The International Organization of Securities Commissions  has published a final report on good practices for the voluntary termination of investment funds which takes into account investors' interests during the termination process. The good practices do not override any legal or regulatory requirements or insolvency regimes. The report covers open-ended and closed-ended investment funds and retail investment funds as well as funds for professional investors. Additional good practices are included for funds established as commodity funds, real estate funds or hedge funds because illiquid or hard-to-value securities can impact the voluntary termination of a fund. These good practices should be read in conjunction with the IOSCO Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation.

View the Report.

View the Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation.

The European Commission has published a Report to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the application of the SEPA Regulation. The SEPA Regulation establishes technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro to allow electronic payments in euro without distinguishing between national and cross-border payments. The Commission is charged, under the SEPA Regulation, with reporting on the application of the Regulation and proposing legislative changes, if appropriate. The Commission has concluded that the SEPA Regulation is applied correctly across the EU and that a legislative proposal is unnecessary. The Report notes that identified issues, such as IBAN discrimination, have been addressed by Member States and their resolution will need to be closely monitored.

View the Report.

View the Annex to the Report.

The Federal Reserve Board, OCC, and the FDIC adopted a final rule, applicable to banking organizations that are not subject to the “advanced approaches” under the US regulatory capital rules. The final rule will extend the 2017 regulatory capital treatment for certain items, including mortgage servicing assets, certain deferred tax assets, certain significant and non-significant investments in the capital of unconsolidated financial institutions, and certain minority interests. Under the final rule, banking organizations that are not subject to the “advanced approaches” capital rules will continue to evaluate these items in accordance with the risk weight and deduction treatment that was applicable in 2017. This extension does not apply to banking organizations that are subject to the “advanced approaches” capital rules, which will continue to be subject to the transition provisions for these items currently established under the regulatory capital rules. The agencies explicitly noted that the final rule was being issued to prevent different rules from taking effect while the agencies consider a broader simplification of the capital rules which the agencies announced that they intended to do as part of the recent review of regulations under the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act. The final rule takes effect on January 1, 2018.

View the final rule.

The final Regulatory Technical Standards under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation on indirect clearing arrangements for exchange-traded derivatives and amending RTS under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation on indirect clearing arrangements for OTC derivatives have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The versions published are equal to those which were adopted by the European Commission on September 22, 2017. Indirect clearing refers to a situation where two or more entities are intermediaries standing between a client and a CCP in a contractual chain. EMIR established RTS on indirect clearing arrangements applicable to OTC products and MiFID extends these rules and principles to exchange-traded products. The EMIR RTS is now being revised to align with the new MiFIR RTS. Both pieces of legislation allow for indirect clearing arrangements to be established, and establish structures intended to result in equivalent protections for indirect clearing to those available for direct clearing (where only one intermediary exists). Various requirements in relation to segregation and portability at client, clearing member and CCP level are established and new required procedures to manage client defaults apply at clearing member level. Two new kinds of accounts must be established at client, clearing member and CCP level which enable such persons to distinguish indirect client positions and collateral from own account client positions and collateral.

The RTS and the amending RTS will enter into force on December 11, 2017 and will apply from January 3, 2018.

View the RTS on indirect clearing under MiFIR.

View the amending RTS on indirect clearing under EMIR.

View the existing RTS on indirect clearing under EMIR.

The Financial Stability Board has published the 2017 list of Global Systemically Important Banks. The list was compiled using end-2016 data and the 2013 assessment methodology designed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The Basel Committee has proposed a revised assessment framework for G-SIBs but has not yet published the finalized version. The 2013 framework identifies G-SIBs by assessing their contribution to systemic risk and imposes higher capital requirements on G-SIBs to reduce the likelihood of their failure. Identified G-SIBs are placed into buckets based on their score of systemic importance. G-SIBs are also subject to Total Loss Absorbing Capacity requirements, higher resolvability requirements and higher supervisory expectations on risk management, risk data aggregation capabilities, risk governance and internal controls.

The G-SIB list comprises 30 banks. The 2017 list is largely the same as the 2016 list except that the Royal Bank of Canada has been added and Groupe BPCE has been removed.

View the list of G-SIBs.

View the Basel Committee 2013 assessment methodology.

