On 28 May 2019 the International Organization for Securities Commission (IOSCO) published a consultation paper on Issues, Risks and Regulatory Considerations Relating to Crypto-Asset Trading Platforms. Prepared by IOSCO’s Committee 2 on the Regulation of Secondary Markets, the consultation paper seeks stakeholder views in order to help IOSCO members evaluate the issues and risks relating to crypto-assets trading platforms (CTPs). The consultation paper identifies eight key considerations for regulatory authorities to take into account when…

The legislative review of the European Commission proposal amending, amongst other things, the regulations establishing the European Supervisory Authorities (so called “ESAs review proposal”) continues in the Council and in the European Parliament. The Commission’s proposal has given rise to several contentious issues, in particular some Member States have raised concerns about the undue and excessive transfer of competences to the ESAs from the national competent authorities. Today, Member State representatives met to continue discussions…

On 12 September 2018, the European Commission published an amended proposal on the amendment of the three regulations founding the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs). The amendments proposed aim to centralise the tasks relating to the prevention and combatting of money-laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CTF) into the European Banking Authority (EBA). The amended proposal extends the supervisory powers of the EBA related to AML/CFT from the banking sector to the financial sector as a whole, thereby…

On 24 August 2018, the European Central Bank (ECB) published an opinion (dated 22 August 2018) on the legislative package on prudential supervision of investment firms. The legislative package comprises of both a draft Directive and a draft Regulation. Together these draft legislative measures amend the existing prudential framework for investment firms set out in the CRD IV, CRR, MiFID II and MiFIR. In general, the ECB supports the objective of the proposals, but warns…

On 04 July 2018 at the margins of plenary session in Strasbourg, legislators from the European Parliament, representatives of the Member States and the European Commission started the final phase of legislative review of proposed regulation amending Regulation (EU) 648/2012 as regards the clearing obligation, the suspension of the clearing obligation, the reporting requirements, the risk-mitigation techniques for OTC derivatives contracts not cleared by a central counterparty, the registration and supervision of trade repositories and…

The legislative review of the European Commission’s September 2017 proposal for a Regulation amending the Regulations establishing the European Supervisory Authorities and other select European legislative acts (ESAs review proposal) is ongoing. As previously mentioned proposed amendments to select European legislative acts aim to reform the governance arrangements of the ESAs and strengthen their supervisory powers, in particular the competences of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The proposed amendments quickly proved controversial in…

The legislative review of the European Commission’s June 2017 proposal amending EMIR in respect of the supervision of EU and third country CCPs (EMIR CCP Supervision) is gathering pace. On 13 April the secretariat of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) committee published over 500 amendments tabled by the members to Danuta Hübner’s draft report (link and link). Following publication of the amendments, the ECON committee members are tentatively scheduled to…