Client money The COVID-19 pandemic is having a severe impact on many business sectors, and financial institutions are no exception. Many firms are likely to encounter challenges of one form or another in the coming months, as countries emerge from lockdown and seek to resume normal business at different times, and the applicable legal and regulatory regimes respond accordingly. Improvements made to the relevant regimes since the global financial crisis, in addition to certain recent…

The Department of Finance Canada recently released the final amending regulations that amend the existing Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (Regulations). Our previous update on other aspects of the amendments can be found here. The Regulations attempt to bring Canada’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing (AML/ATF) regime in line with international standards, while also addressing the recent industry reports commissioned by the Government…

On 8 July 2020, the FCA published a call for mortgage intermediaries willing to help mortgage prisoners. The FCA is seeking expressions of interest from mortgage intermediaries that are willing to work with mortgage prisoners to help them identify and move to an active lender, where possible, or signpost them to additional support such as debt advice. Chapter 11 of the FCA’s Mortgages and Home Finance: Conduct of Business sourcebook (MCOB 11.9) contains rules…

On 9 July 2020, the European Commission issued a communication on readiness at the end of the transition period between the EU and the UK. The communication includes a section on financial services (section B1, pages 12 to 15) and the key points include: In most areas, such as insurance, commercial bank lending or deposit-taking, equivalence does not allow third-country firms to provide services to the EU but provide prudential or reporting reliefs to EU…

On 9 July 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a letter it sent to the European Commission (Commission) as a contribution to the Commission consultation on the delegated acts on tiering, comparable compliance and fees related to third-country central counterparties (TC-CCPs) under the revised European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR 2.2).   ESMA appreciates that the Commission duly considered the technical advice ESMA provided shortly after the adoption of EMIR 2.2 and recognises…

On 9 July 2020, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) issued a document intended to provide guidelines for its members to handle bilateral claims between trading counterparties, related to penalties applied under the CSDR on failed instructions. The document has been created collaboratively by AFME members and is subject to change. The AFME guidelines should be applied from the date of entry into force of the CSDR settlement discipline regime, which is expected…

On 9 July 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a public statement on external support under Article 35 of the Money Market Funds Regulation (MMF Regulation). The statement has been issued by ESMA in light of financial markets authorities recent actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the EU’s financial markets, to clarify the potential interaction between the intermediation of credit institutions and the requirements of Article 35 of the MMF…