The U.S. Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), the nationwide organization of financial regulators from all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, has released a series of action items to implement recommendations received from the CSBS Fintech Industry Advisory Panel. The panel was established in 2017 to help streamline multistate regulation of FinTech businesses and other nonbanks, and comprises thirty-three companies, including FinTech firms like SoFi, Ripple, and Circle. The panel also contains two subgroups: one focused on the lending industry; and the other focused on the payments industry.

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HM Treasury has published guidance on the availability of the exemption from the clearing obligation for Pension Scheme Arrangements under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation in a post-Brexit no deal scenario. The U.K. government has been publishing statutory instruments (U.K. secondary legislation) onshoring and amending EU regulations for Brexit. This is being done under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, so as to ensure a workable U.K. statute book after Brexit. The U.K.'s onshoring legislation has been drafted so as to come into operation on exit day if there is a "no deal" scenario where the U.K. leaves the EU without a ratified withdrawal agreement. The onshoring legislation includes various statutory instruments to onshore the EU EMIR.

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The Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority has nominated José Manuel Campa (Global Head of Regulatory Affairs at Santander) as the new Chair of the EBA. Subject to any objection by the European Parliament within one month, José Manuel Campa will succeed Andrea Enria as the new Chair of EBA for a renewable term of five years.

View the EBA announcement.

The EU Single Resolution Board has published a Framework for Valuation, setting out the principles upon which valuations for resolutions for Eurozone banks under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive and the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation should be based. BRRD and the SRMR require resolution authorities to ensure a fair, prudent and realistic valuation of a relevant institution’s assets and liabilities is conducted by an independent valuer prior to resolution or write-down. The Framework is intended to provide an indication of best practices for independent valuers and the general public, but should not be taken to limit the independence of valuers when performing a valuation in a specific case.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has announced that its prohibition on the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail clients will be extended for a further three months from April 2, 2019. ESMA's ban has been in effect since July 2, 2018.

View ESMA's announcement.

View details of the existing product intervention measure for binary options.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has announced that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, it will recognize three U.K.-established CCPs for the purposes of providing services in the EU, namely - LCH Limited, ICE Clear Europe Limited and LME Clear Limited. ESMA has adopted recognition decisions for each of the U.K. CCPs, which will take effect on the day after the U.K. leaves the EU. This follows the European Commission's earlier determination of U.K. equivalence for CCPs.

View ESMA's announcement.

The Financial Stability Board has issued a report assessing the potential impacts of certain FinTech market developments on financial stability. Specifically, the report examines the potential implications of: (i) FinTech firms competing with traditional financial services providers; (ii) the provision of financial services by some of the world's largest technology companies (referred to as "BigTech" firms); and (iii) reliance on third-party providers for cloud services.

Although the report finds that the relationship between FinTech firms and financial institutions has been mostly complementary to this point, it also shows that FinTech firms have started to chip away at financial institutions' market share in certain industries, such as credit provision and payments. Further, the report posits that the entry of BigTech firms into the financial services space could also have significant competitive impacts, as such firms often have large, established customer bases, brand recognition, strong financial positions and access to low-cost capital, which could allow them to quickly achieve scale in the space. While this could lead to greater competition in the short-term, the FSB hypothesizes that cross-subsidization could allow BigTech firms to operate with lower margins and gain greater market share, which could in the long run lead to a less competitive market (e.g. China, where two firms account for 94% of the mobile payments market). Additionally, according to the report, increased competition over time could also press incumbent financial institutions to take on additional risk in order to maintain margins and profitability, which could have subsequent effects on financial stability.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its final guidelines on the periodic information that credit rating agencies should submit to ESMA. The guidelines amend the existing requirements that are intended to structure and specify more clearly the information that agencies should submit to ESMA to enable it to carry out its supervisory activities. The information submitted by CRAs also allows ESMA to calculate their supervisory fees and market share.

