A draft of one of several pieces of U.K. legislation has been published, that will establish a temporary permissions regime after the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU. Temporary permission will be available for EEA firms currently operating in the U.K. under financial services passports. The draft EEA Passport Rights (Amendment, etc., and Transitional Provisions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 are expected to be laid before Parliament in Autumn 2018 and to come into force mainly on the day after they are made, apart from some provisions that will apply on the day the U.K. withdraws from the EU. The draft Regulations also amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and related legislation to remove references to EEA passport rights.

The draft Regulations have been prepared under the provisions of the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which sets out an enhanced scrutiny procedure for secondary legislation used to amend certain retained EU law. This means that the draft Regulations will require the approval of both Houses of Parliament before they are made.

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The U.K. Government has announced that it intends to legislate to ensure, after U.K. withdrawal from the EU, the continuation of U.K. settlement finality protections currently provided under the Settlement Finality Directive and implemented in the U.K. by the Financial Markets and Insolvency (Settlement Finality) Regulations 1999. The SFRs establish various insolvency carve-outs for designated market infrastructure systems and also legislate for finality of transactions within such systems. However, only EU systems are in scope.

The SFD requires Member States to notify the European Securities and Markets Authority with information concerning the national systems (and the respective system operators) they have designated to be included within the scope of the SFD protections. Member States must also designate the national authorities that must be notified when insolvency proceedings are opened against a participant or a system operator. Under the protections afforded by the SFD, transfer orders which enter into designated systems within certain deadlines are guaranteed to be finally settled, regardless of whether the sending participant has become insolvent or transfer orders have been revoked in the meantime. Under the SFD, each Member State automatically recognizes systems that have been designated by other Member States.

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The G20 Finance Ministers & Central Bank Governors have issued a communiqué following their meeting in Buenos Aires on July 21 - 22, 2018. Among other things, the communiqué requests that the Financial Action Task Force clarify, by October 2018, how its global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards apply to crypto assets.

The FATF's global standards (also known as the 40 Recommendations) promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. However, the FATF standards do not refer explicitly to crypto assets or the associated service providers and intermediaries, which creates uncertainty as to the scope of AML/CTF obligations that may apply to them.

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Randal Quarles, current Vice Chairman for Supervision, was sworn in for his second term as a member of the U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.  Vice Chairman Quarles’s term as Vice Chairman for Supervision ends in 2021, while his term as a member of the Federal Reserve Board ends in 2032.

View full text of the Federal Reserve Board press release.

The U.K.'s Government Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has launched a consultation on a draft Bill that would introduce a register of beneficial owners for overseas legal entities that own U.K. property. Since April 6, 2016, the U.K. has required U.K. companies, limited liability partnerships and societates europaeae to establish and maintain a register of persons with significant control over them and since June 30, 2016 and those entities have been required to file such information with Companies House where it is publicly available on the People with Significant Control register.

Currently, information about overseas owners of land or property is often limited to the entity's name and territory of incorporation and it is unclear who ultimately owns and/or controls the entity. The aim of the draft Bill is to prevent and combat the use of land in the U.K. by overseas entities for the purposes of laundering money or investing illicit funds.

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The Bank of England has published the outcomes from a "Proof of Concept" it ran to understand how its renewed Real-Time Gross Settlement service could be capable of supporting settlement in systems operating on innovative payment technologies, such as those built on Distributed Ledger Technology. The BoE has operated the RTGS service since 1996 to provide a safe and reliable means of settling high-value cash payments in real time in sterling central bank money. The BoE published a blueprint for renewal of the RTGS in May 2017, setting out how it proposed to overhaul the system to ensure higher resilience, broader access, wider interoperability, improved user functionality and strengthened end-to-end risk management of the high-value payment system.

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The U.K. Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates has published a paper to raise awareness among market participants of some of the current market uncertainties surrounding issuance of long-dated bonds referencing LIBOR. The Working Group is tasked with helping to bring about broad-based transition to the Sterling Overnight Index Average rate by end-2021 across Sterling bond, loan and derivative markets. SONIA has been selected as the preferred alternative risk-free rate for Sterling and, among other work, the Working Group is in the process of developing market conventions for SONIA-linked bonds. A key milestone for the Working Group will be its publication, later in 2018, of best practice for referencing SONIA in bond markets.

In the paper, the Working Group outlines some of the risks faced by bond market participants who are continuing to issue, offer and purchase new Sterling bonds referencing LIBOR, in particular where those bonds are long-dated. "Long-dated" refers to bonds set to mature beyond the end of 2021, when banks' commitments to submit data for purposes of LIBOR are due to end. The Working Group suggests certain steps market participants could take to mitigate some of the risks arising where LIBOR continues to be referenced in new Sterling bonds issued in the interim period before market conventions and infrastructure for referencing alternatives to LIBOR are fully developed.

