s Recommendation.

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

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its annual report on the supervisory measures and penalties imposed by national regulators in respect of certain provisions under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation. The relevant provisions govern: (i) the clearing obligation; (ii) the reporting obligation; (iii) non-financial counterparties; and (iv) the risk mitigation techniques under EMIR.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a consultation on its proposed changes to various aspects of the FCA Handbook.

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The European Banking Authority has published an action plan on sustainable finance, setting out how it intends to deliver on its aims to help combat environmental, social and governance risks and providing clarity on the direction of its policy in this area. The EBA has been mandated to contribute to work on ESG risks under various pieces of EU legislation and will focus on environmental factors and climate change in its initial phase of work. The action plan also sets out the EBA’s projected timelines and milestones on sustainable finance.

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Following its consultation earlier this year, the European Securities and Markets Authority has published a report on the development of prices for market data and on the consolidated tape for equity. The report is the first review report on the implementation of the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation and will assist the Commission in preparing its reports to the European Parliament and Council of the European Union, which are expected in 2020.

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The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority is consulting on proposals for modernizing the regulatory framework on outsourcing and third party risk management by the financial services sector. The proposals are relevant to banks, building societies, PRA-designated investment firms, insurance and reinsurance firms and groups in scope of the Solvency II Directive as well as U.K. branches of overseas banks and insurers. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by April 3, 2020. The PRA aims to publish its final policy on the proposals in the second half of 2020.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has launched a consultation on its proposed guidelines setting out the criteria that Credit Ratings Agencies should have in place to demonstrate that their internal control systems are adequate and effective to maintain the independence of their activities, in line with the EU Credit Ratings Agencies Regulation. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by March 16, 2020. ESMA intends to publish a final report in 2020.

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The Council of the European Union and the European Commission have published a joint statement on stablecoins. The statement reiterates many of the messages of the G7 working group paper on the impact of stablecoins. The EU statement confirms that no global stablecoin arrangement should begin to operate in the EU until the legal, regulatory and supervisory issues can be identified and dealt with appropriately. In the statement, the two EU bodies allude to the lack of information as a key impediment to global stablecoin arrangements being able to operate in the EU, in particular, because without it the authorities are unable to consider the impact on monetary policies or assess how to address other risks presented by this type of cryptoasset.

View the EU statement on stablecoins.

View details of the G7 working group paper on stablecoins.

The Council of the European Union has adopted strategic priorities for reforms to the EU's anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime and has called upon the European Commission to put those priorities into action.

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

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The Bank of England, U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority and U.K. Financial Conduct Authority have published a shared policy summary and consultation papers on strengthening operational resilience in the financial services sector. The consultation impacts banks, building societies, PRA-designated investment firms, firms subject to the Solvency II Directive, recognized investment exchanges, CCPs, central securities depositories, payment system operators, FCA enhanced scope SM&CR firms and entities authorized and registered under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and Electronic Money Regulations 2011. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by April 3, 2020.

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The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has published a letter in which it responds to the Financial Stability Board's November 15, 2019 letter on pre-cessation triggers. The co-Chairs of the FSB's Official Sector Steering Group requested ISDA to include a "pre-cessation trigger" alongside the cessation trigger in its standard language in derivatives contracts, via either definitions for new contracts or in a single protocol (without embedded optionality) for outstanding contracts. The pre-cessation trigger would cause a LIBOR-based contract to fall back to an alternative reference rate in the event that the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, as the regulator of LIBOR, deemed that LIBOR was no longer representative.

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Following its consultation earlier this year, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has published its final decision to vary the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 by removing Part 6 of the Order, which governs automatic enrollment in personal current account alerts.

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The European Banking Authority has published the second part of its two-part technical advice on the impact of the Basel III reforms in the EU. The Basel III reforms aim to reduce excessive variability of risk weighted assets and improve the comparability of banks’ capital ratios, and in 2018, the European Commission requested the EBA to provide technical advice on their implementation in the EU. The first part of the EBA’s advice was delivered in August 2019, relating to Basel III reforms to credit risk, operational risk, output floor and securities financing transactions.