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The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has published for consultation a draft Investment Consultancy and Fiduciary Management Market Investigation Order 2019. The draft Order is intended to implement the remedies proposed by the CMA in its Final Report on the Investment Consultancy and Fiduciary Management Market Investigation, published on December 12, 2018. Any feedback on the draft Order should be provided by March 13, 2019.

View the draft Order.

View the explanatory note to the draft Order.

View the notice of an intention to make an Order.

View details of the CMA's Final Report.

The Joint Committee of European Supervisory Authorities has published a Final Report following their consultation on targeted 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. This is because the UCITS Directive separately requires these entities to provide investors with a Key Investor Information Document, with different but broadly similar contents requirements. 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 proposed amending the Regulatory Technical Standards under the PRIIPs Regulation by moving the UCITS KIID requirements to the PRIIPs RTS.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a revised list of thresholds below which an offer of securities to the public will not need a prospectus in EU member states. The Prospectus Regulation introduced a new threshold of €1 million, below which an offer does not require a prospectus. A Member State may decide to raise the threshold to a maximum of €8 million, provided that the offer cannot be passported to another Member State. ESMA has drawn up this list to create transparency across the various regimes adopted in the EU.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority published a document listing the thresholds below which an offer of securities to the public does not need a prospectus in the various Member States of the EU. The document contains information, provided by national regulators, setting out: (i) a short description of the national thresholds below which no prospectus is required; (ii) a summary of any national rules that apply to offers below that threshold; and (iii) hyperlinks to the relevant national legislation and rules. 

View the report.

The European Commission issued a call for advice to each of the European Supervisory Authorities requesting evidence and possible advice on potential undue short-term pressure by financial service participants on corporations. The call for advice relates to Action 10 of the EU's Sustainable Finance Action Plan, which aims to foster transparency and long-termism in financial and economic activity by exploring possible drivers of undue short-termism. The Commission wants the ESA's report to: (i) provide evidence of any short-termism and, if any, the consequences thereof; (ii) assess the drivers of such short-termism, including the effects of regulation on financial market participants, for example, the guidance on remuneration practices; (iii) identify existing regulations that either mitigate or exacerbate short-term pressures; and (iv) evaluate the need for regulatory or policy action and propose specific areas where action is needed.

The Commission considers that pressure of this kind could lead corporations to overlook long-term risks and opportunities, such as those related to climate change and other factors related to sustainability. Companies facing short-term pressure could, as a result, forgo investment in areas important for a successful transition towards a sustainable economy. The ESAs are due to publish their report in December 2019.

View the call for advice.

On February 5, 2019, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a preliminary agreement on the draft Regulation amending the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, known as EMIR Refit or EMIR 2.1. The final text is likely to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in April or May this year. Subject to a few exceptions, the changes will apply directly in all EU member states 20 days from that publication date. There may be minor drafting changes as the text is vetted by technicians and translated prior to its publication, but the legal position should be unaffected by this.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a consultation paper on its proposed guidelines for liquidity stress testing in Alternative Investment Funds and Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities. The paper has been published in response to the European System Risk Board's 2018 Recommendation on mitigating liquidity and leverage risks in investment funds, which requires that ESMA produces guidance on the practice to be followed by managers for the stress testing of liquidity risk for AIFs and UCITS. 

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a statement on the impact of a hard Brexit on the reporting obligation under the EU European Market Infrastructure Regulation. The statement considers the following counterparty scenarios: (i) EU27-EU27; (ii) EU27-U.K.; (iii) U.K.-EU27; and (iv) U.K.-U.K. The statement clarifies the position should the U.K. leave the EU without a deal and without a transition period, including reporting by CCPs and counterparties; reconciliation and recordkeeping by trade repositories, access by EU27 authorities to reported data and portability and aggregation by trade repositories. ESMA's statement clarifies that:

• to continue to comply with their reporting obligation, EU27 counterparties and CCPs should report their derivatives to an EU-recognized or registered trade repository;
• U.K. counterparties are not expected to report to an EU trade repository on or after March 29, 2019, including derivatives rejected as of March 29, 2019 and amendments to derivatives concluded before March 29, 2019;
• EU27 counterparties and CCPs should consider any risks if they delegate their report submissions to a non-EU entity; and
• U.K. trade repositories should ensure the full transfer of all data to an EU27 trade repository before March 29, 2019.

