The U.K. Supreme Court has announced that it has refused the permission to appeal application of the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. The application had been made to stop the reference by the Inner House of the Court of Session in Scotland to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on whether the U.K. can unilaterally revoke its notice of withdrawal from the EU. The court's referral to the CJEU was discussed in our previous post. The Court of Session opined on September 21, 2018 that a reference should be made to the CJEU - Wightman v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2018] CSIH 62.

The U.K. Department for Exiting the EU has also published a statement on the reference to the CJEU confirming that it has submitted written observations to the CJEU. The Government's position is that the reference to the CJEU is inadmissible on the basis that the CJEU does not answer hypothetical questions or provide advisory opinions.

An oral hearing before the CJEU is scheduled for November 27, 2018.

View the Supreme Court's announcement.

View the DxEU statement.

View details of the Court of Session Opinion.

A final joint report on the incentives to clear OTC derivatives has been published by the Financial Stability Board, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures. The report is part of the FSB's post-implementation evaluation of the effects of the G20 financial regulatory reforms.

The report sets out the results of an evaluation of the reforms that have been implemented to incentivize central clearing of OTC derivatives and outlines areas for further consideration by the global standard setting bodies. The reforms considered include mandatory clearing requirements, capital, liquidity and margin requirements, as well as the reforms to CCP resilience, recovery and resolution.

Read more.

The Bank of England has published the "Dear CFO" letter sent by its Resolution Directorate to the Chief Financial Officers of relevant entities in financial groups within the remit of the BoE's principles-based "Statement of Policy on Valuation Capabilities to Support Resolvability." The SoP was published in June 2018 and sets out the BoE's expectations on the minimum standard of valuation capabilities that firms should have in place to ensure that their valuations are sufficiently timely and robust to support the effective resolution of the firm. Firms within the remit of the SoP will need to ensure that suitable capabilities are in place by January 1, 2021.

Read more.

The Credit Transfers and Direct Debits in Euro (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 were made on November 19, 2018 and will enter into force on the day the U.K. exits the EU. The Regulations are relevant for all Payment Service Providers – banks, payment institutions, e-money institutions and registered Account Information Service Providers.

Read more.

HM Treasury has published a draft version of the Long-term Investment Funds (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018. The draft Regulations correct deficiencies in the directly applicable European Long-term Investment Funds Regulation to be retained on Brexit, which governs funds that invest into infrastructure and other long-term projects. The draft Regulations will primarily affect fund managers operating ELTIFs registered in the UK.

Read more. 

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has announced that it opened an investigation into suspected anti-competitive practices in the financial services sector on November 13, 2018. The investigation is at a very early phase, and the CMA does not consider that at this stage a statement of objections can be issued to any of the parties under investigation. Between now and August 2019 the CMA will be gathering information on the suspected infringement of the Competition Act 1998.

View the announcement.

The Financial Stability Board has published the 2018 list of global systemically important banks. Alongside the 2018 G-SIB list, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published further information relating to its 2018 assessment of G-SIBs, including:

• a list of all the banks in the assessment sample;
• the denominators of each of the 12 high-level indicators used to calculate the banks' scores;
• the 12 high-level indicators for each bank in the sample used to calculate these denominators;
• the cut-off score used to identify 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; and
• links to disclosures of all banks in the assessment sample.

The Basel Committee assessment was based on its 2013 methodology for identifying G-SIBs. The revised 2018 assessment methodology will apply from 2021, based on end-2020 data and the corresponding higher loss absorbency requirements will apply from January 1, 2023.

View the 2018 G-SIB list.

View details of the revised assessment framework for G-SIBs.

HM Treasury has published a draft version of the Interchange Fee (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, along with explanatory information. The draft Regulations will primarily affect payment system operators, payment service providers (including banks and building societies) and the businesses and individuals who rely on card payment systems. The Payment Systems Regulator will consult separately on consequential changes to its guidance on the IFR once the draft Regulations are made. The PSR will also be responsible for correcting deficiencies in the Binding Technical Standards made under the IFR.

The draft Regulations amend the EU Interchange Fee Regulation that will be retained on Brexit and the Payment Card Interchange Fee Regulations 2015. The changes are designed to ensure that current laws on interchange fees continues to operate effectively in the U.K. once the U.K. has left the EU.

Read more.

The European Banking Authority has published final draft Regulatory Technical Standards on the specification of the nature, severity and duration of an economic downturn in accordance with the Capital Requirements Regulation. The aim of the RTS is to ensure that institutions using the Internal Ratings-Based approach to calculating capital requirements can use a well-defined and common specification of the nature, duration and severity of an economic downturn for portfolios relating to comparable types of exposure.