Janet Yellen, Chair of the Federal Reserve Board submitted her resignation as Chair and as a Member of the Federal Reserve Board. Chair Yellen’s resignation will become effective upon the swearing in of the new Chair.

View the Federal Reserve press release regarding Chair Yellen’s announcement.

The US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced changes to their respective regulations under the Community Reinvestment Act. The amendments consist of modifications to the definitions of “home mortgage loan,” and “consumer loan,” to conform to the related amendments made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s as part of its implementation of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in its Regulation C. The amendments make other conforming changes, including removal of reference to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, and changes to the public file content requirements of these agencies. These amendments were the subject of a joint notice of proposed rulemaking, published on September 20, 2017, and the Agencies finalized them as proposed.  The changes take effect on January 1, 2018.

View the interagency final rule.

The European Banking Authority has published final Guidelines on the application of the Internal Ratings-Based approach, in particular, the estimation of risk parameters for non-defaulted exposures, namely of the probability of default (PD) and the loss given default (LGD), and on the treatment of defaulted assets. The Guidelines should be applied in conjunction with the requirements under the Capital Requirements Regulation and the final draft Regulatory Technical Standards on the assessment methodology for national regulators regarding compliance by firms with the requirements to use the IRB Approach.

The Guidelines aim to address concerns raised over the lack of comparability of capital requirements determined under the IRB approach across firms which the EBA raised in its Opinion and Report on the implementation of the regulatory review of the IRB approach to calculating risk-weighted exposure amounts for credit risk, published in February 2016.

Read more.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission Division of Market Oversight has issued no-action relief to Swap Execution Facilities and their chief compliance officers from certain timing requirements regarding annual compliance reports and fourth quarter financial reports.  SEF CCOs are required to file the compliance report with the CFTC no later than 60 calendar days after the end of the SEF’s fiscal year, and a SEF must concurrently file its fourth quarter financial report with the CFTC within that same time frame.  Multiple SEFs have cited difficulty complying with CFTC time constraints.  The relief provides SEFs and their CCOs an additional 30 calendar days to concurrently file the compliance report and fourth quarter financial report with the CFTC, such that the reports will now be due no later than 90 calendar days after the end of the SEF’s fiscal year.

The relief, issued under CFTC staff letter 17-61, is set to expire November 30, 2020.

View the Press Release.

View CFTC Staff Letter 17-61.

The European Commission has published a Report of the Commission Expert Group on Corporate Bonds on improving the European corporate bond markets. The review of the EU corporate bond market is part of the European Commission's Capital Markets Union.
The Expert Group makes 22 recommendations which relate to six objectives for improving the functioning of the corporate bond markets in the EU. The recommendations include, among others, amending the Market Abuse Regulation to ease the market sounding requirements although no specific recommendations on how to achieve that are made. The requirements have been viewed as imposing disproportionate burdens on companies, underwriters and other persons. The Expert Group considers that the requirements are aimed at large and liquid markets and not the more local, less liquid markets, such as the corporate bond markets and that the effect of the burdensome requirements may deter intermediaries from conducting market soundings and also deter the less frequent issuers from carrying out new issuances.

Read more. 

The US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System announced an extension of the comment period for two significant proposals that are currently out for comment. One proposal concerns guidance on supervisory expectations for boards of directors, and the other concerns a new large financial institution supervisory rating system. The comment period for both proposals had been previously extended through November 30, 2017, but will now remain open through February 15, 2018.

View Proposed Guidance on Supervisory Expectations for Boards of Directors.
View Proposed Large Financial Institution Rating System.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published proposed Guidelines on position calculation by trade repositories under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation. EMIR requires that derivatives contracts are reported to a trade repository by the parties to the contract or the CCP. Reporting parties do not have to report their trades to the same trade repositories. Instead, trade repositories must take steps to reconcile records among one another.  Repositories are required to calculate the positions by class of derivatives and the reporting entity, based on the reports received. Trade repositories are also required to publish aggregate positions by class of derivatives. ESMA is proposing new Guidelines for trade repositories on calculating the positions because trade repositories have adopted different and inconsistent approaches to position calculation which thwarts the aggregation of data across trade repositories for the purpose of monitoring systemic risks to financial stability. The proposed Guidelines seek to ensure consistency between trade repository position calculations so that overall entity-level positions can be determined by the supervising authorities. The proposed Guidelines include high-level principles and specific procedures for trade repositories to follow and require trade repositories to make available position data in four separate reports – a Position Set, Currency Position Set, Collateral Set and Collateral Currency Position Set.