View ESMA's statement.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions has launched a consultation on sustainable finance in emerging markets and the role of securities regulators. The consultation discusses the challenges affecting the development of sustainable finance in capital markets, focusing on sustainable assets in emerging markets and measures to facilitate market development in this area. Responses to the consultation can be submitted by April 1, 2019.

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The European Systemic Risk Board has published a report on interoperability arrangements between EU central counterparties. An "interoperability arrangement" is defined in the report as a link between CCPs that involves the cross-system execution of transactions. It is relevant where multiple CCPs service the same trading venue. The arrangements allow clearing members of one CCP to centrally clear trades carried out with members of another CCP, without requiring the first counterparty to be a member of the second CCP. A key motivation for such arrangements is the reduction of fragmentation in the open positions of trading participants and/or clearing members, as open positions in the same products can be consolidated at one CCP.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority Decision renewing the temporary restriction on the marketing, distribution or sale of contracts for difference to retail clients has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. ESMA announced on December 19, 2018, that the existing restriction would be extended. The CfD Decision applies directly across the EU from February 1, 2019, for a period of three months.

View the decision.

View ESMA's announcement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has extended certain exemptions under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) for security-based swap transactions. The relief, which is intended to facilitate the implementation of the security-based swaps regulatory regime under the Dodd-Frank Act, was originally offered by the SEC in 2011 and has been extended four times prior, most recently in 2018.

Through this order, the Commission granted an extension of certain temporary relief provided by the SEC to address the fact that the Dodd-Frank Act revised the definition of “security” in the Exchange Act to include security-based swaps.  The relief, which was previously set to expire on February 5, 2019, will be extended until February 5, 2020.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a statement on the impending clearing and trading obligations for small financial counterparties and the reporting backloading requirement. Under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, small FCs in Category 3 – FCs with less than €8 billion in aggregate month-end average of outstanding gross notional amount of uncleared derivatives at group level – are due to start clearing interest rate and credit derivatives subject to the clearing obligation on June 21, 2019. Once the clearing obligation is triggered, the related trading obligation under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation may also be triggered. In addition, the reporting backloading requirement is due to come into effect on February 12, 2019. However, it is foreseen that, under the EU's proposals to make technical changes to EMIR, known as EMIR Refit or EMIR 2.1, Category 3 FCs below the clearing threshold will be exempt from the clearing obligation and the backloading requirement will be deleted. The final text of EMIR Refit is now available, although it remains to be translated and published in the Official Journal.  Whilst EMIR Refit remains not in force, these obligations would technically arise, only to be eliminated shortly afterwards with the passage of this new legislation. In its statement, ESMA confirms that it does not expect national regulators to focus on any non-compliance by small FCs with the clearing obligation or by market participants with the backloading requirements.

View ESMA's statement.

The Financial Conduct Authority has launched a consultation on proposed revisions to the Handbook to implement changes made to the EU Revised Shareholder Rights Directive. The Directive aims to promote shareholder engagement, effective stewardship and long-term investment decision-making through enhancing the transparency of engagement policies and investment strategies across the institutional investment community.

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The Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Reporting Council have published a discussion paper which calls for input on how best to encourage the capital markets community to engage more actively in stewardship of the assets in which they invest. The aim of the paper is to advance debate about what is meant by effective stewardship, what minimum expectations investors have of the financial services firms which invest on their behalf and what higher standards the U.K. should aspire to.

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The Financial Conduct Authority has published for consultation proposed changes to the Handbook. The changes are to align the Prospectus Rules sourcebook within the Handbook to ensure it is consistent with the new EU Prospectus Regulation that came into force on July 20, 2017.