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The European Commission has published a study analyzing the individual and collective loan enforcement laws in the 28 EU member states. The report, authored by Dr Steffek, University of Cambridge, sets out in anonymized format the results of the study on member state loan enforcement laws from the perspective of the bank as lender enforcing a loan contract against a company, a sole trader, a partnership or a consumer as borrower.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority will be appointed as the supervisor of U.K. cryptoasset businesses under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 as a result of amendments that will be made to the Money Laundering Regulations due to come into force on January 10, 2020. The amendments are being made in order to implement the EU’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive, which Member States must introduce as part of their national laws by January 2020.

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

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

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The Financial Stability Board has published its final report on the impact of financial regulatory reforms on the provision of financing to small- and medium-sized enterprises. The report follows the FSB’s consultation in June 2019 on its draft paper examining the way in which the Basel III and certain national and regional regulatory reforms have impacted SME financing. 

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The European Banking Authority has published its final guidelines on the management of information and communication technology and security risks by financial institutions in the EU. The Guidelines set out how financial institutions should comply with relevant provisions on the governance and risk management of ICT and security risks under the Fourth Capital Requirements Directive and the Second Payment Services Directive. 

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published a consultation paper seeking feedback on its final amendments to the credit valuation adjustment risk framework set out under the Basel III standards. The paper provides a detailed description of the amendments and sets out the proposed revised standards. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by February 25, 2020.

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The European Central Bank has published a paper providing an overview of the stablecoins market and looking ahead to its future development. The paper contains no binding rules or guidance and is designed for information purposes only. It outlines how stablecoins have emerged as an alternative to highly volatile cryptoassets, such as Bitcoin, by incorporating "stabilization" mechanisms that back the value of the stablecoins by tying them to underlying assets such as fiat currencies or commodities. Facebook's unveiling of its Libra stablecoin has attracted much attention from regulators, demonstrating the ongoing challenges faced by the cryptoassets. It goes on to describe the different types of stablecoins, the current status of stablecoin initiatives and considers potential use cases for stablecoins, such as transferring money without using financial institutions or cash. The ECB determines that it remains to be seen how the more innovative types of stablecoin will develop given their greater volatility and foresees that improvements in stablecoin governance may need to be made.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a newsletter for primary market participants seeking feedback on draft best practice guidance for government departments, industry regulators and public bodies on the identification, control and disclosure of inside information. Comments on the best practice note should be submitted by January 15, 2020.

The FCA determined that new, up-to-date guidance on inside information was required to reflect recent legal and regulatory developments, including the introduction of the Market Abuse Regulation in July 2016. Certain of these developments are directly applicable to the actions of government departments, industry regulators and public bodies. The guidance is targeted at these entities and feedback on the guidance is therefore sought particularly from them. The note sets out certain relevant aspects of the Market Abuse Regulation and provides suggestions for how these entities can identify inside information that they become privy to, including questioning whether the information has been made public, whether it is precise and whether a reasonable investor might use it as part of the basis of an investment decision. It also provides suggestions on controlling and handling inside information once it has been identified and on the systems and controls that should be adopted around disclosing the information.

View the FCA's guidance.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has today published its guiding principles for the operationalization of a sectoral countercyclical capital buffer (or "SCCyB"). The SCCyB complements the Basel Committee's countercyclical buffer by establishing capital requirements that could be imposed on a particular sector, in addition to the countercyclical buffer that is based on banks' total risk weighted assets. The SCCyB will only apply to jurisdictions that choose to implement it on a voluntary basis and will not form part of the Basel standards.

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A new EU Directive, known as the "EU Whistleblowing Directive", that aims to enhance the enforcement of EU law and policies by providing protection for individuals that report breaches has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Directive will apply to whistleblowers working in the private or public sector, whether they are classed as workers, self-employed, shareholders or working under the supervision and direction of contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, as well as those who acquired information in previous employment or through the recruitment process for a job they are yet to begin.

The Directive will come into force on December 16, 2019. Member States must implement the majority of the provisions into their national laws by December 17, 2021.

View the Directive.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has announced that it will introduce temporary product intervention measures for 12 months from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 to combat risks to consumers of the promotion of speculative mini-bonds. The measures follow the high profile failure of mini-bond issuer London Capital & Finance plc, which has prompted an investigation by the FCA into the circumstances surrounding LC&F's collapse and the FCA's supervision of the firm. HM Treasury is also conducting an ongoing investigation into the wider policy questions raised by LC&F's failure, focusing on a review of the regulatory regime governing non-transferable debt securities and an assessment of Innovative Finance ISA rules.

