International

U.S. and U.K. Sign CLOUD Act Agreement

By Trisha Anderson, Alexander Berengaut, Jim Garland, Marty Hansen & Lisa Peets on October 17, 2019

On October 3, 2019, the United States and United Kingdom signed an agreement on cross-border law enforcement demands for data from service providers (“Agreement”). The Agreement is the first bilateral agreement to be entered under the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act. It obligates each Party to remove barriers in their domestic laws so that U.S. and U.K. national security and law enforcement agencies may obtain certain electronic data directly from Communications…

Financial services: Regulation tomorrow

The European Commission and the UK Government agree the text of a new Brexit deal

By Simon Lovegrove (UK) & Matthew Gregory (UK) on October 17, 2019

hand-drawing-a-red-line-between-the-uk-and-the-rest-of-eu-brexit-picture-id1034405652

On 17 October 2019, the European Commission reached an agreement at negotiator level with the UK on a revised Protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland and a revised Political Declaration on the framework of the future EU-UK relationship. The revised Protocol is no longer an insurance policy that applies unless and until the EU and the UK conclude a subsequent agreement that replaces it in part or in full. It is a fully legally operative…

Trade and Manufacturing Monitor

“Phase One” Agreement Between the United States and China Reached

By Paul Rosenthal & Matthew Pereira on October 17, 2019

On Friday, October 11, 2019, President Trump announced that a “phase one” agreement had been reached with China. Most notably, the U.S. agreed to suspend its plan to increase tariffs from 25% to 30% on $250 billion in Chinese goods, which had been scheduled for October 15. In return, China has agreed to purchase between $40 to $50 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products. The agreement also includes changes to sanitary, phytosanitary, and biotechnology issues…

Financial services: Regulation tomorrow

FCA publishes Feedback Statement on Climate Change and Green Finance

By Daniel Nevzat (UK) & Imogen Garner (UK) on October 17, 2019

On 16 October 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its Feedback Statement on Climate Change and Green Finance (FS19/6), setting out a summary of responses to its discussion paper and next steps. Background The Feedback Statement follows the FCA’s Discussion Paper (DP18/8) on Climate Change and Green Finance, published in October 2018, which sought views on potential FCA action on climate change and green finance, in line with its strategic objective of ensuring relevant…

Financial services: Regulation tomorrow

BoE and FCA joint report on machine learning in UK financial services

By Imogen Garner (UK) & Albert Weatherill (UK) on October 17, 2019

On 16 October 2019, the Bank of England (BoE) and the FCA published a joint report on machine learning (ML) in UK financial services. The report was created following the responses received in a joint survey of 300 financial institutions. The survey questioned firms on the nature of deployment of ML, the business areas where it is used and the maturity of applications. It also collected information on the technical characteristics of specific ML use…

Financial services: Regulation tomorrow

Council note comparing trilogue positions on crowdfunding legislation

By Matthew Gregory (UK) on October 17, 2019

On 16 October 2019, the Council of the EU (Council) published a note (dated 15 October 2019) from the General Secretariat of the Council to the Delegations attaching the following addenda: a three-column table setting out the opening positions of the European Commission (Commission), the Council and the European Parliament (Parliament) in respect of the proposed Regulation on European crowdfunding service providers for business; and a three-column table setting out the opening positions of the…

Financial services: Regulation tomorrow

EBA consults on guidelines on the application of structural FX under CRR

By Hannah Meakin (UK) & Jochen Vester (UK) on October 17, 2019

On 16 October 2019, the European Banking Authority (EBA) launched a consultation on draft guidelines on the application of the structural FX provision under Article 352(2) of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). Article 352(2) allows Member State competent authorities (NCAs) to authorise, on an ad hoc basis, the exclusion of FX risk positions deliberately taken by firms to hedge against the adverse effect of exchange rates on capital ratios from the calculation of the net…

Financial services: Regulation tomorrow

EBA consults on draft ITS on supervisory reporting under CRR

By Jochen Vester (UK) on October 17, 2019

On 16 October 2019, the European Banking Authority (EBA) launched a consultation on new implementing technical standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting requirements for financial institutions governed by the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The new ITS reflect a mandate given to the EBA under Article 430 of CRR which aims to: reflect amendments to the CRR made by the CRR II Regulation and the Backstop Regulation, which introduced a prudential backstop for non-performing loans (NPLs); improve…

Financial services: Regulation tomorrow

BCBS progress report on implementation of Basel III

By Jochen Vester (UK) on October 17, 2019

On 16 October 2019, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel Committee) published its seventeenth progress report on the adoption of the Basel III regulatory framework. The updated progress report provides a high-level view of Basel Committee members’ progress in adopting Basel III standards as of end-September 2019. The report is based on information provided by individual members as part of the Basel Committee’s Regulatory Consistency Assessment Programme. Since the previous report, published in May 2019, the…

Financial services: Regulation tomorrow

EBA opinion on the deadline for the migration to SCA for e-commerce card-based payment transactions

By Matthew Gregory (UK) & Albert Weatherill (UK) on October 17, 2019

On 16 October 2019, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published its latest opinion on the deadline for the migration to strong customer authentication (SCA) under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) for e-commerce card-based payment transactions. Earlier this year the EBA published an opinion providing a non-exhaustive list of the authentication approaches currently observed in the market and stated whether or not they were considered to be SCA compliant. The opinion also acknowledged that some…

International

U.S. and U.K. Sign CLOUD Act Agreement

The European Commission and the UK Government agree the text of a new Brexit deal

“Phase One” Agreement Between the United States and China Reached

FCA publishes Feedback Statement on Climate Change and Green Finance

BoE and FCA joint report on machine learning in UK financial services

Council note comparing trilogue positions on crowdfunding legislation

EBA consults on guidelines on the application of structural FX under CRR

EBA consults on draft ITS on supervisory reporting under CRR

BCBS progress report on implementation of Basel III

EBA opinion on the deadline for the migration to SCA for e-commerce card-based payment transactions

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