The EU Prospectus Regulation sets out information that companies need to disclose to investors and potential investors in a prospectus when raising capital. Even though certain provisions of the EU Prospectus Regulation were anticipated to come into effect after the U.K.’s anticipated exit from the EU on March 29, 2019, the EU Prospectus Regulation will still be applicable during any Brexit transition or implementation period.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has launched a consultation on proposed Guidance on whether certain crypto-assets fall within the U.K.'s regulatory perimeter (CP19/3). The FCA's consultation is in response to one of the commitments made by the U.K. Cryptoasset Taskforce last year in its final Cryptoassets Report. The Taskforce was established in March 2018 and comprises representatives from HM Treasury, the FCA and the Bank of England. The FCA's consultation closes on April 5, 2019. The FCA intends to publish the final Guidance on the existing regulatory perimeter in relation to crypto-assets by summer 2019.

The FCA's proposed Guidance is intended to help firms determine whether certain crypto-assets fall within the FCA's regulatory perimeter. However, the FCA notes that assessing whether a crypto-asset is within the perimeter can only be done on a case-by-case basis and that the responsibility for ensuring that it has the correct permissions lies with the firm undertaking the activity. A firm that undertakes a regulated activity without the requisite permissions will be in breach of the 'general prohibition' in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Any such breach by a person is a criminal offence and the person may be imprisoned or fined, or both. The consultation is relevant to a wide range of consumers, stakeholders and firms, in particular firms that issue or create crypto-assets, firms that market, sell, buy, hold or store crypto-assets, financial advisors, investment managers and investment exchanges.

Read more.

The European Central Bank working group on euro risk-free rates has published guiding principles for fallback provisions in new contracts for euro-denominated cash products. Noting the work that is being undertaken by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association on fall-backs for derivatives referencing EURIBOR and other IBOR rates, the guidelines focus on non-derivative “cash products”, such as mortgages, loans, securitizations, covered bonds and secured finance transactions.

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The International Organization of Securities Commissions has issued a statement on the importance of issuers including environmental, social and governance matters when disclosing information material to investors’ decisions.

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has completed the review of its 2008 Principles for sound liquidity risk management and supervision. The Basel Committee has concluded that the Principles do not require revision. The Committee expects both supervisors and banks to remain attentive to liquidity risks in the financial markets. Banks should take into account developments since 2008 that may impact their liquidity risk management considerations. These developments include, for example, increasing digitisation of finance and payment systems, an increased use of central clearing of derivatives and margining and the increasing significance of cyber-attacks.

View the announcement.

View the 2008 Principles.

HM Treasury has laid before Parliament a draft of the Equivalence Determinations for Financial Services and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. The draft Regulations grant HM Treasury temporary powers to make equivalence determinations in relation to any EEA state for EU legislation that is being onshored. The retained EU law includes the Benchmark Regulation, the Capital Requirements Regulation, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation, the Credit Rating Agencies Regulation, the Prospectus Directive, the Transparency Directive, the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation, the Short Selling Regulation and Solvency 2. The powers will enable HM Treasury to make equivalence decisions before Brexit that come into force on exit day in a no deal scenario. These powers are distinct from the powers granted to HM Treasury to make equivalence decisions post-Brexit under the specific sectoral onshored legislation and apply in parallel to relevant temporary permissions or registration regimes. The temporary powers would expire 12 months after exit day.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its annual report to the European Commission on the application of accepted market practices under the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The Market Abuse Regulation provides certain prohibitions against market manipulation. Accepted market practices, which are established by national regulators and notified to ESMA, provide a defense against any allegations of market manipulation. In particular, a dealing on a financial market which was carried out for legitimate reasons and in line with an established AMP, will not be found to constitute market manipulation. In the report, ESMA identifies AMPs which were established before the Market Abuse Regulation came into force, or which became effective after that date. 

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The Eurozone Single Resolution Board has published the second wave of its 2018 minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities as part of resolution planning required under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive and related Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation. The SRB published the first wave of the 2018 MREL requirements in November which applied to banks that did not have binding MREL targets in 2017. 

Read more.

Following its consultation from March to June last year, the Basel Committee on Banking Standards has announced the final revisions to the Basel III market risk capital framework. At the same time, it has also announced its 2019 priorities.

