The Situation: Prior to the enactment of Capital Requirements Directive ("CRD") VI, corporate governance rules for the financial services industry were not harmonized across EU Member States....more
The Situation: The European Union ("EU") banking legislation has been substantially reviewed and provides notably for a new regime applicable to cross-border activities from non-EU jurisdictions....more
On May 28, 2024, the Chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank ("ECB"), Claudia Buch, announced the decision to reform the current process of annual review of credit institutions under direct ECB supervision...more
In Short -
The Situation: The European Union's Fourth Anti-Money Laundering ("AML") Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/849 of May 20, 2015) granted broad access to information relating to the beneficial owners of companies...more
On July 8, 2022, the European Central Bank ("ECB") released the results from its annual stress tests, this year focused on banks' ability to incorporate climate risk stress testing into their risk management frameworks. The...more
On June 29, 2022, the European Parliament, the Commission, and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the European Union proposal to update Regulation 2015/847 on information accompanying the transfer of funds ("TFR")...more
After June 30, 2021, large asset managers will no longer have the option to "explain" noncompliance with Article 4 of EU Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 on sustainability‐related disclosures in the financial services sector...more
An interest group of EU banks that was formed to assist European financial institutions with their use of public cloud technology recently suggested model terms for the compliant use of cloud technology.
On May 17, 2021,...more
Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 on the prudential requirements of investment firms and Directive (EU) 2019/2034 on the prudential supervision of investment firms (collectively, "IFR/IFD Framework") significantly change the...more
The economic crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus triggered an unprecedented response from European governments to support their economies with various measures of support.
This overview summarizes the various...more
7/6/2020
/ Business Interruption ,
Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (the CLBILS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Member State ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Relief Measures ,
State Aid ,
State of Emergency
The Situation: On June 3, 2020, the European Securities Market Authority ("ESMA") published a consultation paper on Outsourcing to Cloud Service Providers ("Proposed Guidelines"), which will apply to any institution under the...more
The Situation: The European Banking Authority ("EBA") published its Final Report on EBA Draft Guidelines on Outsourcing Arrangements ("Guidelines") on February 25, 2019, which will eventually replace the existing CEBS...more
The Situation: In 2017, French authorities amended laws to permit the use of blockchain, or distributed ledger technology ("DLT"), for trading nonlisted securities.
The Result: The regulation governing the use of DLTs and...more
The Situation: In response to recent cases of money laundering in European banks, the European Union has released an action plan to reinforce its recently proposed anti-money laundering ("AML") and Countering Financing of...more
The Situation: The French government has presented a new bill in order to prepare for a "Hard" Brexit scenario.
The Result: If the United Kingdom leaves the European Union in March 2019 without an overall deal—or with a...more
11/9/2018
/ Consumer Financial Products ,
Cross-Border ,
EU ,
European Economic Area (EEA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
France ,
Insolvency ,
ISDA ,
Legacy Contracts ,
Safe Harbors ,
UK ,
UK Brexit
The Court Decision: On September 25, 2018, the Higher Regional Court of Berlin held that bitcoins would not qualify as financial instruments for the purposes of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz, "KWG"), thus...more
11/1/2018
/ BaFin ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
EU ,
German Banking Act ,
Germany ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
MiFID II ,
Securities Regulation ,
Token Sales
The EU Commission is proposing measures to increase financial sector supervision in the wake of money laundering incidents.
The European Commission recently proposed expanding the Europe Banking Authority’s ("EBA") mandate...more
10/2/2018
/ Amended Legislation ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Cross-Border ,
EU ,
European Banking Authority (EBA) ,
European Commission ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Member State ,
Risk Assessment
The Situation: The European Central Bank ("ECB") has announced that it will set bank-specific supervisory expectations for the provisioning of non-performing loans ("NPLs") in a consistent way across comparable banks, which...more
The Situation: Delayed by two months, the long-awaited bill of President Macron's government relating to economic reforms and simplification of companies' day-to-day operations was tabled to the Cabinet on June 22, 2018....more
7/2/2018
/ Capital Markets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
EU ,
Financial Collateral Directive (FCD) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Foreign Investment ,
France ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
President Macron ,
Privatization ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Risk Management ,
UK Brexit
The Situation: The second EU Payment Services Directive requires banks to give third-party payment service providers ("TPPs") access to the bank accounts of their customers (with their consent), in order to enable TPPs to...more