Regulation (EU) 2021/557 and Regulation (EU) 2021/558 (together, the Regulations) were published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 6 April 2021 and came into force on 9 April 2021. Regulation (EU) 2021/557 amended European Regulation 2017/2402 (EUSR)[i] extending the Simple, Transparent and Standardised (STS) framework to on-balance sheet synthetic securitisations (previously only available to “true sale” securitisations) and removing existing embedded regulatory constraints to the securitisation of non-performing exposures (NPEs). Regulation…

On 20 April 2021, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) hosted a meeting of its private consultative forum to discuss its ongoing work streams concerning virtual assets. The meeting was organised in two main sessions: the first session was focused on money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks in virtual assets, and the second session was focused on addressing the revised FATF Guidance on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The meeting…

Date: 12th May 2021 Time: 08:50am – 09:30am GMT Set to take effect in Europe on 26 June 2021 and in the UK on 1 January 2022, the Investment Firm Regulation (IFR) and the Investment Firm Directive (IFD) will make significant changes to the framework governing investment firms authorised under the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). For the first time, a prudential regime has been designed with these investment firms in mind,…

Introduction On 19 April 2021, the FCA issued the second phase of proposed rules to introduce the UK Investment Firm Prudential Regime (IFPR) by publishing Consultation Paper 21/7: A new UK prudential regime for MiFID investment firms (CP21/7). CP21/7 should be read in conjunction with the FCA’s first consultation paper on the IFPR which it published last December (CP20/24). In CP21/7 the FCA sets out proposals in the following areas: own funds requirements,…

On 19 April 2021, HM Treasury issued a press release regarding the comments that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP, made at the Fintech Week conference. Key points in the press release include: To support fintech firms to scale up, the FCA will take forward a ‘scale box’ – a package of measures to enhance its pioneering regulatory sandbox. The FCA will also launch the second phase of its Digital Sandbox to enable firms to test…

On 19 April 2021, the European Central Bank (ECB) published a project report concerning a targeted review of internal models. The targeted review of internal models (TRIM) was a multi-year project launched by the ECB at the beginning of 2016 in close cooperation with the national competent authorities (NCAs) that are part of European banking supervision. TRIM aimed to assess whether the Pillar I internal models used by significant institutions within the Single Supervisory Mechanism…

On 19 April 2021, HM Treasury issued a consultation document on the regulation of non-transferable debt securities (mini-bonds). Non-transferable debt securities (NTDS), commonly referred to as ‘mini-bonds’, are unlisted bonds typically issued by companies to retail investors in order to raise finance. As non-transferable securities, investors cannot sell their investment, which normally must be held until maturity. The issuance of NTDS is, in general, not a regulated activity for the purposes of the Financial Services…