The objective of the Basel market risk framework is to ensure that banks hold enough regulatory capital to protect against losses arising from movements in market prices of instruments held in their trading book. Certain changes to the 2016 market risk framework are to:
 

1. Clarify the scope of application. The Committee has provided further guidance on the regulatory book to which instruments should be assigned in circumstances where instruments could go into more than one book and has revised the treatment of structural foreign currency positions. The revised framework also allows equity investments in funds to be allocated to the trading book, provided that a bank: (i) is able to "look through" to the fund's underlying assets; or (ii) has access both to daily price quotes and to the information contained in the mandate of the fund.
2. Revise the internal model approach to address implementation challenges, in particular, by amending the profit and loss attribution (PLA) test metric and failure consequence.
3. Amend the standardized model approach. The approach to measuring risk factor losses was too high in relation to the actual risk and there was unnecessary operational burden. The changes in the standardized approach include widening the scope of currency pairs that are considered liquid in the FX risk class to ensure more currency pairs are subject to lower risk weights and introducing new "index" buckets for equity and credit spread risks so that each underlying position in an index does not need to be identified.

Read more.

The U.K. Government has announced the establishment of a new government taskforce to fight against financial crime. The new taskforce, the Economic Crime Strategic Board, is part of the Government's Serious and Organised Crime Strategy. It will set priorities, direct resources and scrutinise performance against the economic crime threat. The Board includes chief executives from Barclays, Lloyds and Santander and senior representatives from UK Finance, the National Crime Agency and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Accountants Affinity Group and National Association of Estate Agents.

View the announcement.

The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has launched a consultation on proposed amendments to its Supervisory Statement on credit risk mitigation to clarify its expectations around the eligibility of financial collateral. The consultation paper is relevant for banks, building societies and PRA-designated U.K. investment firms that are subject to the Capital Requirements Regulation. The consultation closes on April 10, 2019.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a report on the application and suitability of the EU securities regulatory framework to crypto-assets, including Initial Coin Offerings. The report is in response to the European Commission's request in its FinTech Action Plan 2018. Like the European Banking Authority, which published a report on the same day in relation to banking sector issues, ESMA found that EU activities related to crypto-assets are fairly low and do not present any financial stability risks.

ESMA's report focuses on the legal qualification of crypto-assets under EU financial securities laws and highlights that this may differ across EU member states because it will be subject to the national laws implementing EU legislation. ESMA notes that there is currently no legal definition of crypto-assets and that a key consideration is whether a crypto-asset qualifies as a financial instrument under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments package. Where a crypto-asset qualifies as a MiFID financial instrument, the full requirements under various securities legislation may apply, subject to any applicable exemptions.  According to ESMA, the rules in the Prospectus Directive would apply to an issue of crypto-assets offered to the public, including through an ICO, where the instruments are transferable securities. 

Read more.

The European Banking Authority has published a report on the application and suitability of the EU bank regulatory framework for crypto-assets. The report is in response to the European Commission's request in its FinTech Action Plan 2018. The report confirms that EU activities related to crypto-assets are fairly low and do not present any financial stability risks. The European Securities and Markets Authority also published a similar report covering Initial Coin Offerings issues within its remit on the same day.

The EBA's report sets out the EBA's findings, the issues arising from the results, the EBA's advice to the Commission and the steps that the EBA intends to take in 2019. The EBA mapped the applicability to crypto-assets and crypto-asset activities of the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive, the Capital Requirements Directive and Regulation, the second Electronic Money Directive and the second Payment Services Directive.

Read more.

The Financial Conduct Authority has published a "Dear CEO" letter addressed to the Chief Executive Officers of all FCA-regulated firms. In the letter, the FCA highlights its concerns over the practice engaged in by some firms of issuing financial promotions which suggest or imply that all of the activities or investments undertaken by the firm are regulated by the FCA and/or Prudential Regulation Authority, when they are not.