View the paper.

The Law Commission has published a substantial consultation paper entitled "Anti-Money Laundering: the SARs Regime," seeking views on proposals to reform the law of England and Wales governing anti-money laundering. In particular, the report considers issues around Suspicious Activity Reports, which are the mechanism by which the private sector make disclosures relating to money laundering and terrorism financing.

The Law Commission has identified a number of legal difficulties that arise from the current regime and, following extensive fact-finding meetings with stakeholders, it has also identified a number of issues in the current regime that are causing particular practical difficulties. In the consultation paper, the Law Commission: (i) identifies the most pressing problems and proposes provisional solutions to improve the current regime; (ii) consults on reforming the consent regime within the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), which sets out the process whereby an individual who suspects that they are dealing with the proceeds of crime can seek permission to complete a transaction by disclosing their suspicion to the U.K. Financial Intelligence Unit of the National Crime Agency; and (iii) seeks to generate and consider ideas for long term reform.

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The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a Policy Statement outlining its final policy and rule amendments on its approach to recognizing industry codes of conduct in unregulated markets, including the process and criteria for doing so. In the FCA's view, industry codes of conduct can be useful in helping firms to communicate what is expected of individuals to meet their conduct obligations under the Senior Managers and Certification Regimes. The SM&CR, which currently only applies to banks, credit unions, building societies and large investment firms (including EEA branches), will be extended to insurers from December 2018 and to all other FCA-regulated firms from December 2019.

The FCA consulted in November 2017 on proposals to formally recognize industry codes of conduct in markets that are outside the regulatory perimeter and to publish a list of recognized industry codes on its website. The consultation set out the criteria to be met for recognition of industry codes and proposed that recognition would apply for a renewable period of three years.

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Following a consultation between October 2017 and January 2018 on a package of revisions to certain of its Guidelines, the European Banking Authority has published three final reports and revised Guidelines aimed at strengthening the Pillar 2 framework.

The revised Guidelines have been prepared in line with the EBA's April 2017 Roadmap for revisions of the Pillar 2 framework, to keep the SREP Guidelines that were published in December 2014 (and in force from January 2016) up to date with respect to the EU and international standards. The EBA also aims to promote best supervisory practices and address issues identified in the EBA's ongoing work on assessment of supervisory convergence.

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The EU Single Resolution Board has announced that Sr. Mauro Grande, Board Member and Director of Resolution Strategy and Cooperation, intends to leave his position. Sr. Grande has been with the SRB since its inception in March 2015. Sr. Grande will vacate the position once a successor is appointed, which is expected in the next few months. The European Commission and the SRB have jointly published a vacancy notice and applications for the position can be made until September 12, 2018.

View the SRB's announcement.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published the terms of reference (dated June 2018) for the pilot phase of its Digital Regulatory Reporting project. The FCA is working with the Bank of England in the RegTech sphere to explore ways of using technology to link regulation, compliance procedures and firms' policies and standards together with firms' transactional applications and databases.

The FCA published a Call for Input in February 2018 following a TechSprint in November 2017, at which a 'proof of concept' was achieved, showing that it was feasible to make regulatory reporting requirements machine readable and executable. Using this "Digital Regulatory Reporting" would allow firms to map their regulatory requirements directly to the data that they hold. Potential benefits include automated, straight-through processing of regulatory returns, greater accuracy in data submissions and faster implementation of changes in regulatory requirements, as well as cost reduction and improvements to competition.

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The European Banking Authority has published a response following allegations by Caius Capital LLP that UniCredit S.p.A.'s regulatory capital treatment in respect of a 2008 issuance of convertible and subordinated hybrid equity-linked securities (CASHES), which had been sanctioned by regulators including the European Central Bank, was incorrect. On May 3, 2018, Caius wrote a letter to the EBA, asking it to open an investigation for a breach of EU law on the basis that the structure of the transaction called into question the eligibility of ordinary shares underlying the CASHES as CET1 capital under the EU Capital Requirements Regulation. Caius has since published further letters restating and expanding upon its arguments that a portion of UniCredit's regulatory capital currently recognized as CET1 under the EU rules is ineligible for such classification.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has launched a consultation on proposed revised Guidelines on periodic reporting by credit rating agencies. Under the EU Credit Rating Agencies Regulation, ESMA is responsible for direct supervision of EU CRAs registered with it. ESMA wishes to update its existing Guidelines, first published in 2015, to better reflect ESMA's supervisory powers and duties. In particular, ESMA does not consider that the current approach of determining reporting requirements according supervisory fees matches its risk-based approach to supervision. ESMA is proposing to establish reporting categorizations for CRAs as well as reporting calendars based on reporting categorization. Furthermore, ESMA is proposing to standardize the reporting templates and to provide additional reporting instructions.

