The German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) has published a draft bill which, inter alia, sets out a national transition regime for UK credit institutions, investment firms and insurance undertakings in case of a hard Brexit. The provisions regarding market access of UK institutions introduced by the draft bill will only apply should the EU and the UK not enter into a Withdrawal Agreement. The draft bill aims at avoiding market distortions and risks to…

On 16 July 2018, the BaFin published a speculative study addressing the technological developments of big data (BD) analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). As BaFin President Felix Hufeld mentioned in the study’s foreword the financial sector is undergoing profound technology change with digitalisation reaching new heights. The study describes the BD / AI interaction and how this phenomenon can change the financial system and what implications it has for supervisory and regulatory bodies. BD /…

At the end of March 2018 the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) published an advisory letter on the classification of tokens as financial instruments. The advisory letter has been published in response to the rising number of queries the BaFin’s Securities Supervision / Asset Management Directorate has received as regards whether the tokens, coins or cryptocurrencies underlying initial coin offerings (ICOs) are deemed to be financial instruments in the field of securites supervision. The…

We are pleased to advise that the recording for our September 2017 MiFID II Academy webinar is now available. To access the recording, please click here…

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin) has published a consultation paper outlining amendments to the circular relating to the investment of guarantee assets of insurance companies (Kapitalanlagerundschreiben – the “Circular”). The Circular shall specify the German investment ordinance (Anlageverordnung – the “Investment Ordinance”) which has been effective since 22 April 2016 and applies to smaller insurance companies (annually premium income of less than 5 million Euro) pension and death funds. One…

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our blog subscribers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our next blog postings for the UK, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands will be on Wednesday 4 January 2017. Don’t forget that our January 40 minute briefing takes place at our London office on Wednesday 11 January 2017. Further information on the briefing can be found here…

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin) has published an interpretation circular – which explains the requirements for capital market models for the valuation of technical provisions under Solvency II Directive.  The German implementation of the Directive’s provisions can found in s. 74 et seq. Insurance Supervision Act (Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz – VAG). The interpretation circular amalgamates the provisions of Art. 22 (3) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35 regarding the appropriateness of assumptions on…