The nature of the economic downturn is defined as a set of relevant economic factors and its severity is specified via the most severe values observed on the relevant economic factors over a given historical period. The duration of an economic downturn is specified using the concept of a "downturn period," namely the period of time where the peaks or troughs, which relate to the most severe values of one or several economic factors, are observed.

Read more.

The Financial Stability Board has published a progress report addressed to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on the FSB's four-point action plan to assess and address the decline in correspondent banking relationships. The progress report is accompanied by an update to the Correspondent Banking Data Report published by the FSB March 2018. The updated data report includes additional data from July - December 2017 derived from information provided by SWIFT to the FSB, through the intermediation of the National Bank of Belgium. The data report shows a further decline in active correspondent banking relationships in 2017.

Read more.

A Regulation amending the founding Regulation of the European Banking Authority has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Amending Regulation amends the EBA Regulation to change the seat of the EBA from London to Paris.

The Amending Regulation enters into force on November 16, 2018 and will take effect on March 30, 2019.

View the Amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1717.

The European Central Bank has published the final first chapter of its guide to internal models. The Capital Requirements Regulation requires the ECB to assess and grant permission for banks directly supervised by the ECB to use internal models for credit risk, counterparty credit risk and market risk. The ECB's guide sets out how the ECB intends to approach the assessment of whether a firm meets the necessary requirements for the permission to be granted. This chapter is on general topics, comprising overarching principles for internal models, implementation of the internal ratings-based approach, internal model governance, internal validation and audit, model use, change management and third-party involvement. The ECB recently consulted on model-specific chapters, including for credit, market and counterparty credit risks.

The ECB notes that the guide may need to be amended if the European Commission adopts a different version of the European Banking Authority's final Draft Regulatory Technical Standards on assessment methodology for the IRB approach.

View the guide.

View the feedback statement.

The Bank of England, the Bank of Canada and the Monetary Authority of Singapore have published a joint report entitled, "Cross-Border Interbank Payments and Settlements." Referring to current industry projects to address existing problems in cross-border payments affecting end-users, commercial banks and central banks, the report analyzes these issues and discusses proposed new models for processing cross-border transactions. The report sets out three models for cross-border payments and settlements and discusses the key considerations and dependencies of each model. Each model is then assessed against the existing identified challenges in cross-border payments.

Model 1 is based on existing plans to enhance the current systems within and across jurisdictions, which is considered to be the baseline for discussions. Model 2 is based on an expanded role for domestic real-time gross settlement infrastructure, which would be "super-correspondents" in settling cross-border payments and would replace existing correspondent banks. Model 3 has three variations, all of which are based on cross-border payments between banks being settled with wholesale central bank digital currencies (W-CBDCs). The three variations are: (i) W-CBDCs that can be held and exchanged only in their home jurisdiction; (ii) W-CBDCs held and exchanged within and beyond their home jurisdictions; and (iii) a single universal W-CBDC backed by a basket of currencies issued by participating central banks.

Read more.

The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a Policy Statement setting out its approach to supervision under the new EU securitization framework that will take effect from January 1, 2019. The PRA consulted on its proposals in May 2018. The incoming EU framework consists of: (i) the Securitization Regulation, which imposes general requirements for all EU securitization activity and outlines the criteria and process for designating certain securitizations as "Simple, Transparent and Standardised"; and (ii) revisions to the banking securitization capital framework within the Capital Requirements Regulation. Respondents to the PRA's consultation on its approach were largely supportive. The PRA has made some changes (outlined in the Policy Statement) to its consultation text in line with comments received.

Read more.

The Bank of England has published a letter sent by its Financial Market Infrastructure Directive to compliance officers of U.K. firms that may be affected by forthcoming obligations under the EU Central Securities Depositories Regulation to report internalized settlements from July 2019.

The BoE considers that the firms likely to be subject to the CSDR's obligations are those with the regulatory permissions for safeguarding and administration of assets or arranging the same. Within this subset of regulated firms, an institution will be considered a settlement internalizer if it settles transfer orders on behalf of clients on its own account rather than through a Central Securities Depository. Settlement internalizers must submit reports to the BoE.

Read more.

The Financial Stability Board has published its 2018 resolution report, entitled "Keeping the pressure up," setting out: (i) the progress in implementing the FSB's resolution policies for CCPs and in the banking and insurance sectors; (ii) the next steps in monitoring and evaluating the effects of resolution reforms; and (iii) the actions and timelines for 2019 and beyond. The FSB highlights that, although substantial progress has been made, firms need to continue work to improve their resolvability, and authorities and lawmakers need to complete the reforms and implement them fully.