The consultation closes on September 26, 2018. ESMA intends to publish the Final Report on the Guidelines before the end of 2018.

View the consultation.

U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Vice Chairman for Supervision, Randal Quarles, discussed the evolution of reference rates at the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) Roundtable at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Vice Chairman Quarles stated his view that certain markets relevant to some LIBOR tenors are relatively illiquid. He contrasted this with the newly established secured overnight financing rate (SOFR). SOFR is the product of a collaborative effort by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Office of Financial Research, and was created in response to the ARRC's interest in establishing a Treasury repo rate benchmark that would span the widest possible scope of the market. Vice Chairman Quarles further noted that the implementation timetable for SOFR is ahead of schedule, that market participants have begun offering clearing of SOFR overnight index and basis swaps, and that futures markets for SOFR have been introduced on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

View full text of Vice Chairman Quarles’s remarks.

The Financial Action Task Force has published its report to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. The report gives an overview of recent FATF work and its proposed next steps in its current workstreams. The United States takes over the FATF Presidency for the period July 2018 to June 2019 and has separately published a document summarizing its priority and other initiatives for the duration of its presidency.

Read more. 

The European Commission has published a Communication on preparing for the withdrawal of the U.K. from the EU on March 30, 2019. Alongside the Communication, a factsheet has been published entitled, "Seven Things Businesses in the EU27 Need to Know in Order to Prepare for Brexit." In the Communication, the Commission warns all stakeholders that "[p]reparation must therefore be stepped up immediately at all levels and taking into account all possible outcomes." The Commission highlights that it is not yet certain that an agreement will be in place by exit day (March 30, 2019) and that a cliff-edge scenario could still occur. Without ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement, there will be no transitional period providing a further 21 months to prepare for when EU law ceases to apply to and in the U.K. and the Commission is urging all stakeholders to prepare for all scenarios.

In the Communication, the Commission counsels the financial services sector (see page 14) to prepare for a "hard Brexit." The Commission advises that ensuring that there is no disruption to their current business model and that they can continue to serve clients is the responsibility of all operators in all financial services sectors. Notably, the Commission is not concerned, at this stage, about any contractual continuity issues on the principle that the performance of existing obligations can continue post-Brexit. However, the Commission notes that "every type of contract needs to be looked at separately."

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The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority has published a Provisional Decision Report in respect of the Investment Consultants Market Investigation in which it is assessing the supply and acquisition of investment consultancy services and fiduciary management services. The CMA has already published several working papers and an Issues Statement as part of the investigation.

The Provisional Decision Report sets out the CMA's assessment of the investment consultancy and fiduciary management markets, its general conclusions on competition, its provisional decision on competition and provisional remedies to address the identified competition issues. The CMA's provisional finding is that there is an adverse effect on competition which may result in material detriment to customers in both the investment consultancy and fiduciary management markets, although there are more concerns with the fiduciary management market.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a final report on the application of the endorsement regime under the EU Credit Rating Agencies Regulation. The report contains ESMA's feedback statement for its earlier consultation on draft supplementary Guidelines as well as the final supplementary Guidelines.

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. Endorsement allows credit ratings issued by a third-country CRA to be used for regulatory purposes in the EU provided that the rating has been endorsed by an EU CRA. The CRA Regulation sets out various conditions for such an endorsement.

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The Financial Stability Board is seeking feedback on an initial evaluation of the effects of the post-financial crisis regulatory reforms on infrastructure finance. The initial evaluation focuses on infrastructure finance provided by the financial sector, for which the financial regulatory reforms are of immediate relevance. The FSB has established a framework for assessing whether the reforms are achieving their intended outcomes and whether there are any material unintended consequences to be addressed.

The initial evaluation shows the results of a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Basel III reforms to regulatory capital and the OTC derivatives reforms. The results of a qualitative analysis of reforms that are at an earlier stage of implementation, such as investment funds rules and accounting standards, are also presented.

Feedback on the initial evaluation is invited by August 22, 2018. The FSB will consider the feedback in finalizing its report to the G20, due to be published towards the end of November 2018.

View the consultation paper.

