The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a feedback statement on the discussion paper, “Building a regulatory framework for effective stewardship” that it published in January 2019 together with the Financial Reporting Council. The discussion paper called for input on how best to encourage the capital markets community to engage more actively in “stewardship” of the assets in which they invest. 

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The Financial Action Task Force has published best practices on beneficial ownership for legal persons. Global standards require authorities to be able to ascertain the ultimate owner of a company or foundation to provide transparency and mitigate against the use of legal persons for financial crime purposes. The FATF's Best Practices document identifies the issues faced in achieving transparency of beneficial ownership and provides recommendations for an effective system that ensures accurate and up-to-date information to authorities in a timely manner. The FATF highlights that using a multi-pronged approach with numerous information sources is considered more effective and the document sets out the key features of an effective multi-pronged system.

View the FATF best practices on beneficial ownership for legal persons.

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities has published a Supervisory Statement on the scope of application to bonds of the EU Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation. The ESAs have issued the Supervisory Statement in an attempt to avoid the adoption of diverse approaches by national regulators across the EU as to when a Key Information Document is required for different types of bonds under the PRIIPs Regulation. The PRIIPs Regulation, directly applicable across the EU since January 1, 2018, imposes a requirement upon issuers of packaged retail and insurance-based investment products to issue KIDs to retail investors describing key features of their products, in order to enhance transparency and improve investor protection in the PRIIPs market.

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The European Banking Authority has published an opinion recommending amendments to the regulatory treatment of the securitization of non-performing exposures. The opinion examines how securitizations may be used to fund the reduction of NPEs and outlines regulatory constraints imposed on the use of securitizations in this way, alongside its proposals for amendments to the regulatory framework.

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The Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates has written to the Prudential Regulation Authority raising issues in the banking prudential regulation regime that, in its view, will require changes and/or regulatory forbearance if a smooth transition from LIBOR to SONIA is to be achieved. Although the letter focuses on the U.K. regime, the issues are likely to be relevant globally.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its annual Public Statement on European enforcement priorities for listed companies’ 2019 financial reports. The priorities will guide the areas of focus when ESMA and relevant national enforcement authorities assess the reports. 

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The European Commission has invited responses to its consultation on proposed changes to the standardized approach for market risk. The changes follow the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s revisions to the Basel III market risk capital framework, which were published in January 2019. 

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The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures has prepared a “toolkit” to assist central banks to reduce the risk of wholesale payments fraud related to endpoint security. The Financial Stability Institute at the Bank for International Settlements has also announced that it will make tutorials on wholesale payments security freely available to central banks on request.

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The EU and U.K. have, in principle, agreed new terms for the withdrawal agreement giving effect to the U.K.'s exit from the European Union. These include a revised political declaration and protocol concerning Northern Ireland replacing the controversial backstop. An amended unilateral declaration on consent in Northern Ireland by the U.K. has also been published. The new Withdrawal Agreement provides for a transitional period from the day the U.K. exits the EU until December 31, 2020. That period may be extended for a period of one to two years, if agreed between the EU and the U.K by July 31, 2020.

View the revised Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration.

View our client note providing comparisons to the previous versions.

The G7 working group on stablecoins has published a report investigating the impact of global stablecoins. The working group is comprised of senior officials from the G7 central banks, the International Monetary Fund, the Bank for International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board, and is chaired by Benoît Cœuré (Chair of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures). 

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The Financial Stability Board has published a report on regulatory issues arising with respect to so-called stablecoins. The FSB defines a stablecoin as "a crypto-asset designed to maintain a stable value relative to another asset (typically a unit of currency or commodity) or a basket of assets" which may be "collateralised by fiat currency or commodities, or supported by algorithms".

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The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has launched a consultation on proposed amendments to its Supervisory Statement, “The PRA’s approach to supervising liquidity and funding risk”. The amendments are intended to clarify the appropriate use of the Bank of England’s liquidity facilities and the credibility of recovery plans that rely on such facilities.  