ESMA is requesting feedback on the proposed Guidelines by January 15, 2018. ESMA expects to publish a final report and final Guidelines in the first half of 2018.

View the proposed Guidelines.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published updated Guidelines on the application of the endorsement regime and Technical Advice on the equivalence of certain third-country legal and supervisory frameworks under the Credit Rating Agencies Regulation. The CRA provides that banks, investment firms, insurers, reinsurers, management companies, investment companies, alternative investment fund managers and CCPs may only use credit ratings for regulatory purposes issued by CRAs established in the EU and registered with ESMA. Credit ratings issued in a third country may be used for regulatory purposes in the EU under the endorsement regime or the equivalence/certification regime. Endorsement allows credit ratings issued by a third-country CRA and endorsed by an EU CRA to be used for regulatory purposes in the EU. The equivalence/certification regime allows credit ratings issued by a third-country CRA in relation to a third-country entity or financial instrument to be used in the EU for regulatory purposes - it does not cover ratings issued by a third-country CRA for an EU entity or a financial instrument issued in the EU.

Read more. 

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published technical standards, technical advice and Guidelines under the Money Market Funds Regulation. These are: final draft Implementing Technical Standards providing a reporting template for managers of MMFs to use in fulfilling their quarterly reporting obligation to the relevant national regulator, which will include information on the characteristics, portfolio indicators, assets, and liabilities of the MMF; Technical Advice to the European Commission on liquidity and credit quality requirements applicable to assets received as part of a reverse repurchase agreement and on credit quality assessments and procedures for those assessments; and Guidelines on common reference parameters of the stress test scenarios to be included in the stress tests that managers of MMFs are required to conduct.

The MMF Regulation will apply from July 21, 2018, with the exception of certain requirements which applied from July 20, 2017, including the obligation on MMF managers to report information about each MMF they manages to the fund's national regulator. The final draft ITS on the reporting template have been submitted to the Commission for endorsement.

View ESMA's final Report.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has given a preliminary ruling on the meaning and scope of "regulated market" under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive following a referral by the Dutch Administrative Court of Appeal for Trade and Industry. A regulated market is defined in MiFID I as "a multilateral system operated and/or managed by a market operator, which brings together or facilitates the bringing together of multiple third-party buying and selling interests in financial instruments - in the system and in accordance with its non-discretionary rules - in a way that results in a contract, in respect of the financial instruments admitted to trading under its rules and/or systems, and which is authorised and functions regularly and in accordance with the provisions of Title IIII". The definition is unchanged in MiFID II which will replace MiFID I from January 3, 2018.

Read more.

The US Senate voted to confirm (54-43) the nomination of Joseph Otting as Comptroller of the Currency. Once officially sworn in, Otting will replace Acting Comptroller Keith Noreika.

US Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard discussed the evolution of FinTech including the impact in the consumer space and the important role that banks, data aggregators, consumers, and other stakeholders play in the evolution of this fast-changing market. Brainard noted that consumers often are unaware of how their data is collected, who it is collected by, and how it is used, which can present issues, particularly in the fast-moving and constantly evolving FinTech space. Governor Brainard highlighted the important role that the consumer plays in the FinTech market, and cautioned consumers against allowing their financial choices to be completely on autopilot without some consideration of the underlying processes.

View Governor Brainard’s speech.

Mike Crapo, chairman of the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, introduced the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act which would introduce significant financial regulatory reform. Among other things, the bill, which received bipartisan support, would reduce the threshold at which a bank holding company is considered to be a “systemically important financial institution” from $50 billion to $250 billion. The bill also provides other relief for community banks, including setting a leverage ratio of tangible equity to average consolidated assets of between 8% and 10% for banks with less than $10 billion in assets. These same institutions would be exempt from the Volcker Rule. US Senator Sherrod Brown (ranking member of the US Senate Banking Committee) released a statement opposing the bill, cautioning generally against rolling back the protections of Dodd-Frank with little or no perceived benefit to working families. The full Senate Banking Committee is expected to mark up the bill after Thanksgiving.