U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Vice Chairman for Supervision, Randal Quarles, discussed the tailoring of supervision and regulation for large financial institutions.  Vice Chairman Quarles noted that post-crisis regulations made the financial system demonstrably stronger and more resilient, and that there was some degree of tailoring that occurred in the initial creation of the post-crisis regulatory framework.  Vice Chairman Quarles stressed that while steps have been taken since to improve the efficiency and efficacy of regulation, more can be done to streamline this framework.  He noted that there are still improvements that can be made to allow for greater differentiation in the supervision and regulation of large firms and further tailoring, a theme he has reiterated in several prior speeches.

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The European Banking Authority has published final Guidelines on fraud reporting under the revised Payment Services Directive. PSD2 aims to increase the security of electronic payments and decrease the risk of fraud. The Directive, which has applied since January 13, 2018, requires Payment Service Providers to provide, at least on an annual basis, data on fraud relating to different means of payment to their national regulator. The regulators must in turn provide such data in aggregated form to the EBA and the European Central Bank. Existing data reporting practices vary across the EU. The EBA has worked with the ECB to develop these Guidelines to ensure that data is reported consistently and that the data is comparable and reliable.

The final Guidelines are addressed to PSPs, except account information service providers, and to their national regulators. The Guidelines cover payment transactions that have been initiated and executed, including the acquiring of payment transactions for card payments, identified by reference to: (a) fraudulent payment transactions data over a defined period of time; and (b) payment transactions over the same defined period. The Guidelines also set out how national regulators should aggregate the data.

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The Financial Action Task Force has issued a detailed report on the concealment of beneficial ownership, assessing how legal persons, legal arrangements and professional intermediaries can help criminals conceal wealth and illicit assets. The aim of the report is to help national authorities including financial intelligence units, financial institutions and other professional service providers in understanding the nature of the risks that they face. The report was prepared in conjunction with the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units.

The FATF and the Egmont Group together identified the need for further analysis of the vulnerabilities associated with beneficial ownership, with a particular focus on the involvement of professional intermediaries, to guide global responses. Their joint report brings together the results of analysis of open-source research, public intelligence reports, classified intelligence holdings and public and private sector experience and expertise. It sets out a comprehensive overview of the main characteristics and vulnerabilities that lead to the misuse of legal persons and arrangements, and the exploitation of professional intermediaries, to conceal beneficial ownership.

The report identifies a number of issues for consideration to help address the vulnerabilities associated with the concealment of beneficial ownership.

View the FATF-Egmont Group report.

The U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council issued a proposed decision with respect to a national bank’s petition to not treat the surviving entity of a bank holding company parent merging into its large U.S. national bank subsidiary as a nonbank financial company supervised by the U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System pursuant to Section 117 of the Dodd Frank Act (commonly referred to as the “Hotel California” provision).  Section 117 applies to any entity, or its successor entity, that received financial assistance under, or participated in, the Capital Purchase Plan established under the Troubled Asset Relief Program and was a bank holding company with total consolidated assets of at least $50 billion as of January 1, 2010.

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The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission published their previously announced notice of proposed rulemaking entitled Proposed Revisions to Prohibitions and Restrictions on Proprietary Trading and Certain Interests in, and Relationships with, Hedge Funds and Private Equity Funds in the Federal Register.  The proposed rules seek to simplify and tailor the Volcker Rule.  Comments to the proposal are due by September 17, 2018.

View proposed changes to the Volcker Rule.

View full text of the proposal.

The Financial Market Infrastructure Administration (Designation of VocaLink) Order 2018 has been laid before Parliament. The Order relates to the special administration regime for operators of financial market infrastructures, which came into force on July 13, 2018. Relevant FMIs are operators of recognized payment systems, excluding recognized CCPs (which are already subject to the Banking Act resolution regime in the U.K.) and recognized central securities depositories operating a securities settlement system. However, HM Treasury is able to designate certain service providers to FMIs as infrastructure companies and so bring them within the FMI administration regime.

The Order designates VocaLink as an infrastructure company in connection with its provision of services to the operators of Faster Payments Service, Bacs and LINK. HM Treasury judges that an interruption in VocaLink's services to these operators of payment services would have a serious adverse effect on their operation.

The Order comes into force on August 9, 2018.

View the Order (SI 2018/858).

View the explanatory memorandum.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a final report setting out Regulatory Technical Standards supplementing the Prospectus Regulation, which will apply fully across the EU from July 21, 2019. ESMA consulted on draft RTS in December 2017. The final draft RTS cover:

• the content and format of key financial information for the summary;
• the data necessary for the classification of prospectuses and the practical arrangements to ensure machine readability of that data;
• advertisements;
• situations requiring a supplement to the prospectus to be published;
• requirements on the publication of the prospectus; and
• technical arrangements for the notification portal for passporting prospectuses.