Some regulated firms undertake both regulated and unregulated business. The FCA has identified that some of these firms are issuing financial promotions which do not make clear which aspects of its business are not regulated by the FCA and/or PRA. This breaches the requirement that all financial promotions are fair, clear and not misleading and that a firm cannot indicate or imply that it is regulated or otherwise supervised by the FCA for its unregulated business. The FCA encourages all firms to reflect on the letter and ensure that their actions comply with the FCA's rules relating to financial promotions.

View the letter. 

Fulfilling the mandate in the European Commission's March 2018 FinTech Action Plan, the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities has published a report on regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs, together referred to as innovation facilitators. Innovation hubs are a dedicated point of contact for firms raising queries with national regulators on FinTech-related issues. Regulatory sandboxes enable firms to test innovative financial products, services or business models under the supervision of a national regulator.

The ESAs' report states that most EU member states have one or both forms of these innovation facilitators. The facilitators operate at national level and the ESAs identify this as a potential challenge to the EU objective of scaling-up FinTech. For example, national regulators are likely to adopt different approaches to the same innovation which can hinder opportunities for extending an innovation across the EU as well as present regulatory arbitrage risks. The potential absence of passporting innovative products throughout the EU can raise issues for their users.

Read more.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published two draft Directives relating to Brexit under the: (1) draft Collective Investment Schemes (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019; and (2) Alternative Investment Fund Managers Regulations 2013, as amended by the draft Alternative Investment Fund Managers (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. These draft regulations will establish a Temporary Permissions Regime enabling EEA funds that currently market in the U.K. under an EEA passport to continue to do so for three years after the U.K. exits the EU.

Read more.

The U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the appointment of two external members to the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, namely Dame Colette Bowe and Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia. They will replace Richard Sharp and Martin Taylor, who are stepping down at the end of Q1 2019 and Q2 2019, respectively.

The FPC, established in 2013, seeks to identify, monitor and take action to remove or reduce systemic risk in the U.K. financial system, while simultaneously protecting and enhancing its resilience. The FPC consists of six BoE staff and five external members selected for their experience and expertise in financial services.

Dame Jayne-Anne and Dame Colette will start their three years of service before the FPC's Q2 and Q3 meetings, respectively.

View the announcement.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a Decision renewing the temporary prohibition on the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail clients for a further three months from January 2, 2019. This has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. ESMA announced in November 2018 that the existing restriction would be extended. The binary options Decision applies directly across the EU from January 2, 2019 for a period of three months.

View the Decision.

View ESMA's notification.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published amended Guidelines on definitions of commodity derivatives and their classification. The amended Guidelines, which are an update to the guidelines originally adopted under the previous Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID I), have been adapted to the new MiFID II regulatory framework without amending their substance.

Read more.

The EU has granted temporary equivalence to two Swiss stock exchanges (SIX Swiss Exchange AG and BX Swiss AG) under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation. MiFIR requires EU investment firms to ensure that the trades they undertake in shares admitted to trading on a regulated market or traded on a trading venue take place on a regulated market, multilateral trading facility, systematic internaliser or equivalent third-country trading venue. EU investment firms will be able to comply with the MiFIR share trading obligation by trading shares on these Swiss exchanges from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019. The extension of the equivalence appears to be dependent on the progress of trade discussions between the EU and Switzerland.

View the EU equivalence decision for Swiss exchanges.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has opened a consultation on two sets of draft Guidelines under the Central Securities Depositaries Regulation. The first draft Guidelines are on settlement fails reporting by national regulators, and the second draft Guidelines concern standardized procedures and messaging protocols that investment firms must use to limit settlement fails. Feedback on each of the draft Guidelines should be submitted by February 20, 2019. ESMA aims to finalize both Guidelines by July 2019.

Read more.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has launched a consultation on the proposed Technical Standards on strong customer authentication and common and secure open standards of communication (referred to as the U.K. SCA RTS). The U.K. SCA RTS would apply in the U.K. from September 14, 2019 in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The FCA's proposals will apply to payment service providers, including banks, building societies, e-money issuers, payment institutions, registered Account Information Services (AIS) and Payment Initiation Services (PIS) service providers. Responses to the consultation should be submitted by February 19, 2019. The FCA intends to publish the final Technical Standards in April 2019.