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published the results of its peer review into the supervisory actions of six national regulators in enhancing the quality of derivatives data under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation. EMIR requires EU counterparties to a derivative contract to report details of their contract to one of the seven registered trade repositories supervised by ESMA. 

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The European Central Bank has published a report on the risk management implications of the upcoming move away from the Euro Overnight Index Average (the overnight reference rate for the euro) and EURIBOR (the term reference rate for the euro) to alternative risk-free rates. Both EONIA and EURIBOR were identified as critical benchmarks for the purposes of the EU Benchmarks Regulation. 

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The European Banking Authority has launched a consultation on its draft Implementing Technical Standards for public disclosures by financial institutions under the Capital Requirements Regulation. CRR implements the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Pillar 3 disclosure requirements, which require relevant financial institutions to disclose information about their risks and risk management procedures and policies. In 2018, the Basel Committee published updated Pillar 3 requirements. The revised CRR was published in June 2019 and, for the most part, will apply directly across the EU from June 28, 2021.  It incorporates the revised Basel Committee disclosure standards into CRR and mandates the EBA to produce the draft ITS to ensure comparability of the disclosures made with international non-EU active banks. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by January 16, 2020. The EBA expects to submit the revised draft ITS to the European Commission in June 2020.

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The European Banking Authority has published an opinion stating its expectation that national regulators should enforce strong customer authentication requirements on e-commerce card-based payment transactions by December 31, 2020. The Opinion also describes the actions that regulators should take in the lead up to this deadline to ensure compliance. The EBA’s Regulatory Technical Standards on strong customer authentication and common and secure communication, published in accordance with the revised Payment Services Directive, came into force on March 14, 2018 and have applied directly in all Member States since September 14, 2019. In response to questions on the SCA requirements, the EBA also published an Opinion in June 2019, setting out market approaches to payment authentication that would be deemed compliant with the new SCA rules. The EBA acknowledged that some market participants may struggle to comply with the SCA requirements and allowed national regulators to grant e-commerce card-based payment transaction providers additional time to migrate to SCA approaches.

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The European Banking Authority has published a consultation on its proposed guidelines on the implementation of the structural FX position contemplated by the Capital Requirements Regulation. The CRR requires institutions to calculate their net open positions in currencies according to specified formulae, but permits institutions to exclude positions that have been taken for hedging purposes and that are of a structural nature. 

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The European Banking Authority has launched a consultation on its draft Implementing Technical Standards for financial institutions’ reporting requirements under the revised Capital Requirements Regulation. The draft ITS will amend the existing reporting regime applicable to banks subject to the CRR, taking into account certain amendments to that regime made by CRR 2 and the “Backstop Regulation”. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by January 16, 2020.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a feedback statement on its proposals for improving climate change disclosures and the information given to consumers about green financial products and services. The feedback statement follows the FCA’s discussion paper on climate change and green finance, in which it sought comments on potential changes to its regulatory approach in these areas.

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The Financial Stability Board has published its annual report on the 2019 progress made in the implementation of the G20’s financial reforms. The FSB published an interim progress report in June 2019 at the meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Japan, which summarized FSB member jurisdictions’ progress to date in implementing the recommended reforms. The annual report provides further detail on the progress made and sets out areas for future work.

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The Financial Stability Board has published a report on the progress its member jurisdictions have made in 2019 on the implementation of agreed G20 reforms to over-the-counter derivatives markets. The report finds that there has been limited additional implementation of the reforms since the FSB’s 2018 report.

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The Council of the European Union has adopted the amendments to EU law on CCP supervision. The adopted laws revising the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR 2.2) will change how both EU CCPs and third-country CCPs are supervised, and implement into legislation the controversial EU "location policy" for the largest third-country CCPs. According to the Council's press release, EMIR 2.2 is scheduled to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union on December 12, 2019 and would come into force 20 days later. The legislative process relevant to EMIR 2.2 has taken place with the U.K. exit from the European Union in the background and many of the changes relevant to third-country CCPs are effectively a response to the U.K.'s decision to leave the EU, given that two of the three largest European Union clearing houses are U.K.-based.