ESMA has submitted the final draft RTS to the European Commission for endorsement.

View ESMA's final report.

The Financial Conduct Authority has published its Approach to Consumers alongside a discussion paper on the potential introduction of a new duty of care and possible alternative approaches. The Approach to Consumers forms part of a series of formal approach documents explaining the FCA's approach to regulation in more depth. It should be read alongside the FCA's Mission document, which was first published in October 2016 and most recently updated in November 2017.

The Approach to Consumers sets out the FCA's approach to regulating for retail customers. The document sets out the FCA's vision for well-functioning markets that work for consumers, the relevant regulatory and legal framework, when and how the regulator will act to protect consumers, the FCA's policy position on key issues and its strategy for ensuring that its consumer protection objective is advanced with the greatest impact.

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The Bank of England's Working Group on Risk-Free Reference Rates has launched a consultation on term reference rates for the Sterling Overnight Index Average.

The Working Group is tasked with facilitating the transition across sterling bond, loan and derivatives markets from the use of sterling LIBOR to the use of SONIA. The Working Group notes that SONIA is an overnight rate, while LIBOR is commonly referenced in longer tenors of three or six months. Some end-users in loan and debt capital markets have reported that term rates are essential for their business needs.

Read more.

A draft of the Building Societies Legislation (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 has been laid before Parliament. The Regulations will come into force on the day the U.K. withdraws from the EU.

The draft Regulations have been prepared using the power under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to address failures of retained EU law to operate effectively or other deficiencies arising from the withdrawal of the U.K. from the EU. The draft Regulations make amendments to various U.K. primary and secondary legislation that relate to building societies. The amendments remove references to EEA countries and territories, EU directives and EU member states that will no longer be appropriate following the U.K.'s withdrawal. In addition, the amendments remove provisions that provide reciprocal treatment to borrowers whose loans are secured on land in an EEA state and to bodies incorporated in an EEA state.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published final draft technical standards under the Securitization Regulation (also known as the STS Regulation). Among other things, the Securitization Regulation, which will apply directly across the EU from January 1, 2019, provides the criteria for identifying which securitizations will be designated as "simple, transparent and standardized" (STS) securitizations. The Securitisation Regulation requires originators and sponsors to notify ESMA when a securitization meets the STS criteria and ESMA will maintain a list of all such securitizations on its website. The Securitization Regulation allows (but does not require) originators, sponsors and securitization special purpose entities to use third-party firms to assess whether a securitization meets the STS criteria, provided that those firms are authorized by the relevant national regulator.

ESMA is mandated under the Securitization Regulation to develop Regulatory Technical Standards and Implementing Technical Standards on these elements. ESMA consulted on proposed draft Technical Standards in December 2017.

Read more.

A revised draft of the Financial Regulators' Powers (Technical Standards etc.) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 has been laid before Parliament. The Regulations will come into force the day after the day on which they are made.

The draft Regulations, which include some changes to the original draft published in April 2018, among other things empower the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator to make EU Exit instruments and to make any necessary amendments to the Regulatory Technical Standards and Implementing Technical Standards that comprise "level 2" of the EU financial services legislation that will be onshored (that is, converted into U.K. law) on the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU. A schedule to the draft Regulations sets out a full list of technical standards that will be onshored and allocates responsibility for making EU Exit instruments to one or more of the regulators.

The draft Regulations have been prepared under the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which sets out an enhanced scrutiny procedure for secondary legislation used to amend certain retained EU law. This means that the draft Regulations will require the approval of both Houses of Parliament before they are made.

View the draft Regulations.

View the draft explanatory memorandum.

View details of the proposed approach to onshoring EU legislation.

View details of the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published an Interim report as part of its market study to ascertain whether competition between investment platforms is working in the interests of consumers. The FCA launched the investment platforms market study in July 2017 after potential competition issues in the sector were highlighted in the course of its asset management market study, on which it issued its final report in June 2017.

The FCA has been assessing competition in the sector by exploring a range of areas, namely: barriers to entry and expansion; business models; platform profitability; the impact of financial advisers; and consumer preferences and behaviour. Noting the increasing vertical integration in the sector, the FCA has also been examining commercial relationships between platforms, asset managers, discretionary investment managers and financial advisers.

The FCA has found that the market appears largely to be working well for both advised and non-advised consumers and that customer satisfaction is currently high. However, the FCA has found that there are some customers for whom the market is not working as well as it should. The interim report highlights the issues the FCA has identified and consults on proposed remedies. The report is supported by eight annexes covering elements of the FCA's research and findings so far.

