On 14 October 2019, the FICC Markets Standards Board published a final statement of good practice on conflicts of interest. The main purpose of the statement is to provide fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) market participants with guidance as they consider ways in which to identify, manage or mitigate conflicts of interest that arise both: (i) specifically in connection with their FICC markets business; and (ii) more generally across their firm. The means of…

On 11 October 2019, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) jointly published the fourth progress report on the implementation of the second phase of the G20 data gaps initiative (DGI-2). The report provides an overview of the progress made since September 2018 in addressing the issue of post-crisis data gaps and highlights the challenges that remain in implementing the DGI-2 recommendations until the final deadline of 2021. Key observations in the…

On 10 October 2019, HM Treasury published a letter (dated 9 October 2019) from John Glen MP, Economic Secretary to HM Treasury, to the Earl of Kinnoull, House of Lords EU Committee Chair, in respect of the proposed Regulation amending the Benchmarks Regulation (BMR) on low carbon benchmarks and positive carbon impact benchmarks. Mr Glen confirms that the proposed Regulation has now completed trilogues and is expected to proceed to the Council of the EU…

On 10 October 2019, the FCA published instructions for its Financial Instruments Transparency System (FITRS). The instructions provide details on the files containing UK only transparency calculation results that the FCA will publish and instructions on how to use these files. The FCA states that that the intended audience for these instructions are market participants that need to make use of the UK transparency calculation results in compliance with the Markets in Financial Instruments (Amendment)…

On 7 October 2019, the FCA published the latest issue of Market Watch (no. 61), its newsletter on market conduct and transaction reporting issues. In this issue of Market Watch, the FCA provides information to help firms prepare for a possible no-deal Brexit on 31 October 2019. Firms requiring guidance on Brexit-related issues should look to the FCA webpage on Brexit, and should consider the outstanding issues highlighted in the FCA’s Chief Executive’s speech given…

On 8 October 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued its final report on a set of draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on co-operation arrangements under the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). Article 26 of MAR mandates ESMA to develop draft RTS containing a template document for cooperation arrangements that are to be used by Member State national competent authorities (NCAs) where possible for cooperation with the supervisory authorities of third countries. ESMA was…

On 8 October 2019, the outgoing Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, gave a speech on TCFD: strengthening the foundations of sustainable finance, to the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Summit in Tokyo. In his speech Dr Carney takes stock of the progress made to date since the final TCFD recommendations were published, and the path ahead for improving reporting and risk management. Key points include: The demand for TCFD disclosure…