View full text of the bill.

Two regulations and two decisions of the European Central Bank on systemically important payment systems have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force on December 6, 2017. These regulations and decisions have been made by the ECB in its capacity as supervisor under the Single Supervisory Mechanism for Eurozone banks, following the first comprehensive assessment of SIPS.

The two regulations amend: (i) the ECB Regulation on oversight requirements for SIPS, to make clarifications and amendments deemed necessary for the application of the highest oversight standards; and (ii) the ECB Regulation on the powers of the ECB to impose sanctions, to ensure that sanctions can be effectively imposed for oversight infringements.

The two decisions cover procedural aspects for the ECB to impose corrective measures for non-compliance with the ECB Regulation on oversight requirements and the methodology for calculating sanctions when the oversight requirements are infringed.

View Regulation Amending the Regulation on Oversight Requirements.

View Regulation Amending the Regulation on ECB Sanctions Powers.

View Decision on Procedural Aspects.

View Decision on Sanctions Calculation Methodology.

The US House Financial Services Committee announced that it had approved 23 bills, many of which are focused on financial regulatory reform. In a press release, US House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling noted that the bills are intended to provide greater capital market access to small business, and relief for community banks and credit units. The 23 bills include a proposed repeal of Title VIII of Dodd-Frank, which gives the Financial Stability Oversight Council the ability to designate payment and clearing organizations as financial market utilities and allows them to have access to the Federal Reserve discount window. Other bills included in the package would improve the living will submission process and stress testing process, including that a bank holding company would only be subject to the Federal Reserve Board’s Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review process every two years.

View full text of the bills.

Michael Held, Vice President and General Counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York discussed the many lessons learned from the financial crisis and cautioned against the dangers of forgetting these lessons. Mr. Held conceded that although post-crisis reforms and regulations should be reviewed, they should not be repealed at the cost of safety and soundness. Mr. Held discussed the improved resilience of the financial system, including praising the Orderly Liquidation Authority and other post-crisis improvements to the bankruptcy process, as improving cross-border resolution. Mr. Held stressed that financial institutions and regulators need to evolve as systems and risks evolve, in order to be adequately prepared for the next economic downturn.

Read more.

US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray sent a memo to his staff announcing that he plans to leave his position by the end of the month. An interim or permanent successor has not yet been named although it has been widely reported that President Trump is considering naming OMB Director Mick Mulvaney as interim CFPB Director.

The European Banking Authority has published a report setting out the outcomes of its ongoing peer review exercise into whether its 2014 Guidelines specifying the criteria for the identification of Other Systemically Important Institutions (O-SIIs) have been applied effectively. National regulators from the EU Member States and the supervisory authorities of the three countries of the European Economic Area participated in the peer review exercise. The EBA report concludes that the majority of national regulators are compliant, but notes deviations from the Guidelines in some jurisdictions.

Read more.

The European Banking Authority has published final Guidelines on connected clients under the Capital Requirements Regulation, following two earlier consultations. The Guidelines are intended to replace the "Guidelines on the implementation of the revised large exposures regime" issued in 2009 by the EBA's predecessor, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors.

Read more.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has issued two consumer warnings on the risks of investing in contracts for differences relating to cryptocurrencies (that is, digital assets such as Bitcoin or Ethereum) and the risks of trading binary options.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a statement alerting investors about the high risks of investment in Initial Coin Offerings, including the risk of total loss of their investment. The statement is accompanied by an alert to EU firms involved in ICOs reminding them of their regulatory obligations.

Read more.

A Delegated Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union setting out Regulatory Technical Standards for the cooperation and exchange of information between EU national regulators that are the home and host states for payment institutions using the "passport" provided by the revised Payment Services Directive. Under PSD2, payment institutions can make use of the passport either to establish a branch in another Member State, or to provide services cross-border into another Member State. PSD2 will extend the definition of a "payment institution" to include new categories of third-party payment providers.

The RTS set out detailed rules on how national regulators are to assess passport applications and how they should deal with disagreements. The RTS also set out the information that must be obtained and/or transmitted or communicated on a branch, services or agent passport application.