Read more.

The Financial Stability Board has issued a report to the G20 providing an overview of its current work on crypto-assets and that of the international standard setters, namely the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The G20 Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors issued a communiqué in March 2018 stating that they were concerned that crypto-assets raise a number of problematic issues in the contexts of consumer and investor protection, market integrity, tax evasion, money laundering and terrorist financing. The G20 highlighted that crypto-assets may also have implications for financial stability and called on the FSB to provide a report on ongoing work by July 2018.

Read more.

The General Court of the European Union has annulled decisions of the European Central Bank, refusing to allow six French banks to exclude from the calculation of the leverage ratio certain exposures connected to French savings accounts. Banque Postale, BPCE, Confédération Nationale du Crédit Mutual, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas applied to the ECB, as their direct prudential supervisor under the Single Supervisory Mechanism, for permission to exclude exposures consisting of sums in a number of savings accounts taken out with them and transferred to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a French public investment vehicle. National regulators and the ECB have discretion to allow banks to exclude exposures that satisfy a number of conditions from the calculation of the leverage ratio under the Capital Requirements Regulation.

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A Commission Delegated Regulation amending and supplementing the European Money Market Funds Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The MMF Regulation, which applies directly across the EU from July 21, 2018, allows MMFs to invest in securitizations or asset-backed commercial paper and incentivizes the investment in simple, transparent and standardized securitizations. The Delegated Regulation amends the MMF Regulation (or MMFR) by applying the requirements for STS securitizations provided for in the Securitization Regulation (also known as the STS Regulation).

The MMF Regulation also allows an MMF to enter into a reverse repurchase agreement provided that certain conditions are met. The assets received by the MMF under that agreement must be money market instruments that meet certain requirements. A derogation from those requirements provides that an MMF may also receive instruments that are either: (i) issued or guaranteed by the EU, a central authority or central bank of a Member State, the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Stability Mechanism or the European Financial Stability Facility; or (ii) issued or guaranteed by a central authority or central bank of a third country. The Delegated Regulation supplements the MMF Regulation by providing the quantitative and qualitative liquidity requirements for the assets that an MMF receives under a reverse repurchase agreement where the derogation is being used.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has launched a consultation on proposed amendments to the Regulatory Technical Standards (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/588, also known as RTS 11) providing for the tick size regime under the Markets in Financial Instruments package, known as MiFID II. The tick size regime subjects orders in shares and depositary receipts to minimum tick sizes that are determined according to both the: (i) average daily number of transactions on the most relevant market in terms of liquidity; and (ii) price of the order. RTS 11 calibrates the minimum tick size based on the most liquid market in the EU, without any consideration being given to the liquidity on non-EU trading venues. The result is that EU trading venues have experienced a drop in market share in third-country financial instruments since January 3, 2018 when MiFID II came into effect. The trading venues have highlighted that the decrease in market share is because the RTS 11 methodology requires them to have in place larger price increments than those of their third-country competitor trading venues.

Read more.

The European Commission has adopted a series of Commission Delegated Regulations comprising all of the Regulatory Technical Standards to supplement the EU Benchmarks Regulation. The Benchmark Regulation, which took effect 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. The RTS adopted by the Commission are based on draft RTS prepared by the European Securities and Markets Authority in March 2017.

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union will now have three months in which to raise any objections to the Delegated Regulations. The Delegated Regulations will take effect 20 days after their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Read more. 

The European Commission has adopted an Amending Regulation to make amendments to an existing Delegated Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2015/61) supplementing the Capital Requirements Regulation. The existing Delegated Regulation sets out detailed requirements on the Liquidity Coverage Requirement and specifies which assets are to be considered as liquid (so-called high quality liquid assets) and how the expected cash outflows and inflows over a 30-day stressed period are to be calculated.

The European Commission consulted on a draft of the Amending Regulation between January and February 2018. The Amending Regulation makes changes to the existing Delegated Regulation with the objective of improving its practical application, relating to:

• full alignment of the calculation of the expected liquidity outflows and inflows on repurchase agreements, reverse repurchase agreements and collateral swaps transactions with the international liquidity standard developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision;
• treatment of certain reserves held with third-country central banks;
• waiver of the minimum issue size for certain non-EU liquid assets;
• the application of the unwind mechanism for the calculation of the liquidity buffer; and
• integration in the existing Delegated Regulation of the new criteria for simple, transparent and standardized securitizations.

Read more. 