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The Financial Stability Board has published an updated report on the regulatory framework for haircuts on uncleared securities financing transactions. The technical guidance on the implementation of the FSB's framework has been updated to provide clarification through text amendments and the addition of questions and answers.

View the report.

View details of the FSB's delay to the implementation timetable.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published a joint statement with the Basel Consultative Group on the proportionality of the implementation of the Basel Framework by the banks and jurisdictions to which it applies. The Basel Consultative Group is the Basel Committee's sub-group responsible for enhancing the Basel Committee's engagement with global supervisors, including those from non-member countries. The Basel Framework is the set of bank prudential standards established by the Basel Committee that Basel members have agreed to implement. The joint statement confirms the role of proportionality that is established in the Basel Committee's "Core principles for effective banking supervision".

The statement follows the Basel Committee's survey on proportionality in bank regulation and supervision, in which it found that a majority of Basel Committee and BCG jurisdictions apply proportionality measures in supervision of banks.

View the Basel Committee's statement on proportionality.

View the Basel Committee's Core principles for effective banking supervision.

View the Basel Committee's survey on proportionality in bank regulation and supervision.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a Policy Statement incorporating its response to the feedback it received on its proposals for the implementation of the Proxy Advisors (Shareholders' Rights) Regulations 2019, together with the final rules. The final rules make amendments to the FCA's Decision Procedure and Penalties Manual and Enforcement Guide, reflecting the new Regulations that came into force on June 10, 2019.

The Regulations implemented new obligations imposed upon proxy advisors by the revised EU Shareholder Rights Directive into the U.K. statutory regime. The FCA has the power to discipline and investigate proxy advisors under the Proxy Advisors Regulations and changes were therefore required to the FCA's rules to take account of these powers. The following new provisions have been included in the Decision Procedures and Penalties Manual:

• the FCA will publish a statement about a proxy advisor who has breached a relevant requirement; it will impose a public censure in contested cases and allow decision makers to use executive powers to decide on settled cases;
• the FCA will decide when to impose a financial penalty on a proxy advisor; and
• the FCA will decide when to impose a restitution requirement.

The FCA has also included a new section in its Enforcement Guide explaining how it will use its powers under the Regulations. The intended approach will broadly mirror that taken by the FCA in conducting investigations, sanctioning and using its regulatory powers under FSMA.

View the FCA's Feedback and final rules.

The European Banking Authority has published a consultation paper on its draft Implementing Technical Standards for supervisory reporting and public disclosure of minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (or “MREL”) and total loss-absorbing capacity (or “TLAC”). Responses to the consultation should be submitted by February 22, 2020. The EBA expects to submit the final draft ITS to the European Commission in June 2020.

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The Eurozone Single Resolution Board has published a series of three opinions setting out its own internal rules for the circumstances in which it may restrict the rights of data subjects under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, data protection legislation that is commonly understood as the public sector equivalent of the General Data Protection Regulation. The Regulation governs the use of personal data by EU institutions and agencies. 

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The Financial Stability Board has published the 2019 list of global systemically important banks. Alongside the 2019 G-SIB list, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published further information relating to its 2019 assessment of G-SIBs, including:
 

• The denominators of each of the 12 high-level indicators used to calculate the banks’ scores under the G-SIB methodology;
• The 12 high-level indicators used to calculate these denominators; and
• The cutoff score used to identify the G-SIBs in the updated list and the thresholds used to allocate G-SIBs to buckets for the purpose of calculating the specific higher loss absorbency requirements.

The Basel Committee assessment was based on its 2013 methodology for identifying G-SIBs. A revised assessment methodology was published by the Basel Committee in July 2018, which is expected to be implemented by member jurisdictions by 2021.

View the 2019 G-SIB list.

View the Basel Committee's statement on its G-SIB assessment methodology.

View details of the Basel Committee's revised assessment framework for G-SIBs.