The FSB report describes the priority areas for global systemically important banks, including the implementation of technical and operational capabilities to ensure that a resolution plan can be timely and effectively executed, if needed. Another key area is implementation of the total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) requirements, in particular, internal TLAC. In June 2018, the FSB launched a call for feedback on the technical implementation of TLAC for G-SIBS to assess whether implementation aligns with the timelines and objectives set out in the TLAC Standard. The FSB will report on the outcomes of that review during 2019. Work will also be required to ensure (i) cross-border recognition of temporary stays on early termination rights in financial contracts; and (ii) continuity of access to financial market infrastructures and FMI intermediaries.

Read more.

The Financial Stability Board has published a discussion paper on financial resources to support CCP resolution and the treatment of CCP equity in resolution. The FSB considers that further evidenced-based guidance is needed on this topic and the discussion paper is the first step in developing such guidance by the end of 2020. The FSB intends to use the practical experience of resolution planning that resolution authorities and Crisis Management Groups have gained to develop the guidance. The discussion paper outlines: (i) relevant considerations for evaluating whether a CCP's existing financial resources and tools are satisfactory for implementing the individual CCPs' resolution strategy, including a proposed five-step process and CCP-specific factors that warrant assessment; and (ii) factors that could steer authorities in their approaches to the treatment of CCP equity in resolution, including consideration of whether different ownership structures are relevant.

Responses to the discussion paper should be submitted by February 1, 2019. The FSB notes that responses to the discussion paper will be used to develop proposed guidance which will be consulted on at the appropriate time.

View the discussion paper.

The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a Policy Statement on applying the U.K. leverage ratio to systemic Ring-fenced Bodies and reflecting the Systemic Risk Buffer. The SRB is one of the elements of the overall capital framework for U.K. banks and building societies. It will be applied by the PRA to individual institutions and introduced at the same time that ring-fencing comes into force in 2019. RFBs are banks that hold more than £25 billion in core deposits. They must separate their core retail banking business from their investment banking business by January 1, 2019.

Read more.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published the outcome of its review of firms' whistleblowing arrangements. The FCA has reviewed how retail and wholesale banks have implemented its whistleblowing rules by looking at firms' policies and procedures, the role of the whistleblowers' champion, firms' whistleblowing annual reports and the relevant training arrangements.

Both the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority published their whistleblowing rules in 2015 and the FCA extended certain of the requirements to U.K. branches of overseas banks in early 2017.

The FCA has published its findings, including areas of good practices, areas for improvement and the FCA's expectations of firms' whistleblowing arrangements. The FCA urges firms to consider its findings and whether they need to take action to improve their whistleblowing arrangements.

View the FCA's review webpage.

The European Commission and the U.K. government published a draft Withdrawal Agreement and an Outline Political Declaration on the framework for the future relationship between the EU and the U.K. The draft Withdrawal Agreement has been agreed between the negotiators and must still be ratified by the U.K. and EU27 leaders. The full Political Declaration on the future relationship is expected by the end of November 2018, provided the draft Withdrawal Agreement is ratified.

The draft Withdrawal Agreement outlines how the U.K. will leave the EU and provides for the previously agreed transition period that would run from March 30, 2019 until December 31, 2020. It also provides for the agreements concerning the future relationship to be negotiated expeditiously with the objective of ensuring that the agreements apply from the end of the transition period. This timeframe is reiterated in the Outline Political Declaration. The negotiators have committed to report regularly on progress made on concluding the agreements governing the future relationship between the EU and the U.K.

The Outline Political Declaration briefly sets out the principles agreed by the negotiators for the future relationship. The Outline confirms that the basis of the future relationship in financial services will be decision-making autonomy and equivalence. The EU and the U.K. are to strive to conclude equivalence assessments before the end of June 2020. The documentation is silent on whether there will be any changes to the processes around equivalency or any expansion to the categories of equivalences under U.K. or EU laws.

Read more. 

The Financial Stability Board has published a progress report on ongoing reforms to major interest rate benchmarks. The FSB has been co-ordinating international reform work, through its Official Sector Steering Group, since 2014, when it made several recommendations aimed at addressing cases of attempted manipulation in relation to key IBORs and the decline in liquidity in certain interbank unsecured funding markets. The OSSG launched a third major initiative in 2016, to improve contract robustness to address risks of discontinuation of widely-used interest rate benchmarks. That initiative is being led by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, which launched a consultation on fallback rates in July 2018.

The progress report provides an update since the FSB's progress report in October 2017 and covers:
 

1. Developments in Interbank Offered Rates, including discussion of the future of LIBOR.
2. Identification of and transition to risk-free rates, where appropriate, for transactions denominated in USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, AUD, BRL, CAD, HKD, MXN, SGD and ZAR.
3. The development of fallback rates to enhance contractual robustness.

The FSB proposes to publish a further progress report in late 2019.

View the progress report.

View details of the October 2017 progress report.

View details of ISDA's July 2018 consultation on fallback rates.