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a consultation paper on its draft technical advice to the European Commission on the minimum information content of documents provided for the purpose of describing a takeover, merger or division. ESMA was mandated by the Commission in February 2017 to provide it with technical advice for the circumstance where, under the Prospectus Regulation, issuers can benefit from an exemption to the requirement to supply a prospectus when they offer or admit securities connected with a takeover, merger or division. Issuers may, as an alternative to a prospectus, make available to investors an alternative document, which describes the transaction and its impact on the issuer.

ESMA's technical advice sets out the minimum information content of documents describing a merger, division or takeover which is necessary for an exemption from the obligation to publish a prospectus. ESMA invites comments on a range of questions on the content of the following sections of such "exempted documents": (i) operative provisions and definitions; (ii) Minimum Information Content Simplified Disclosure Regime for the Issuer; (iii) the Minimum Information Content Securities; (iv) the Minimum Information Content Description and Impact of Takeover, Merger and Division.

The consultation on the draft technical advice closes on October 5, 2018. ESMA expects to publish its final report on its technical advice in Q1 2019.

View the consultation.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a consultation paper setting out draft guidelines for national regulators on risk factors under the Prospectus Regulation. ESMA has prepared the draft guidelines following a mandate from the European Commission to assist national regulators in their review of the specificity and materiality of risk factors within prospectuses and of the presentation of risk factors across categories depending on their nature.

The draft guidelines cover: (i) specificity; (ii) materiality; (iii) corroboration of the materiality and specificity; (iv) presentation of risk factors across categories; (v) focused/concise risk factors; and (vi) risk factors in the summary.

Comments on the draft guidelines are invited by October 5, 2018.

View the consultation paper.

The European Commission has adopted revisions to the Delegated Regulations on the safekeeping duties of depositaries under both the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive and the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive. The Commission consulted on the proposed changes between May 29 and June 26, 2018. Following feedback received during that consultation the Commission has agreed to defer the date from which the revisions will apply to 18 months after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It had been proposed that the revisions would apply from six months of publication. In addition, the Commission has made certain changes to the text to improve the clarity of the requirements without introducing any further substantive changes.

The adopted Delegated Regulations are subject to review by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. If there is no objection from either of those bodies, the revised Delegated Regulations should apply directly across the EU from Spring 2020.

View the amending Delegated Regulation under AIFMD.

View the amending Delegated Regulation under UCITS.

View details of the proposed revisions to the Delegated Regulations.

A U.K. Order, the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 (Commencement No. 1) (England and Wales) Order 2018, has been made. The Order brings into force, from July 13, 2018, the provisions in the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 relating to the special administration regime for operators of financial market infrastructures. Relevant FMIs are operators of recognized payment systems, excluding recognized CCPs (which are already subject to the Banking Act resolution regime in the U.K.) and recognized central securities depositories operating a securities settlement system.

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The European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a public statement urging U.K.-based financial institutions to prepare for a hard Brexit. In particular, ESMA states that firms wishing to continue providing services across the EU after the U.K. has exited the EU must make timely applications for authorization to the relevant national regulators in the EU member state in which the firm wants to relocate its business. ESMA notes that it has seen an increase in applications being made and highlights that some national regulators have stipulated that applications needed to be received in June/July 2018 for approval to be granted in time.

View ESMA's statement.

The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a statement on Systemic Risk Buffers and Pillar 2A in stress test hurdle rates. The Bank of England announced in its March 2018 Key Elements of the 2018 Stress Test that it would be making four changes to the way hurdle rates are calculated. Hurdle rates are the level that a firm's capital ratio falls to during a stress scenario relative to the level of capital a firm is expected to maintain during the scenario. The PRA's statement provides details on two of the ways in which hurdle rates will change: (i) hurdle rates will incorporate buffers to capture domestic systemic importance, in addition to global systemic importance; and (ii) the calculation of minimum capital requirements (incorporated in the hurdle rates) will more accurately reflect how they would evolve in a real stress scenario.

The PRA has not commented on when further details of the other changes to hurdle rates will be published. The BoE expects to publish the results of the stress test in Q4 2018.

View the statement.

View details of the Key Elements of the 2018 stress test.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has launched a consultation in which it proposes to amend its standard documentation to implement fall-backs based on alternative risk-free rates for certain key Interbank Offered Rates - GBP LIBOR, CHF LIBOR, JPY LIBOR, TIBOR, Euroyen TIBOR and BBSW. ISDA states that the back-ups will apply if the relevant IBOR is permanently discontinued, based on defined triggers.

ISDA is seeking feedback on the approach to address certain technical issues arising from the necessary adjustments that will apply to the RFRs if the fall backs are triggered.