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The European Banking Authority has launched a consultation on its proposed draft Implementing Technical Standards on specific supervisory reporting requirements for market risk. “Market risk” relates to the risk of losses that banks face to their on- and off-balance sheet positions from adverse movements in market prices. The EBA was mandated to produce the ITS under the Capital Requirements Regulation II, published in June 2019, which made extensive changes to the EU’s capital requirements regime, including through the implementation of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s international standards on market risk. 

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The European Banking Authority has published a roadmap for the risk reduction package that involved changes to the EU Capital Requirements Regulation, the Capital Requirements Directive and the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive. The EBA is mandated within the changed legislation to prepare technical standards, guidelines and reports on governance and remuneration, large exposures, resolution, reporting and disclosure. The EBA's roadmaps set out the timelines for delivery of all of the mandates, including where deadlines have been adjusted by the EBA.

View the EBA's roadmaps for the risk reduction package.

View details of CRD5 and CRR2.

View details of BRRD 2.

The New Technologies formation of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Liability and New Technologies has published a report on liability regimes for artificial intelligence. The report discusses existing laws concerning liability for emerging digital technologies and describes how those laws could be improved to cater for the new risks and challenges associated with new technologies. The New Technologies formation is a panel that was established by the European Commission in March 2018 and was asked to examine existing EU liability regimes and make recommendations for amendments to take account of emerging digital technologies where necessary.

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published a report on “open banking” and the use of application programming interfaces. The term “open banking” refers to the sharing and leveraging of customer-permissioned data by banks with third-party developers and firms to build applications and services, including for example those that provide real-time payments, greater financial transparency options for account holders, marketing and cross-selling opportunities. Application programming interfaces are software intermediaries that enable information to be exchanged between applications. 

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement on conduct risk during the LIBOR transition, which is due to be completed by the end of 2021. The statement is in the form of questions and answers and sets out the FCA's expectations of firms relating to governance and accountability, replacing LIBOR with alternative rates in existing contracts, offering new products with alternative rates, communicating with customers about the transition from LIBOR and best practice for firms investing on behalf of clients.

View the FCA's statement.

The UK Jurisdiction Taskforce has published a legal statement on cryptoassets and smart contracts under English private law. UKJT is part of the LawTech Delivery Panel, an industry-led group established in 2018, with the aim of identifying barriers and opportunities for growth. The legal statement provides the UKJT's view of the principles applicable under English and Welsh private law for determining when a cryptoasset will be considered property and when an enforceable contract is concluded through a smart contract. The intention of the statement is to help improve confidence among market participants and investors due to the perception of legal uncertainty on the legal status of cryptoassets and smart contracts.

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The Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, has given a keynote speech at the Guildhall in London covering, amongst other things, the EU’s proposals for the development of the European sustainable finance framework and a proposed extension to the temporary equivalence regime for U.K. central counterparties.

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The co-Chairs of the Financial Stability Board’s Official Sector Steering Group, whose work focuses on interest rate benchmarks that are deemed to play a critical role in the global financial system, have written to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association requesting that it includes a “pre-cessation trigger” alongside the cessation trigger in its standard language in derivatives contracts, via either definitions for new contracts or in a single protocol (without embedded optionality) for outstanding contracts. The pre-cessation trigger would cause a LIBOR-based contract to fall back to an alternative reference rate in the event that the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, as the regulator of LIBOR, deemed that LIBOR was no longer representative. 

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has opened two consultations on revisions to the Basel III Pillar 3 disclosure requirements, one related to market risk disclosures and one on sovereign exposures disclosures. Responses to both consultations should be submitted by February 14, 2020. No indication is given as to when the sovereign exposure disclosure requirements might be introduced. The Basel Committee intends to publish the revisions of the market risk disclosure requirements in time for implementation of the revisions by member jurisdictions by no later than January 1, 2022.

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The Financial Stability Board has published its 2019 Resolution Report, providing updates on its implementation of policy measures to enhance the resolvability of systemically important financial institutions.  

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The European Banking Authority has published draft amended Regulatory and Implementing Technical Standards regarding the exercise of credit institutions’ rights to freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services (i.e. passporting rights) under the Capital Requirements Directive. The EBA reviewed the original Technical Standards in 2018 and found several areas for improvement that would enhance the quality and consistency of passport notifications and the ability of EU national regulators to use them. It has produced the draft amended standards with a view to updating the information requirements that must be notified by a credit institution to its home national regulator. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by February 13, 2020.

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