The RTS come into effect on December 1, 2017. The PSD2 passport will be available from January 13, 2018, which is the transposition deadline for PSD2.

View the RTS ((EU) 2017/2055).

The European Commission has launched a consultation on proposals for statutory prudential backstops to address insufficient provisioning for newly originated loans that turn into non-performing loans. Since the 2007/08 financial crisis, there has been a build-up of NPLs in the EU, which impacts banks' viability and lending capabilities. The Commission is proposing to amend the Capital Requirements Regulation to introduce a requirement for all banks established in the EU to cover incurred and expected losses on newly originated loans that become non-performing. The requirements would be in the form of compulsory and time-bound prudential deductions of NPLs from own funds, and where that minimum coverage requirement is not met, a deduction of the difference between the level of the actual coverage and the minimum coverage from Common Equity Tier 1.

The European Commission has also asked the European Banking Authority to provide technical advice in relation to the Commission's consultation proposals. The advice must provide country-by-country estimates on additional/accelerated capital needs triggered for EU banks by the prudential backstops, taking into account, to the extent possible, expected increases in provisions as a result of the application of International Financial Reporting Standard 9 from January 2018. The advice must also assess the impact of certain design aspects too, including those that are relevant to the functioning, scope design and calibration of statutory prudential backstops. The Commission has requested the EBA to provide its report by November 27, 2017.

The Commission's consultation closes on November 30, 2017.

View the Consultation Paper.

View the consultation page.

View the Commission's request for advice. 

Following positive feedback to its consultation in 2016 on the establishment of an Enforcement Decision Making Committee, the Bank of England has published a consultation on the detailed statement of procedure and the necessary revisions to existing policies and procedures that will be required to implement the proposals. The EDMC is being established as a direct response to a recommendation from HM Treasury arising from its review of enforcement decision-making at the UK regulators. HM Treasury had recommended the establishment of a functionally-independent decision-making committee composed of independent members with expertise suited to the Prudential Regulation Authority's regulatory focus. Once established, the EDMC will be the BoE's decision-making body in contested enforcement cases that relate to prudential regulation, financial market infrastructure and resolution. It will ensure the necessary functional separation between the BoE's investigation teams and decision-makers. The consultation paper sets out detailed proposals on the EDMC's remit and operation and the selection, appointment, remuneration and governance of EDMC members.

Comments on the consultation are requested by February 2, 2018.

View the BoE Consultation Paper.

A Regulation amending the European Venture Capital Funds Regulation and European Social Entrepreneurship Fund Regulation has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This Amending Regulation makes amendments to the EuVECA Regulation and EuSEF Regulation in order to stimulate further venture capital and social investment. EuVECA and EuSEF funds have, since July 2013, provided a means for cross-border private investment in small and medium sized entities. Funds complying with these regulations receive a marketing passport which allows them to collect capital from investors across the EU, who are able to commit at least €100,000. EuVECA and EuSEF managers do not need to be authorized under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.

Read more.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control has amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations to implement changes to the Cuba sanctions program announced by President Trump in June of this year, which aimed to reinforce certain policies that had been relaxed by the Obama Administration. Most significantly, President Trump directed OFAC to impose new travel restrictions and curtail transactions with businesses controlled by the Cuban military, intelligence, and security sectors - a prohibition many companies feared would heavily impact the tourism industry.

According to OFAC, the changes are "intended to channel economic activities away from the Cuban military, intelligence, and security services, while maintaining opportunities for Americans to engage in authorized travel to Cuba and support the private, small business sector in Cuba." The new regulations impose new travel restrictions on Americans and prohibit direct financial dealings with more than 80 hotels and dozens of other companies considered to be tied to Cuba's military, intelligence, or security services.

Read more.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a consultation proposing amendments to the Regulatory Technical Standards on the equity transparency obligations of trading venues and investment firms (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/587, known as 'RTS 1') under the Markets for Financial Instruments Regulation. MiFIR requires Systematic Internalisers to make public firm quotes in equity instruments. The quotes must: (i) be at least equivalent of 10% of the standard market size for the quoted instrument; (ii) include both a bid and offer price; and (iii) reflect the prevailing market conditions for that instrument. RTS 1 specifies the concept of 'prices reflecting prevailing market conditions' as being 'close in price, at the time of publication, to quotes of equivalent sizes for the same financial instrument on the most relevant market in terms of liquidity'. ESMA is of the view that this specification needs to be amended because the quotes of an SI can only adequately reflect prevailing market conditions when the quotes reflect the minimum price increments ('tick sizes') quoted for a financial instrument on a trading venue.