View FSB statement welcoming ISDA's July 2018 consultation.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions has launched a consultation on a proposed framework to help assess leverage used by investment funds. The consultation follows a recommendation to IOSCO from the Financial Stability Board in its January 2017 report, "Policy Recommendations to Address Structural Vulnerabilities from Asset Management Activities." The FSB recommended, among other things, that IOSCO should identify and/or develop consistent measures of leverage in funds to facilitate more meaningful monitoring of leverage for financial stability purposes and help enable direct comparisons across funds and at a global level.

Read more.

The European Commission has published a Communication establishing certain contingency action plans in preparation for a "no deal" Brexit. The Communication sets out certain actions that the EU is or is proposing to take in the event of a "hard" Brexit. In relation to financial services, the Commission states that it will adopt temporary and conditional equivalence decisions to avoid disruption to derivatives clearing and depositaries services. The decisions would "complement" recognition of U.K. financial market infrastructures. The Commission has also urged these entities to apply in advance for recognition from the European Securities and Markets Authority.

The Commission reiterates that uncleared OTC derivatives contracts should remain valid and executable until maturity although, where one counterparty is based in the U.K., certain life-cycle events may trigger the need for an authorization or exemption.

In the Communication, the European Commission further notes that the risks presented to financial services by a "no deal" Brexit have decreased significantly over time because of the action taken by firms to establish new entities or relocate entities and to transfer contracts. In particular, the Commission observes that insurance firms have taken steps to ensure that they can continue to provide services to their clients, including transferring contracts, setting up branches or subsidiaries and merging with firms established in the EU27.

The Commission also encourages the European Supervisory Authorities to begin preparing cooperation arrangements with the U.K. financial regulators to provide for the exchange of information and supervisory cooperation.

View the Communication.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has launched a consultation on proposed Guidelines for Money Market Fund Managers, to assist them in complying with their obligations, under the Money Market Funds Regulation, to report information to the relevant national regulator of each MMF they manage. The reporting obligation applies on at least a quarterly basis (or annually for MMFs with total assets under management not exceeding Euro 100 million). The European Commission adopted Implementing Technical Standards in April 2018, which specify the content of a reporting template that will be developed for the information. The ITS have applied since July 21, 2018 and MMF managers must begin submitting reports under the MMF Regulation in the first quarter of 2020.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published an updated version of its supervisory briefing on suitability. The original suitability briefing was published in December 2012 to provide guidance to EU national regulators on the suitability requirements under the original Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. The updated suitability briefing reflects the amended requirements introduced by the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and takes into account the new version of ESMA's Suitability Guidelines that was published in May 2018.

While the updated briefing is primarily aimed at national regulators, it should also assist market participants by providing indications of compliant implementation of the MiFID II suitability provisions.

Read more.

HM Treasury has published a draft of the Money Laundering and Transfer of Funds (Information) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, along with explanatory information. The draft Regulations will primarily be relevant for payment service providers, anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing supervisory authorities and firms that are regulated through the U.K.'s AML/CTF regime. The draft Regulations introduce no material policy changes. Their purpose is to correct deficiencies in U.K. law and retained EU law to ensure that the U.K. AML/CTF regime continues to function effectively after the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU.

The draft Regulations amend the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (the MLRs), which transposed into U.K. law the provisions of the EU Fourth Money Laundering Directive (4MLD). The draft Regulations also amend the Oversight of Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Supervision Regulations 2017 and the revised EU Funds Transfer Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2015/847). This EU Regulation gives legal effect to Financial Action Task Force Recommendation 16, on the information accompanying electronic transfers of funds. Additionally, the draft Regulations revoke Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/1108, which sets out Regulatory Technical Standards for central contact points under 4MLD.

Read more.

On November 12, 2018, ESMA published a series of documents delivering on some of its outstanding mandates to provide draft technical standards and technical advice to supplement the Securitization Regulation. The Securitization Regulation will apply directly across the EU from January 1, 2019. ESMA has been mandated to provide draft regulatory and implementing technical standards and technical advice to supplement a number of the Regulation’s provisions. ESMA has also published a statement on its near-term implementation of the Securitization Regulation, to assist market participants in understanding ESMA’s role and its progress on its deliverables.

View ESMA's Final Report on securitization.

View ESMA's Final Report on technical advice.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a series of documents delivering on some of its outstanding mandates to provide draft technical standards and technical advice to supplement the Securitization Regulation (also known as the STS Regulation). The Securitization Regulation will apply directly across the EU from January 1, 2019. ESMA has been mandated to provide draft regulatory and implementing technical standards and technical advice to supplement a number of the Regulation's provisions. ESMA has also published a statement on its near-term implementation of the Securitization Regulation, to assist market participants in understanding ESMA's role and its progress on its deliverables.