The EU SCA Regulatory Technical Standards (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389), which supplement the EU Payment Services Directive, came into force on March 14, 2018. The EU SCA RTS impose obligations on PSPs to increase the security of customers' payments made by card and other means and set out requirements on account servicing payment service providers (ASPSPs) relating to the third party providers of Account Information Services and Payment Initiation Services. The EU SCA RTS will apply directly across the EU from September 14, 2019.

The FCA is proposing to make the U.K. SCA RTS substantially similar to the EU SCA RTS so as not to disrupt and confuse the substantial preparations that industry has already made to implement the EU requirements. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, the U.K. SCA RTS will supplement the U.K. Payment Services Regulations 2017, as amended by the Electronic Money, Payment Services and Payment Systems (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018. Without the U.K. SCA RTS, the revised-for-Brexit PSRs would be ineffective as they require compliance with U.K.SCA RTS.

View the consultation paper (CP18/44).

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a statement announcing that its various restrictions on the sale, distribution and marketing of contracts for difference to retail investors will be extended from February 1, 2019, for a further three months. ESMA has powers under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation to impose prohibitions or restrictions on certain financial instruments, financial activities or practices to address a significant investor protection concern in the European Union. Product intervention measures imposed by ESMA under MiFIR must be reviewed at appropriate intervals and at least every three months. If a measure is not renewed after three months, it will expire, and it would then fall to member states to impose similar restrictions at a national level, if they so wish.

ESMA considers that a significant investor protection concern in relation to retail clients still exists. Its statement confirms that the existing restriction, implemented on November 1, 2018, will be extended from February 1, 2019 for a further three months.

View ESMA's statement.

View details of the existing CfD restrictions.

The European Commission has adopted temporary equivalence decisions determining that the U.K. regulatory frameworks applicable to central counterparties and central securities depositories will be deemed equivalent to EU standards under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and the Central Securities Depositories Regulation, respectively, in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Read more.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted, by a 3-2 vote, Rule of Practice 194, which establishes the process for a registered security-based swap dealer or major security-based swap participant (collectively, SBS Entities) to apply to the SEC for a waiver that would allow a statutorily disqualified natural person to effect or be involved in effecting security-based swaps on behalf of the SBS Entity, subject to certain conditions.  The final rule, which was first proposed in 2015, represents a continuation of the agency’s efforts to implement its security-based swap regulations pursuant to Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and will become relevant when the SEC begins requiring registration of SBS Entities.

Read more.

The European Commission has published a Communication on Implementing the Commission's Contingency Action Plan for a no deal Brexit and has adopted all the legislative proposals and delegated acts announced in its November 2018 Contingency Plan. The actions relevant to the derivatives industry are the adoption by the Commission of:
 

1. A temporary and conditional equivalence decision for CCPs already established and authorized in the U.K. CCPs established in third countries (which the U.K. will become on exit day) whose supervisory and legal regimes have been deemed to be equivalent to the EU regime may provide clearing services to clearing members or trading venues established in the EU. Such a CCP must be recognized by the European Securities and Markets Authority in accordance with the processes outlined in the European Market Infrastructure Regulation. The adopted decision would grant equivalence to the regulatory and legal regimes of the U.K. and Northern Ireland in relation to CCPs. The Commission's equivalence decision would apply for 12 months from exit day. ESMA remains to designate various U.K. CCPs.

Read more.

The Bank of England and Prudential Regulation Authority have launched a package of consultations on proposals for the U.K.'s resolvability assessment framework for banks, with the aim of meeting the BoE's commitment to ensure that all banks are resolvable by 2022. The PRA consultation is relevant for U.K. banks and building societies with £50 billion or more in retail deposits on an individual or consolidated basis. The BoE's consultation is wider in scope and affects all firms with bail-in or partial-transfer resolution strategies and material U.K. subsidiaries of an overseas-based banking group. Responses to the consultations should be submitted by April 5, 2019.

Read more.