Read more. 

The European Banking Authority has launched a consultation on the draft Regulatory Technical Standards on the methods of prudential consolidation under the Capital Requirements Regulation. The CRR provides that banks, investment firms, financial institutions and, when certain criteria apply, ancillary services undertakings, fall within the scope of the prudential consolidation framework. Banks and investment firms are required to fully consolidate all subsidiaries that are banks, investment firms and financial institutions. Different methods of consolidation, such as proportional consolidation, the equity method or the aggregation method, are allowed as an alternative to full consolidation.

Read more. 

The European Banking Authority has published an Opinion and a Report on financial intermediaries and regulatory perimeter issues under the Capital Requirements Regulation and the Capital Requirements Directive. The Opinion and Report are a result of the EBA's up-to-date analysis of issues relating to non-bank financial intermediaries (referred to by the EBA as other financial intermediaries or OFIs) and the scope of EU-level and national prudential regulation. The Opinion and the Report provides the EBA's assessment of the use of the exemptions for certain entities from the CRDIV requirements, national approaches to prudential supervision of OFIs, the ambiguities around the definitions of "ancillary services undertaking" and "financial institution" in CRR and the need to update the list of activities that are part of the EU passporting regime.

The Opinion sets out the EBA's view on issues arising under the EU capital requirements framework that the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the European Union should consider further in their current deliberations over the proposed amendments to the CRR and CRD.

Read more. 

The US Department of the Treasury announced Kenneth A. Blanco as Director of FinCEN, a bureau in Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Blanco has 28 years of prosecutorial service, most recently serving as acting assistant attorney general of the US Department of Justice Criminal Division. FinCEN has been led by an acting director since Jennifer Shasky Calvery stepped down in May 2016. Blanco is expected to transition to his new role within the next month.
 

US Securities and Exchange Chairman Jay Clayton raised concerns about virtual currency offerings or so-called initial coin offerings. He noted that ICOs are  similar to securities offerings by firms required to register with the SEC. However, he was concern that there is a significant lack of information about online platforms that list and trade the virtual coins and tokens that are offered in such ICOs. Clayton highlighted the potential for misconduct, including price manipulation and trading practices. An SEC investigation into two ICOs, announced in September, is ongoing. Earlier this year, the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an investor alert warning about the risks associated with ICOs.

View Chairman Clayton's speech.

The European Central Bank has published a Report on the supervision of less significant institutions under the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The SSM is made up of the ECB and national regulators of Eurozone member states, and is responsible for the prudential supervision of all banks in the euro area. The ECB directly supervises the larger firms, classified as significant institutions, and national regulators directly supervise the less significant institutions, subject to the oversight of the ECB. The ECB is also responsible for certain common procedures, such as the granting and withdrawal of authorization and the acquisition of qualifying holdings in SSM firms. The ECB can issue guidelines, regulations or general instructions to the SSM national regulators or even take over the direct supervision of a less significant institution (at its own initiative or at the request of the national regulator).

The ECB's Report discusses the main concerns for less significant institutions, which include competition, and suggests that less significant firms may choose to consolidate businesses to improve profitability. The Report also sets out the steps that the SSM supervisory functions have taken towards harmonizing supervisory approaches to level the playing field, and highlights that the key challenge that needs to be addressed is the use of different accounting systems because that hinders comparability of data between the firms. Finally, the ECB indicates that it is developing specific policy positions and operational guidance on issues relevant to Brexit and the likely relocation of some activities of UK firms moving into the Eurozone.

View the report.

Acting Comptroller of the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika questioned the US regulatory requirement for banks to maintain a separation between banking and commerce. Noreika noted that the Glass-Steagall Act was enacted at a time when there were very few banks, distinguishing today’s economy where there are many more banks that are subject to a “robust regulatory regime.” He suggested that preventing commercial firms from engaging in banking activities has concentrated US banking operations in a few large banks. He reiterated a commonly expressed view that the financial crisis demonstrated that the separation of banking and commerce does not make the financial system inherently safer. Noreika also rebuked calls to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, challenging the notion that the separation of commercial banking from investment banking in any way serves the best interest of the financial system and economy.