Read more.

The EU Single Resolution Board has published its 2019 Work Programme, setting out its priorities and principal tasks for the next year. The SRB is the resolution authority for all banking groups and entities as well as cross-border groups that are subject to direct prudential supervision by the European Central Bank (i.e., for banks within the Eurozone Banking Union).

The SRB's work in 2019 will include, among other things, the following:

• increasing the scope of banks with developed resolution plans and enhancing existing resolution plans to reflect the development of new or updated SRB policies;
• the adoption of more than 100 group-level decisions on minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) and the determination of over 530 MREL targets for individual entities;
• enhancing the analysis of potential impediments to resolvability of banks;
• the development of better ICT solutions for crisis management, including establishing a dedicated team to assist individual Crisis Management Teams in implementing the improvements; and
• the adoption of several new and updated SRB policies covering, for example, MREL decisions, resolvability assessments and operational continuity.

The SRB expects a significant increase of the number of resolution plans for less significant institutions, the development of which falls within the remit of the Eurozone national regulators.

View the SRB's 2019 Work Programme.

The Financial Stability Board has published the final Cyber Lexicon of terms related to cyber security and cyber resilience. The Lexicon is intended to assist the FSB, other international standard setting bodies (such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and the International Organization of Securities Commissions), authorities and the private sector to address threats to cyber security and adopt cyber resilience measures. The FSB has also published an overview of responses to the public consultation, summarizing the main issues that emerged during the FSB's consultation on a draft lexicon and the changes adopted to address them.

Read more.

The European Central Bank has published two finalized Guides, one on the internal capital adequacy assessment process (ICAAP) and the other on the internal liquidity adequacy assessment process (ILAAP). The ECB consulted on draft versions of the Guides between March and May 2018. The Guides, which are relevant to institutions within the Single Supervisory Mechanism, are designed to assist institutions in strengthening their ICAAPs and ILAAPs and encourage the use of best practices by explaining in greater detail the ECB's expectations.

The ICAAP and ILAAP Guides each set out seven principles that have been derived from the relevant provisions of the Capital Requirements Directive and that will be considered, among other things, by the ECB in the assessment of each institution's ICAAP or ILAAP as part of the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process. Frequently Asked Questions have also been published alongside the Guides, along with consultation responses received and a feedback statement.

The ECB intends to use the guides to assess significant institutions' ICAAPs and ILAAPs from January 1, 2019.

View the ICAAP Guide.

View the ILAAP Guide.

View the FAQs.

View the consultation responses.

View the feedback statement.

The European Money Markets Institute has published a second consultation paper (dated October 17, 2018) on its proposals to introduce a hybrid determination methodology for the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor). EMMI is the administrator for Euribor, a major euro interest reference rate for unsecured interbank short-term lending and borrowing. Euribor was classed as a critical benchmark of systemic importance for financial stability by the European Commission in 2016.

The consultation paper sets out a summary of EMMI's findings during the testing phase for the newly proposed hybrid methodology, which took place between May and July 2018, and provides details on EMMI's proposals for the different methodological parameters that were yet to be specified when EMMI's first consultation was issued in March 2018. The consultation paper seeks feedback from market participants on a number of questions on aspects of the proposed methodology.

Read more.

The EU Countering Money Laundering by Criminal Law Directive has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Directive will complement the Fifth Money Laundering Directive, which was adopted in May 2018.

The U.K., Ireland and Denmark have not adopted the new Directive. In the U.K., this mirrors the approach taken by the U.K. in relation to EU criminal sanctions for market manipulation where it has implemented its own national regime.

The new Directive will enter into force on December 3, 2018. EU member states that have adopted the Directive must transpose the new provisions into national law by December 3, 2020.

Read more.

A Commission Implementing Regulation supplementing the Capital Requirements Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Implementing Regulation amends the existing Implementing Regulation ((EU) No 680/2014) to reflect the gradual supplementation and amendment of elements of the CRR reporting requirements by the adoption of further Regulatory Technical Standards. The Amending Regulation was adopted by the European Commission on October 9, 2018. It amends the existing Implementing Regulation to set out:

• additional requirements relating to prudent valuation adjustments of fair-valued positions;
• additional requirements to accommodate the reporting on securitization positions subject to the revised securitization framework; and
• minor changes to the reporting requirements on the geographical distribution of exposures.

The Amending Regulation will enter into force on November 29, 2018 and will apply directly across the EU from December 1, 2018.

View Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1627.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a public statement urging customers of credit rating agencies and trade repositories to prepare for a "no deal" Brexit. The European Market Infrastructure Regulation requires derivatives subject to the reporting obligation to be reported to either a registered trade repository established in the EU or a recognized third-country trade repository. The CRA Regulation provides that banks, investment firms, insurers, reinsurers, management companies, investment companies, alternative investment fund managers and CCPs may only use credit ratings for certain regulatory purposes if a rating is issued by: (i) an EU CRA registered with ESMA; or (ii) a third-country CRA under the endorsement regime or the equivalence/certification regime. Without the EU putting in place a temporary regime (as the U.K. is doing), U.K. CRAs and trade repositories will lose their EU registration when the U.K. leaves the EU on a "hard Brexit." ESMA reiterates that all market participants must ensure that they continue to comply with their obligations under EMIR, the CRA Regulation and other EU legislation and should monitor the Brexit-related public statements issued by CRAs and trade repositories.

Read more.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has issued a Direction detailing how an EEA firm currently passporting into the U.K. should notify it of the firm's intention to benefit from the Temporary Permissions Regime in the event of a "no deal" Brexit. The Direction was made under the EEA Passport Rights (Amendment, etc., and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (made on November 6, 2018). The Regulations provide for a Temporary Permissions Regime for firms that are currently authorized to carry on a regulated activity in the U.K. under an EEA passporting right that have either applied for U.K. authorization prior to the U.K. withdrawal date or have notified the relevant U.K. regulator of their intention to continue carrying on passported activities. Temporary permissions would deem firms within the regime as authorized for their current activities for a maximum of three years, subject to a power for HM Treasury to extend the regime's duration by increments of 12 months.

As with the PRA's Direction (issued on November 7, 2018), the FCA requires firms to submit the Temporary Permission Notification Form using Connect between January 7, 2019 and March 28, 2019.

View the FCA's Direction.

View details of the PRA's Direction.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a call for evidence on periodic auctions for equity instruments. ESMA wishes to gather more information on the functioning of so-called frequent batch auction trading systems. Frequent batch auctions for equities have rapidly gained market share since the introduction of the Double Volume Cap mechanism under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments package. This has given rise to concerns that this trading may be used as alternative to trading under the DVC waivers and/or as a way to avoid the pre-trade transparency requirements of systematic internalisers. ESMA has conducted a stock-take, assessing seven frequent batch auction systems operating in the EU and sets out its findings in the call for evidence.

In the call for evidence, ESMA distinguishes conventional periodic auctions from frequent batch auctions and outlines the key characteristics of frequent batch auction systems operating in the EU. ESMA sets out its observation of a rising market share for equity trading on frequent batch auctions and considers developments in equity trading since the application of MiFID II. It seeks input on a range of questions focused on these issues.

Responses to the call for evidence are invited by January 11, 2019. The call for evidence will be of particular interest to trading venues and investment firms trading in equity instruments, but ESMA also welcomes responses from any other market participants including trade associations and industry bodies, institutional and retail investors.

ESMA will use the feedback to the call for evidence to assess whether and to what extent frequent batch auction systems can be used to circumvent the MiFID II transparency requirements and will develop appropriate policy measures if necessary.

View the call for evidence.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has announced that it proposes to renew the prohibition on the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail clients for a further three months from January 2, 2019. ESMA's product intervention powers under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation allow it to impose temporary prohibitions or restrictions on certain financial instruments, financial activities or practices to address a significant investor protection concern in the EU. ESMA is renewing the prohibition on binary options because it considers that a significant investor protection concern remains. The measure will be renewed on the same terms as the previous renewal decision that has applied from October 2, 2018 and that will expire on January 1, 2019.

ESMA's Board of Supervisors agreed on the renewal of intervention measures on November 7, 2018. ESMA will publish an official notice on its website in the coming weeks. The new Decision will then be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will start to apply from January 2, 2019 for a period of three months.

View ESMA's announcement.

View details of the prohibition expiring on January 1, 2019.

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities have launched a consultation on amendments to the Key Information Document for Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products.

Since January 1, 2018, the EU PRIIPs Regulation has required manufacturers of PRIIPs to prepare and publish a stand-alone, standardized Key Information Document for each of their PRIIPs. Those advising retail investors on PRIIPs, or selling PRIIPs to retail investors, must provide retail investors with a KID in good time before the transaction is concluded. The PRIIPs Regulation exempts until December 31, 2019 management and investment companies and persons advising on or selling Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities from the obligation to produce and provide a PRIIPs KID. The UCITS Directive requires these entities to provide investors with a Key Investor Information Document. As a result, if there were no changes made to the EU legislation, UCITS would be subject to duplicative information requirements from January 1, 2020. To address this situation, the ESAs are proposing to amend the Regulatory Technical Standards under the PRIIPs Regulation by moving the UCITS KIID requirements to the PRIIPs RTS.

Read more.