ISDA intends to consult on the technical issues for these changes for derivatives referencing USD LIBOR, EUR LIBOR and EURIBOR at a later date. It requests preliminary feedback on the technical issues associated with fall-backs for these benchmarks in this consultation.

Responses to the consultation should be submitted by October 12, 2018. ISDA will determine which approach to adopt based on the feedback and will publish the final approach for review and comment before implementing any changes to the ISDA standard documentation.

The FSB issued a statement on the same day welcoming ISDA's consultation and encouraging market participants to respond to the proposals.

View ISDA's consultation.

View details of the FSB's statement. 

The Financial Stability Board has published a statement welcoming the consultation by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association on fall backs based on overnight risk-free rates for certain derivative contracts. The statement has been issued to provide market participants with the FSB's views ahead of the consultation by ISDA. The FSB's view is that overnight RFRs are more robust than interbank or term rates because they are based on active and liquid underlying markets. Overnight RFRs are considered by the FSB to be a better choice than term rates for markets where participants do not need forward-looking term rates. The FSB stated that for those markets where the IBOR may cease, citing the example of LIBOR, a transition to new reference rates will be crucial. The FSB acknowledges the work to reform some IBORS excluding LIBOR. It is therefore unclear whether the FSB has factored in the recently announced changes to LIBOR methodology in making this assessment and reaching these conclusions.

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The U.K. Government has published a White Paper setting out its approach and proposals for a future relationship between the U.K. and the EU. The Government is proposing new economic and regulatory arrangements for financial services that would give both the EU and the U.K. autonomy over decisions regarding access to its market. The Government acknowledges that both the EU and the U.K. will want to legislate for their own interests to take account of the differences in the EU and U.K. markets, business models as well as financial stability exposures.

The Government does not intend to replicate the existing EU passporting regime, which is reserved for countries falling within the single market. Instead, the Government intends that the new arrangements would be based on an enhanced equivalence regime that would enable the cross-border provision of the most important financial services and would preserve regulatory and supervisory cooperation. The Government states that the existing equivalence frameworks would need to be expanded, because the EU's equivalence regime does not cover the breadth of U.K. and EU financial services provision and because there are no provisions which ensure a transparent and predictable process with lasting effect.

Read more. 

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced updates to four of its interagency forms: (i) the Biographical and Financial Report (OMB Control Number 3064-0006); (ii) the Bank Merger Act Application (OMB Control Number 3064-0015); (iii) the Notice of Change in Control form (OMB Control Number 3064-0019); and (iv) the Notice of Change in Director or Senior Executive Officer form (OMB Control Number 3064-0097).  The U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System also published updated versions of these forms (FR 2081c, FR 2070, FR 2081a and FR 2081b, respectively) to its website on July 11, 2018.  The FDIC announcement notes that these updates are based upon the comments and recommendations of an interagency working group, comprised of representatives from the FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.  The changes to the forms were made  to improve the clarity of the specific information requested in the forms, provide additional transparency to financial institutions completing the forms, make changes to reflect new laws, regulations, capital requirements and accounting rules and to delete information requests that have been determined to be unnecessary.  The changes to the FDIC forms are effective immediately.

View full text of the FDIC Financial Institution Letter.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has opened a consultation on the exemption from the clearing obligation for intragroup transactions with a third country group entity. There are three Regulatory Technical Standards made under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation that provide for the clearing obligation of interest rate derivatives and credit derivatives - the RTS on the clearing obligation for IRS denominated in G4 currencies, the RTS on the clearing obligation for IRS denominated in certain other currencies and the RTS on the clearing obligation for CDS. Each of the RTS also exempt from the clearing obligation intragroup derivative transactions that meet certain conditions where one of the counterparties is a third country group entity and there is no relevant equivalence decision. An equivalence decision enables parties subject to both the EU and a third country's clearing obligation to only comply with one jurisdiction's requirements.

Each of the RTS sets a different expiry date for the exemption period. These dates are:

• December 21, 2018 in the RTS on the clearing obligation for IRS denominated in G4 currencies (RTS 2015/2205);
• May 9, 2019 in the RTS on the clearing obligation for CDS (RTS 2015/592); and
• July 9, 2019 in the RTS on the clearing obligation for IRS denominated in certain other currencies (RTS 2016/1178).

ESMA is proposing to extend the exemption period by amending each of the RTS to have one unified expiry date of December 21, 2020.

Comments on the proposals should be provided by August 30, 2018. ESMA will consider the feedback in finalizing the draft amending RTS for submission to the European Commission.

View the consultation paper.