View Acting Comptroller Noreika’s speech.

The European Banking Authority has published final Guidelines on the information to be provided for the authorization of payment institutions and electronic money institutions, and for the registration of account information service providers. The revised Payment Service Directive - PSD2 - sets out the information that must be submitted to national regulators with applications for authorization or registration. The Guidelines are divided into four sets, one for payment institutions, one for e-money institutions, one for account information service providers and one for national regulators. The Guidelines cover, among other things, information requirements on an applicant's program of operations, business plans, evidence of initial capital, governance and internal control mechanisms and data protection.

The Guidelines apply from January 13, 2018.

View the Guidelines.

HM Treasury has published the Central Securities Depositories Regulations 2017, together with an explanatory memorandum. The Regulations implement, in part, certain Articles of the EU Central Securities Depositaries Regulation. The CSDR provides a harmonized regulatory and prudential regime for Central Securities Depositaries, harmonizes and increases the robustness and resilience of securities settlement arrangements and creates a single market for CSD services across the EU. The CSDR has come into full effect in stages since September 17, 2014, subject to a number of transitional provisions that have necessitated staggered implementation within UK legislation. These latest Regulations disapply certain overlapping provisions of the domestic regime and extend the enforcement regime under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to grant additional enforcement powers to the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority. The Regulations create a new category of recognized body, known as a Recognized Central Securities Depository, and establish the procedures to be followed by persons acquiring control over RCSDs. Recognized investment exchanges, clearing houses and CSDs will be required to have appropriate procedures in place for the reporting of infringements. The Regulations also empower the BoE to make rules codifying the requirement that central counterparties notify the BoE of a cyber-incident. The Regulations take effect from November 28, 2017.

View the Central Securities Depositaries Regulations 2017.

View the Explanatory Memorandum.

Randal Quarles made his first public address after being formally sworn in as the new Vice Chairman for Supervision of the US Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System at The Clearing House’s Annual Conference in New York. Although Quarles’s remarks have not yet been posted publicly, he notably called for taking a "fresh look" at various Dodd-Frank regulatory requirements, including stress testing, living wills and the leverage ratio.  Although he generally did not discuss any specifics, he indicated his support for improving transparency, including seeking input for how to improve the Federal Reserve’s stress testing process. He also expressed support for tailoring regulation to reflect the risks associated with a bank’s activities and not just its size. Specifically, he noted that making adjustments to the $50 billion threshold for enhanced prudential supervision under Section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act are not dependent on Congressional action.

The UK Payment Systems Regulator has published a report on the initiatives it has engaged in with banks, the payment systems industry and the Financial Conduct Authority to prevent or mitigate harm to consumers from scams which involve tricking people into sending money to fraudsters. This type of scam is known as an authorized push payment, or APP, scam and is the second biggest type of payment fraud reported in the UK behind card fraud. The PSR has previously investigated APP scams following a Which? super-complaint in 2016 and concluded in its response to the super-complaint that more needed to be done to address them.

Read more. 

The US Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that President and Chief Executive Officer William C. Dudley plans to retire in mid-2018, to ensure that a successor is appointed before his term ends  in January 2019.  Dudley joined the FRBNY in 2007 as executive vice president and head of the Markets Group, and was named the 10th president and CEO of the FRBNY on January 27, 2009. He was appointed for his first full term as president and CEO in 2011 and reappointed in 2016. The President of the FRBNY is limited to a ten-year term, and contemporaneously serves as Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve’s top policy-making body, the Federal Open Market Committee.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that Richard Berner, director of the Office of Financial Research, will step down effective December 31, 2017, one year ahead of the expiration of his term.  Berner was the first director of the agency, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act with the mission of collecting and analyzing data across financial agency jurisdictions. Berner was confirmed by the Senate on January 1, 2013, for a six-year term. Berner’s successor has not yet been named.