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities have launched a consultation on draft joint guidelines on the cooperation and information exchange between national regulators supervising banks and other financial institutions for compliance with Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism rules. The Fourth Money Laundering Directive requires that EU member states allow, without undue restriction, the exchange of information and provision of assistance between national regulators. The ESA's proposed guidelines aim to set out how that can be achieved in practice. The ESAs are proposing that a college of supervisors should be established where a financial institution is supervised in three or more EU member states. The draft guidelines set out rules on the establishment and operation of the colleges. For firms that do not require a college but which operate in two member states, the ESAs propose a process for the bilateral exchange of information between national regulators.

The consultation closes on February 8, 2019.

View the consultation paper.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has proposed the introduction of a 12-month exemption from the clearing obligation to facilitate the novation of uncleared OTC derivative contracts to EU counterparties in the event of a "no deal" Brexit. The European Market Infrastructure Regulation imposes a clearing obligation on EU firms that are counterparties to certain OTC derivatives contracts. The clearing obligation applies to Interest Rate Swaps denominated in seven currencies (EUR, GBP, JPY, USD, NOK, PLN and SEK) and to two classes of credit default swap indices (iTraxx Europe Main and iTraxx Europe Crossover). The obligation to clear OTC IRS denominated in all seven currencies is in force for clearing members of EU CCPs as well as large financial counterparties and alternative investment funds. The IRS clearing obligation will apply to small financial counterparties and AIFs from June 21, 2019 and to non-financial counterparties from December 21, 2018 for IRS denominated in the G4 currencies, and from August 9, 2019 for IRS denominated in CZK, DKK, HUF, NOK, SEK and PLN. The CDS clearing obligation is in force for clearing members of EU CCPs, large financial counterparties and AIFs. It applies to non-financial counterparties from May 9, 2019 and to small financial counterparties and AIFs from June 21, 2019.

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HM Treasury has laid before Parliament the draft Bank of England (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, together with a draft explanatory memorandum.

The draft Regulations make amendments to the Bank of England Act 1998, the Financial Services Act 2012 and related secondary legislation to ensure that the constitution, responsibilities and functions of the Bank of England continue to be clearly defined after exit day, including in a "no-deal" scenario. In the explanatory memorandum accompanying the draft Regulations, HM Treasury confirms that the draft Regulations make only technical changes to existing legislation to ensure that it continues to operate effectively once the U.K. leaves the EU. This includes amendments to information sharing and notification requirements and amendments to certain definitions so that they work in the U.K. after exit day. Amendments to secondary legislation include necessary adjustments to provisions on capital buffers and amounts of cash ratio deposits that certain financial services firms must hold with the BoE.

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A Commission Implementing Regulation supplementing the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Implementing Regulation sets out Implementing Technical Standards on the information to be provided to resolution authorities to enable them to draw up and implement resolution plans for credit institutions or investment firms. Reflecting experience gained by resolution authorities in resolution planning, the Implementing Regulation repeals and replaces the existing Implementing Technical Standards set out in Regulation (EU) 2016/1066, which specifies the procedure and introduced a minimum set of templates for the provision of information to resolution authorities.

The Implementing Regulation introduces a single data point model, as is the practice in supervisory reporting, and introduces common validation rules to safeguard the quality, consistency and accuracy of the data items reported by institutions. Detailed common validation rules will be published electronically by the European Banking Authority on its website.

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The Prudential Regulation Authority has issued a Direction setting out how an EEA firm currently passporting into the U.K. should notify the PRA if the firm wants to benefit from the Temporary Permissions Regime in the event of a "no deal" Brexit. The Direction was made under the EEA Passport Rights (Amendment, etc., and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (made on November 6, 2018). The Regulations provide for a Temporary Permissions Regime for firms that are currently authorized to carry on a regulated activity in the U.K. under an EEA passporting right that have either applied for U.K. authorization prior to the U.K. withdrawal date or have notified the relevant U.K. regulator of their intention to continue carrying on passported activities. Temporary permission would deem firms within the regime as authorized for their current activities for a maximum of three years, subject to a power for HM Treasury to extend the regime's duration by increments of 12 months.

The PRA Direction requires firms to submit the Temporary Permission Notification Form using Connect between January 7, 2019 and March 28, 2019.

View the PRA's Direction.

View the EEA Passport Rights Regulations 2018.

The Bank of England has published the "Dear CEO" letter that it has sent to the Chief Executive Officers of EU CCPs, central securities depositaries and payment systems that are currently designated under the EU Settlement Finality Directive. The designation of these systems is automatically recognized in the U.K. under the SFD framework for automatic recognition, but the U.K. will fall outside the EU framework upon Brexit.