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The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a Policy Statement and final rules to reciprocate the French measure on large exposures, following a recommendation by the European Systemic Risk Board. In July 2018, France's Haut Conseil de stabilité financière (HCSF) imposed a measure under the Capital Requirements Regulation that lowers the large exposure limit, from 25% to 5% of a firm's eligible capital, for French G-SIIs and French O-SIIs for their exposures to French non-financial counterparties that are 'highly indebted'. The PRA will apply the same 5% large exposure limit for exposures to certain French NFCs through amendments to the Large Exposures part of the PRA Rulebook. The measures apply on a consolidated basis to U.K. firms identified by the PRA as Global Systemically Important Institutions and Other Systemically Important Institutions from January 1, 2020.

View the PRA rules.

View the PRA Policy Statement.

The Financial Stability Board has published a report on the progress its member jurisdictions have made in implementing the agreed G20 reforms to over-the-counter derivatives markets in 2018. The report finds that good progress has been made in implementation of the agenda.

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The U.K. Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities Markets Standards Board has published a statement of good practice for the FICC markets on conflicts of interest. The statement of good practice represents the FMSB’s view of best practice but is not subject to the FMSB’s adherence framework, so failure to comply will not indicate a failure to meet regulatory obligations.

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The Financial Stability Board has published a progress update on its ongoing work to tackle market fragmentation. The update follows the FSB’s June 2019 Report on Market Fragmentation, which explored the link between market fragmentation and financial stability and identified four areas for further work to address the issue: deference (e.g. the reliance authorities place on one another when regulating or supervising participants on a cross-border basis); pre-positioning of capital and liquidity; regulatory and supervisory coordination and information-sharing; and market fragmentation as part of the evaluation of reforms, starting with the “too-big-to-fail” evaluation.

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The Financial Stability Board has published a letter to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors describing the progress of post-financial crisis reforms and key focus areas for the future. Over the past ten years, the FSB has proposed a number of reforms to the global financial system, working with international organizations on implementation to improve financial stability.

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The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has announced that it will provide a new waiver by consent of the Continuity of Access Rules under the Depositor Protection Part of the PRA Rulebook. The DPP Rulebook sets out rules requiring firms to ensure that eligible depositors have access to deposits covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the event of the firm’s insolvency, by establishing systems to facilitate a transfer of such deposits (the so-called “Continuity of Access” rules).

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The U.K. Financial Policy Committee has issued a summary of the resilience of the U.K. financial system to potential economic shocks and the vulnerabilities it faces. The summary follows the FPC’s meeting on October 2, 2019, at which the FPC agreed on its intended policy action going forward. The FPC is made up of Bank of England staff, the Chief Executive of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority and certain external members who work to identify, monitor and take action to remove or reduce systemic risks to the U.K. financial system.

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The European Commission has launched a public consultation on aligning the EU rules on capital requirements to certain final outstanding elements of the Basel III international standards. On December 7, 2017, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published the last part of the Basel III reforms. The revisions were to the standardized approach and the Internal Ratings-Based approach for credit risk, the Credit Valuation Adjustment risk framework, the leverage ratio framework, including the introduction of a leverage buffer for Global Systemically Important Banks, the operational risk framework and the new output ratio floor. It was agreed that the revised standards would be implemented from January 1, 2022, except that the output floor would be phased-in until January 1, 2027. The Commission's consultation closes on January 3, 2020.

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The U.K. government has published a response to the Treasury Committee's report on the Financial Conduct Authority's perimeter of regulation. The Committee's Report is part of its ongoing inquiry, The Work of the Financial Conduct Authority, which is considering: (i) the timeliness in which the FCA is able to take action; (ii) the transparency of the FCA's work and decisions; and (iii) the scope of the FCA's regulatory perimeter.

