U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that a "Brexit Freedoms Bill" will be put before Parliament. Upon Brexit taking effect, all then in force EU Regulations were "on-shored" automatically into U.K. laws, pursuant...more
Striking a balance between investor protection and market development -
The U.K. is assessing its financial promotion framework, and changes are being made or proposed to amend the laws and rules. Financial promotions are...more
2/11/2022
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Cryptoassets ,
Financial Adviser ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
HM Treasury ,
Investors ,
Sustainable Finance ,
UK
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the financial promotion rules. The proposals range from rules relating to the approval by authorized firms of financial promotions of...more
Following its July 2020 consultation, HM Treasury has published a consultation response on its proposals to amend the U.K.'s financial promotion rules. These include changes to subject unregulated crypto-assets to the...more
HM Treasury has announced that Gwyneth Nurse has been appointed...more
HM Treasury has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the financial promotion exemptions for high net worth individuals and sophisticated investors. The aim of the proposals is to mitigate the misuse of the...more
The U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority has published a feedback statement to the discussion paper published earlier this year in which it proposed introducing a "strong and simple" prudential framework for non-systemic...more
Following its call for evidence earlier this year, HM Treasury has published its report on the review of the U.K. Securitization Regulation. HM Treasury was required to conduct a review of the functioning of the Regulation...more
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a feedback statement relating to the call for input on accessing and using wholesale data. In the feedback statement, the FCA summarizes the responses received and the FCA's...more
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement confirming its approach to supervising commodity derivatives position limits. The statement follows the FCA's Supervisory Statement on the operation of the...more
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has published a statement in which it confirms that it will amend the Technical Standards and related Handbook provisions to align with the extended exemption from the requirements of the...more
An EU Commission Delegated Regulation (2021/2268) amending the Regulatory Technical Standards supplementing the EU Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance-based Products Regulation has been published in the Official Journal...more
European Commissioner McGuinness has announced that in early 2022 the European Commission will be proposing an extension of the time-limited equivalence granted to U.K. CCPs...more
HM Treasury has launched a consultation, the Financial Services Future Regulatory Framework Review: Proposals for Reform. The consultation paper presents the government's response to the feedback received to the October 2020...more
The European Union’s financial regulatory regime for third-country access in many sectors relies on a framework of “equivalence,” whereby institutions based in approved non-EU countries with similar standards may have varying...more
10/22/2020
/ EIOPA ,
EMIR ,
EU ,
European Banking Authority (EBA) ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
FinTech ,
MiFID II ,
MiFIR ,
UK ,
UK Brexit
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented disruption to worldwide markets and personal livelihoods, affecting global companies, small companies and main street businesses alike. As business owners struggle to...more
The European Union’s financial regulatory regime for third-country access in many sectors relies on a framework of “equivalence,” whereby institutions based in approved non-EU countries with similar standards may have varying...more
The U.K. House of Commons has approved the Withdrawal Agreement. Assuming this is ratified by the EU, and Royal Assent is achieved in time, the U.K. will leave the EU on January 31, 2020, entering into a “transition” or...more
1/15/2020
/ Cross-Border Transactions ,
Data Protection ,
EU ,
EU Action Plans ,
European Commission ,
Federal Agency Taskforce ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Framework Agreement ,
UK ,
UK Brexit
Non-EU banking groups (“non-EU groups”) with large EU operations will be required to establish an EU intermediate parent undertaking (“IPU”) according to the final changes to the Capital Requirements Directive (“CRD 5”)...more
3/26/2019
/ Banking Sector ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Capital Requirements ,
EU ,
FDIC ,
Foreign Banks ,
Intermediate Holding Company (IHCs) ,
Investment Firms ,
New Legislation ,
Third Country Entities (TCEs) ,
UK ,
UK Brexit
This client memorandum concerns a highly technical point of considerable practical importance. It challenges aspects of the received wisdom that, for post-Brexit cross-border investment business conducted from the U.K. into...more
Many EU and U.K. financial institutions have been waiting with bated breath for (and commencing their contingency plans without) a clear picture of what post-Brexit U.K.-EU financial services will look like. In this note we...more
8/21/2018
/ Central Counterparties ,
EMIR ,
EU ,
EU Passport ,
European Economic Area (EEA) ,
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
HM Treasury ,
Senior Management Regime (SMR) ,
Short Selling ,
Third Country Entities (TCEs) ,
UK ,
UK Brexit
The European Commission today published a communication addressing the possible consequences of a hard Brexit. In it, they discuss the long-standing question of the continuity of contracts that straddle the Brexit date. This...more
The U.K.’s HM Treasury has set out its approach to the grandfathering of EU27 businesses on Brexit and to how existing EU financial services directives and regulations are to be adopted into U.K. law at the moment of Brexit...more
On April 18, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) took the long-awaited step of proposing rules, interpretations and guidance (the “Proposed Rules”) that would seek to enhance and clarify the standards of...more
4/25/2018
/ Best Interest Standard ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Comment Period ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
EU ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Investment Adviser ,
MiFID II ,
Packaged Retail And Insurance-Based Investment Products (PRIIPS) ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Retirement Plan ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
UK
Guidance of questionable legal accuracy from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) casts doubt on the ability of non-EU members of EU exchanges to provide client access to such exchanges through a technique...more