On 17 January 2020, the PRA updated its webpage concerning Policy Statement 17/19: Supervising international banks: revision of the branch return. On its webpage the PRA states that it has identified that the branch return form published on 12 September 2019 contains incorrect validations in Part 3. Specifically, validation BRv011 should only apply to column 005 rather than all columns of Part 3. Also, incorrect validations that were embedded in Part 3 of the template…

On 17 January 2020, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a consultation paper on guidelines on securitisation repository data completeness and consistency thresholds. Article 10(7) of the Securitisation Regulation requires ESMA to define regulatory technical standards (RTS) on securitisation repository procedures to “verify the completeness and consistency of the information” that they receive. On 12 November 2018, ESMA published and submitted a final report on securitisation repositories technical standards, which includes a set…

On 15 January 2020, the European Cards Stakeholders Group (ECSG), the industry association overseeing cards standardisation in the Single Euro Payments Area, has published version 9.0 of the SEPA Cards Standardisation Volume (the SCS Volume). Version 9.0 of the SCS Volume takes effect immediately for a three year period. In version 9 of the SCS Volume, updates to the books were made to accommodate the following: conformance to new EU regulations including the General Data…

Our risk consulting team is pleased to sponsor the Financial Services Compliance & Risk Conference, a one-day industry-led conference taking place on March 4, 2020 in London. Amidst increased regulatory expectations, emerging technologies and changing business models, financial services companies must continue to evolve their risk and compliance strategies. This conference will see compliance and risk directors from the financial service industry share insights and practical takeaways in relation to some of the most…

Germany has adopted a new regulatory regime for crypto assets in connection with the implementation of the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5). On 29 November 2019, the second chamber of the German parliament (Bundesrat) approved the “Act on the Implementation of the Amendment Directive to the Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive” (Gesetz zur Umsetzung der Änderungs­richt­linie zur Vierten EU-Geldwäscherichtlinie) which will enter into force on 1 January 2020. The German AMLD5 implementation act (link to the…

The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has issued a guidance notice on dealing with sustainability risks (ESG Guidance Notice). The binding German version was published on 20 December 2019 and later editorially modified on 13 January 2020. Further, BaFin has now also made available an English convenience translation. The German regulator had launched a consultation based on a draft version in September last year (see our related publication on our blog). The administrative proposal attracted…

On 16 January 2020, the Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates (RFRWG) published a statement entitled “Progress on the transition of LIBOR – referencing legacy bonds to SONIA by way of consent solicitation“.  In the statement, the RFRWG welcomes the consent solicitations that have already taken place or are underway to transition legacy bond contracts from LIBOR to SONIA.  It encourages all participants in the sterling bond market (including sterling floating rate…