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The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and the International Organization of Securities Commissions have published a joint report on governance arrangements for critical data elements for over-the-counter derivatives. The report does not cover governance arrangements for the Unique Transaction Identifier and Unique Product Identifier, which are being reviewed separately by the Financial Stability Board. The report aims to contribute to international efforts to improve transparency, mitigate systemic risk and prevent market abuse in derivatives markets.

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The Financial Stability Board has published a report on governance arrangements for the Unique Product Identifier, a globally harmonized code identifying over-the-counter derivatives products reported to trade repositories. The UPI will enable authorities to aggregate data on OTC derivatives transactions, which will in turn help them to assess systemic risk and detect market abuse.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a final report and final Guidelines on standardized procedures and messaging protocols for investment firms under the Central Securities Depositaries Regulation.

CSDR requires investment firms to take steps to limit settlement fails, including by ensuring that they have all the necessary transaction data on the day of the transaction. Investment firms must also have in place arrangements with their professional clients to ensure prompt communication of an allocation of securities to the transaction, confirmation of that allocation and confirmation of the acceptance or rejection of the terms in good time before the intended settlement date. The content of the messages and deadlines for sending them is contained in the Regulatory Technical Standards on settlement discipline (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/1229). The Guidelines clarify the scope of these requirements and provide guidance on the standardized procedures and messaging standards to be used for firms to comply with the requirement.

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The European Banking Authority has issued a further Communication on issues associated with the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU, scheduled to take place on October 31, 2019. The EBA notes that financial institutions have made progress on their preparations for a no-deal Brexit. However, national regulators have highlighted concerns about the operationalization of relocation plans and customer communication. In particular, national regulators have noted that in some cases authorization has been obtained, but it remains unclear whether the firm has transferred assets, skilled staff and risk function to fully operationalize the new business. The EBA reminds firms of the principles it set out in its October 2017 Opinion on structures, and particularly the need for firms not to set up so-called "empty shells".

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a final report and final draft Regulatory Technical Standards on supervisory cooperation between EU national regulators and third-country national regulators. The Market Abuse Regulation requires national regulators, where necessary, to enter into cooperation arrangements with supervisory authorities in non-EU countries for the exchange of information and enforcement of market abuse obligations. ESMA is charged with preparing draft RTS containing a template for those cooperation arrangements. ESMA's template provides a flexible approach for national regulators by allowing only parts of the template to be used, depending on what is deemed as necessary by a national regulator.

ESMA's preparation of the draft RTS was delayed so that ESMA could take into account the entry into force of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. The draft RTS requires national regulators to have safeguards in place for the transfer of data from the EU to a third-country where the transfer of data takes place in the usual course of business and practice, and in the absence of an equivalence decision.

The final draft RTS have been submitted to the European Commission for adoption.

View the final report and draft RTS.

The European Central Bank's Banking Supervision arm has published the 2020 supervisory priorities of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and a risk assessment for 2020. ECB Banking Supervision has identified the following risks to the euro banking sector: (i) economic, political and debt sustainability challenges in the euro area; (ii) business model sustainability; (iii) cybercrime; (iv) execution risk related to banks' strategies for non-performing loans; (v) easing lending standards; (vi) repricing in financial markets; (vii) misconduct, money laundering and terrorism financing; (viii) Brexit; (ix) global outlook and geopolitical uncertainties; (x) reaction to regulation; and (xi) climate-change related risk.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued four public statements on its preparations for a no-deal Brexit in the event the U.K. fails to agree a deal with the EU or extend the Brexit deadline before October 31, 2019. In its public statement on preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit, ESMA notes that it had already put in place no-deal contingency plans ahead of the U.K.’s previous Brexit deadline extension on April 10, 2019. 