The "Dear CEO" letter follows an earlier letter issued by the BoE in July 2018 and the publication, by HM Treasury, of a draft of the Financial Markets and Insolvency (Amendment and Transitional Provision) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 on October 31, 2018. The draft Regulations will, once in force, empower the BoE to grant permanent designation to non-U.K. (including EU) systems that are not governed by U.K. law. They also establish a temporary designation regime for EU systems that are currently designated under the SFD.

In the letter, the BoE sets out further details of the permanent designation of non-U.K. systems post-Brexit. It also sets out how EU systems can go about applying to enter the temporary designation regime in a "no deal" scenario (where the U.K. exits the EU without a ratified Withdrawal Agreement) in order to continue to benefit from U.K. SFD protection until the permanent designation process is complete.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published on its website the official translations of its revised Guidelines on aspects of the suitability requirements under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.

ESMA published the finalized Guidelines in May 2018, following a consultation between July and December 2017. The finalized Guidelines largely confirm ESMA's previous 2012 Guidelines on MiFID I, but have a broader scope and ESMA has added clarifications and refinements where necessary.

Now that the Guidelines have been translated into the official EU languages and published on ESMA's website, national regulators will have a two-month period (expiring on January 6, 2019) in which to notify ESMA whether they comply or intend to comply with the guidelines. National regulators should state their reasons for non-compliance where they do not comply or do not intend to comply.

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The EEA Passport Rights (Amendment, etc., and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 were made on November 6, 2018. The Regulations provide, among other things, for a Temporary Permissions Regime for firms that are currently authorized to carry on a regulated activity in the U.K. under an EEA passporting right that have either applied for U.K. authorization prior to the U.K. withdrawal date or have notified the relevant U.K. regulator of their intention to continue carrying on passported activities. The Regulations come into force on November 7, 2018 except for the following provisions, which come into force on exit day:

• Regulation 2 (Repeal of passport rights, etc);
• Regulation 3 (Consequential amendments);
• Regulation 4 (Saving provision: tax); and
• Regulation 24 (Financial Services Compensation Scheme - modifications of Part 15 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000).

View the EEA Passport Rights Regulations 2018.

View details of the draft regulations.

A series of ten Commission Delegated Regulations, comprising all of the Regulatory Technical Standards to supplement the EU Benchmarks Regulation, has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The Benchmarks Regulation, which took effect directly across the EU in January 2018, sets out the authorization and registration requirements for benchmark administrators, including third-country entities, and the requirements for governance and control of administrators. It provides for different categories of benchmarks depending on the risks involved, imposes additional requirements on benchmarks considered to be "critical" and gives powers to national regulators to mandate, under certain conditions, contributions to or the administration of critical benchmarks. The RTS outline the behaviors and standards expected of administrators of and contributors to benchmarks. Draft Commission Delegated Regulations setting out the RTS were adopted by the European Commission in July 2018.

All of the Commission Delegated Regulations will enter into force on November 25, 2018 and they will apply directly across the EU from January 25, 2019.

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has unanimously voted to adopt a final rule that would permanently set the swap dealer de minimis registration threshold at $8 billion. Absent further action by the CFTC, the de minimis threshold was previously scheduled to drop to $3 billion on December 31, 2019.

Under the final rule, as under current requirements, firms with swap dealing activity below the aggregate gross notional amount (AGNA) threshold of $8 billion over the previous 12 months would be exempt from the CFTC's swap dealer registration requirements. The CFTC said its analysis concluded that the $8 billion threshold subjects approximately 98% of swap transactions to swap dealer regulations. In the CFTC's determination, a $3 billion threshold would only subject a small number of additional swap transactions to such regulation, but would likely decrease swap market liquidity.

The CFTC had also previously proposed several other measures in respect of the de minimis threshold, such as excluding swaps of insured depository institutions made in connection with loans from a firm's AGNA calculation. Although the CFTC did not adopt any of these additional proposals in the final rule, CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo said he will direct CFTC staff to continue their analysis of these measures and other issues raised in comments on the rule.

View the final rule.

View the CFTC's fact sheet on the final rule.

View CFTC Chairman Giancarlo's statement.

View CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz's statement.

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has published a consultation entitled "Draft definitions of Investment Consultancy services and Fiduciary Management for the purposes of potential remedies," under its Market Investigation into these sectors. The CMA is in the process of reviewing the submissions made in response to the Provisional Decision Report it published in July 2018.

The consultation paper contains working draft definitions of "investment consultancy services" and "fiduciary management services" for the purposes of the remedies that the CMA may impose in any Order following the publication of its final report. The CMA seeks only high-level comments on the draft decisions. It proposes to consult separately in due course on any draft Order it may make.

Comments on the consultation are invited by November 9, 2018.

The CMA's final report on its Market Investigation is currently scheduled for publication in December 2018.

View the consultation paper.

View details of the July 2018 Provisional Decision Report.