Our next 40 minute briefing will be a seminar. In this briefing members from our financial services team and Government Relations team will discuss the EU legislative measures on sustainable finance and the latest green communications from the PRA and FCA. To register your place for the briefing please click here.…

Introduction On 11 November 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published three sets of technical advice to the European Commission (Commission) regarding third country central counterparties (TC-CCPs) under the revised European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR 2.2). The technical advice covers: how to specify the criteria to determine whether a TC-CCP is systemically important for the EU or a Member State’s financial stability (tiering); how to assess comparable compliance; and the fees to be…

On 8 November 2019, there was published in the Official Journal of the EU, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1868 of 28 August 2019 amending Regulation (EU) No 1031/2010 to align the auctioning of allowances with the EU ETS rules for the period 2021 to 2030 and with the classification of allowances as financial instruments pursuant to MiFID II. The Delegated Regulation enters into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the…

On 8 November 2019, the FCA published a statement on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s announcement to extend the SEC staff “no action letter” relating to the MiFID II Directive inducements and research provisions. The letter addresses the potential conflict between US regulation and MiFID II. The existing relief was due to expire on 3 July 2020 but has now been extended until 3 July 2023. The FCA welcomes this decision and explains that…

On 7 November 2019, the FCA published an updated statement on the reporting of derivatives under the UK EMIR regime in a no-deal scenario. The statement explains that in the event that the UK withdraws from the EU without an agreed deal on 31 January 2020, UK reporting counterparties and trade repositories (TRs) should use the UK EMIR validation rules when submitting derivative transactions entered into from 11:00pm on 31 January 2020 onwards. The FCA…

On 6 November 2019, the European Central Banks’s (ECB) working group on euro risk-free rates issued high level recommendations for fallback provisions in contracts referencing EURIBOR. The working group notes that historically, contractual fallback provisions generally only contemplate the temporary unavailability of EURIBOR and do not address its permanent cessation and/or any differences between EURIBOR and any applicable replacement rate. As a result, current legacy fallback language may not produce a commercially fair result, as…

The recording from our latest 40 minute briefing webinar covering the new EU prudential regime for investment firms is now available. The webinar covers: Where we are in the legislative process for the IFR and IFD; Transitional provisions; Firm classification; New prudential requirements; Remuneration and governance; Equivalence; and What does the new regime mean in practice.…