Randal K. Quarles was ceremonially sworn in as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and as Vice Chair for Supervision.  Following confirmation by the Senate, Vice Chair Quarles took office on October 13, 2017, to fill an unexpired term ending on January 31, 2018. His term as Vice Chair for Supervision ends on October 13, 2021.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo has authored an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal warning of potential consequences if the European Union mishandles Britain's impending exit from the EU. The European Commission's proposed amendments to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and the regulation establishing the European Securities and Markets Authority would provide ESMA and the European Central Bank with greater supervisory powers over third-country CCPs. Specifically, Chairman Giancarlo argued that the European Commission’s proposed rulemaking that would authorize regulation of financial entities outside the EU by the European Central Bank and ESMA would result in overlapping and uncoordinated regulation in US financial markets. Chairman Giancarlo believes this lack of harmonization and clear jurisdictional limitations could prove expensive and damaging to US economic growth and ultimately impact job growth. Additionally, Chairman Giancarlo suggests that submitting to European rules could set a dangerous precedent going forward which could result in further imposition of European costs and regulatory burdens on the US economy.

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The Financial Conduct Authority has published a consultation paper on proposals to clarify its expectations on authorized firms and their staff when operating in markets or undertaking activities that are not covered by regulatory rules and principles. The FCA cites, as a particular example of the need to clarify its expectations, the spate of enforcement action in response to serious misconduct such as benchmark manipulation by employees of regulated firms in the fixed-income, currency and commodities (FICC) markets, which fall outside the FCA's regulatory perimeter.

A number of solutions to help reduce this type of misconduct in the FICC markets were suggested following the recommendations of the Fair and Effective Markets Review (FEMR) that was conducted in 2014-15. In these unregulated wholesale markets, activities undertaken by authorized firms were often only governed by industry-written codes of conduct, such as the UK's Non-Investment Products (NIPs) Code, rather than FCA rules. One recommendation of the FICC market standards board, which was established as a result of the FEMR, was that proper market conduct should be managed in FICC markets through regulators and firms monitoring compliance with all standards - formal and voluntary - under the Senior Managers and Certification Regimes.

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The Financial Action Task Force has published a 2017 Supplement to the 2013 Guidance on AML/CFT Measures and Financial Inclusion. The 2013 Guidance sets out how anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing measures could be designed to achieve financial inclusion without compromising financial crime fighting. The 2017 Supplement is intended to encourage financial inclusion by providing examples of how countries have adapted their customer due diligence measures for this purpose through simplified CDD or alternative forms of identity verification.

View the FATF Supplement.

View the 2013 Guidance.

The Financial Action Task Force has published new Guidance on private sector information sharing in the context of anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing. The Guidance is intended to improve information sharing, which is a key part of the FATF Recommendations and Immediate Outcomes, by assisting national regulators and financial institutions to implement the FATF Recommendations. This non-binding Guidance discusses the obstacles to information sharing at a group-wide level and between different financial institutions. Those include different legal frameworks for data protection and privacy, financial secrecy laws, operational issues, such as IT capability and lack of policies and procedures, and, for national regulators, implementing consolidated supervision. The Guidance also includes examples of how some countries have addressed these challenges.

View the FATF Guidance.

The UK Banking Standards Board, which was established in 2015 to help raise standards of behaviour and competence across UK banks and building societies, has launched a consultation seeking views, in particular from consumer and civil society organisations, about what the outcomes of a good banking culture look like to consumers. The BSB uses the term "consumers" to refer to retail banking customers (personal customers and micro businesses) and building society members, both potential and actual.

The views of consultation respondents will assist the BSB in developing a "Consumer Framework", that consumer and civil society organisations can readily relate to and that can potentially align, if wished, with some of their own work. An outline of the Consumer Framework is provided for consultation. The starting point for the Consumer Framework is a set of consumer principles (access, choice, clarity and transparency, safety and security, redress and being listened to, value for money, fairness). The BSB seeks feedback on the adequacy of these principles. It also seeks views on its proposals to adopt outcomes-focused approach and on high level questions such as how consumer outcomes could be measured, on the helpfulness of "real life" examples of what the outcomes might mean to consumers and on whether the Consumer Framework would be helpful in setting a benchmark for good practice standards.

Comments on the proposals are invited by January 26, 2018, following which the BSB will publish a further and fuller version of the Consumer Framework.

View BSB News release.

View Consultation Paper: What do good banking outcomes look like for consumers.