HM Treasury has published a policy note and a draft statutory instrument—The Payment Services and Payment Accounts (Contract Terminations) (Amendment) Regulations 2024—on strengthening requirements in the Payment Services...more
HM Treasury has published a policy note and a draft statutory instrument—The Payment Services (Amendment) Regulations 2024—on a risk-based approach to payments to mitigate against authorized push payment fraud. HM Treasury...more
Regulated financial services institutions and financial market infrastructure (FMI) providers often rely on third parties who provide significant services to them behind the scenes, including “cloud” services and IT services...more
The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority have published a joint policy statement confirming the "bonus cap" will be removed. Banks are subject to compensation requirements for staff who have a...more
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published a press release in early October in which it announced...more
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is consulting on its proposed rules for securitization markets, which will replace many of the firm-facing requirements under the existing U.K. Securitization Regulation. The U.K....more
On July 5, 2023, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority launched a consultation on a proposed U.K. consolidated tape for bonds. MiFID II introduced requirements for a "consolidated tape" for transactions in equity and...more
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2023 were made on July 10, 2023 and will bring into force provisions under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 from either July 11, 2023,...more
The report and recommendations of the UK Investment Research Review were published on July 10, 2023. The recommendations have been accepted by the government and the Financial Conduct Authority has committed to prioritizing...more
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority launched a consultation on July 14, 2023, on its proposed Rule Review Framework. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 transfers responsibility for making detailed rules to the...more
Following rigorous debate in Parliament, the U.K.'s latest Financial Services and Markets Act (FSM Act) received royal assent on June 29, 2023. The FSM Act significantly changes the U.K.'s regulatory framework for financial...more
HM Treasury has published a near-final draft statutory instrument and related Policy Note setting out its proposed reforms to the U.K. prospectus regime. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has also published a series of six...more
On June 27, 2023, the EU and U.K. signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Financial Services Cooperation, a high-level agreement on future cooperation in the regulation of financial services. The MoU provides for -
-...more
The U.K. Government announced on 9 December 2022 a series of initiatives, billed as the Edinburgh Reforms, to reform the laws for the U.K. financial services sector. In this note, we consider these reforms in detail and what...more
12/21/2022
/ Banking Sector ,
Cryptoassets ,
Digital Assets ,
EU ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) ,
Sustainable Finance ,
UK ,
UK Brexit
The U.K. Government has published the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, known as the Brexit Freedoms Bill, which aims to repeal or assimilate retained EU law and abolish the principle of the supremacy of EU law in...more
With the war in Ukraine raging on, the U.S. continued to escalate its sanctions response against Russia. The U.S. announced extensive trade and investment bans that prohibit U.S. persons from making any “new investment” in...more
8/23/2022
/ Banking Sector ,
Biden Administration ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Policy ,
Iran ,
North Korea ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Russia ,
Sanctions ,
Ukraine
HM Treasury has published a summary of responses it received to its consultation on protecting access to cash across the U.K. In the response, HM Treasury confirms that it will be proceeding with the proposal to designate...more
The European Commission has launched a targeted consultation on a possible digital euro. The EU is considering introducing a digital euro for retail payments, which would be available alongside cash. A decision has not yet...more
The Biden Administration this quarter announced fewer targeted sanctions, but issued several “whole of government” advisories regarding sanctions risks associated with China-related business dealings, as well as virtual...more
10/29/2021
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Customs ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Financial Institutions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Sanctions
Financial institutions operating across multiple jurisdictions face a myriad of regulatory challenges, including those arising from differences between regulators in: (a) the substance of their laws, regulations and...more
European banks operating across multiple jurisdictions face a set of specific regulatory challenges, including...more
The FCA has published a series of measures and regulatory guidance on how financial services firms should deal with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In our previous client notes, “Planning in a Time of Pandemic:...more
4/1/2020
/ Banking Sector ,
Consultation ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Planning ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Payment Systems ,
Relief Measures ,
Short Sales ,
telephone-recording ,
UK ,
UK Payment Systems Regulator
The Bank of England (BOE) has announced a series of policy measures designed to help U.K. financial market participants deal with the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The latest measures, announced on 20 March...more
The economic and operational stresses caused by the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) are highlighting the need for regulated financial institutions to formulate responses to address significant business disruptions (SBDs) and to...more
The expanded Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR), which comes into force on December 9, 2019, extends the framework regulating individuals charged with running certain financial institutions. The Banking SM&CR,...more
7/9/2019
/ Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) ,
Asset Management ,
Banking Sector ,
Brokers ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FSMA ,
Investment Adviser ,
Senior Management Regime (SMR) ,
Senior Managers ,
SMCR ,
UK