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The EU Economic and Financial Committee sub-Committee on EU sovereign debt markets (the ESDM) has launched a consultation on its proposals to mandate the introduction of single-limb collective action clauses into euro area government securities issued from January 1, 2022. The ESDM has released a draft of the proposed CAC together with an explanatory note and seeks input on its proposals from selected market participants by October 28, 2019.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published an update to the Supervisory Statement on the operation of the transparency regime under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive post-Brexit. The FCA published a statement on March 14, 2019 on the operation of the MiFID II transparency regime should the U.K. leave the EU without a deal on March 29, 2019. The FCA has updated the statement to reflect how the regime would work if the U.K. leaves the EU on October 31, 2019, without a deal.

View the FCA's update.

View details of the FCA's March 2019 Supervisory Statement.

The European Central Bank has issued a statement on the results of its 2019 supervisory stress test. The European Central Bank is responsible for direct prudential supervision of certain significant banks based in the Eurozone as part of the Single Supervisory Mechanism. It found that the vast majority of banks directly supervised by the ECB have overall comfortable liquidity positions, although there were some vulnerabilities that required further attention. 

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a consultation paper on aligning the trading obligation under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation with the recent changes made to the clearing obligation under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation by the EMIR Refit Regulation. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by November 22, 2019. ESMA intends to submit its final report to the European Commission in early 2020, with the Commission’s report to the European Parliament and Council expected by December 18, 2020.

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The European Supervisory Authorities have published a joint opinion on the current anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing risks posed to the EU financial sector. The opinion is published in accordance with the requirements of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which requires the ESAs to publish a joint opinion on the AML/CTF risks affecting the EU’s financial sector every two years. The most recent previous opinion was published in February 2017.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published an opinion on frequent batch auctions and the double volume cap mechanism. The opinion follows ESMA’s report, published in June this year, reviewing firms’ use of frequent batch auctions and their potential as a means of circumventing the double volume cap and transparency requirements under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation and Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has opened a consultation on its draft technical advice on commercial terms for providing clearing services under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by December 2, 2019.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. MAR requires the European Commission to report on certain aspects of the operation of MAR, including where appropriate, making recommendations for legislative change. The proposals will mostly affect issuers of financial instruments admitted to trading or trading on a trading venue, investment firms and asset management firms. ESMA is holding a public hearing on the proposals on November 5, 2019, and the consultation closes on November 29, 2019. ESMA expects to submit its report to the Commission in Spring 2020.

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The European Banking Authority has published two reports reviewing the impact of the EU’s implementation of the Basel III capital monitoring reforms and Capital Requirements Regulation liquidity measures. The EBA estimates that once the Basel III reforms are fully implemented, EU banks’ Tier 1 minimum required capital will have increased by an average of 19.3%. Liquidity coverage ratios, meanwhile, averaged roughly 149% in December 2018, significantly above the minimum threshold of 100% set out in the CRR.

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The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities has published its 2020 work program, outlining revisions to the Joint Committee’s scope of work and the matters it will focus on in 2020. The Joint Committee consists of representatives from the European Banking Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Commission and the European Systemic Risk Board. 

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published Guidelines on risk factors under the EU Prospectus Regulation that will provide guidance to Member State national regulators when reviewing prospectuses. The Guidelines will apply from December 4, 2019. Within two months of the date of publication of the guidelines in all EU official languages, national regulators must notify ESMA whether they comply with the guidelines and, if they do not, whether they intend to comply. If they do not intend to comply, national regulators must explain why that is the case.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its Annual Work Programme for 2020. The Work Programme sets out ESMA’s focus areas for 2020 and provides details of expected outputs within each of the areas. In 2019, the European Council, Parliament and Commission agreed on new tasks for ESMA, meaning that ESMA will take on an enhanced role in areas including direct supervision, supervisory convergence and investor protection. The final Regulations amending the scope of the European Supervisory Authorities’ work mandates are expected to be published in the second half of 2019.

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