On 13 October 2019, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a letter from Randal Quarles, FSB Chair, to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. The letter highlights three areas of the FSB’s work: ensuring resilience in the face of new risks. The outlook for global growth has started to weaken and become more uncertain. The long period of sustained global growth and rising asset prices may have weakened the incentives to take precautions against…

On 14 October 2019, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a report to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors providing progress updates on its ongoing work on market fragmentation. In its June 2019 report on market fragmentation, the FSB identified four areas for further work to address market fragmentation. The latest report provides a follow-up on the work done since: The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) June 2019 report on market fragmentation and…

On 14 October 2019, the FICC Markets Standards Board published a final statement of good practice on conflicts of interest. The main purpose of the statement is to provide fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) market participants with guidance as they consider ways in which to identify, manage or mitigate conflicts of interest that arise both: (i) specifically in connection with their FICC markets business; and (ii) more generally across their firm. The means of…

As previously blogged, the European Commission (Commission) has launched a public consultation on the implementation of the final elements of the Basel III reforms. Chapter 8 of the Commission consultation document covers sustainable finance. The Commission notes three actions that have been identified by the co-legislators in the course of the recent legislative review of amendments to Capital Requirements Regulation and Directive (CRR/CRD IV), and which included: a mandate for the European Banking Authority (EBA)…

On October 11, 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the US anti-money laundering (AML) agency, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (collectively, the “Agencies”) issued a joint statement on digital assets activities (“Statement”), reminding the businesses under their jurisdictions that digital assets activities may be subject to AML obligations under the primary US AML statute known as the “Bank Secrecy Act”(BSA). The BSA authorizes the…

What do cryptocurrency issuers mean when they say their cryptocurrency is “backed” by some other asset, such as fiat currency? In a recent New York Law Journal column, Robert Schwinger, a partner in the New York office of Norton Rose Fulbright, discusses some of the legal issues arising from claims by cryptocurrency issuers that their currency is “backed” by another asset. Regulation Tomorrow has been following the fintech area for several years and Norton…

On 11 October 2019, the European Commission (Commission) launched consultation on a review of the EU Benchmarks Regulation (BMR). The Commission is mandated by Article 54 BMR to conduct a review of certain provisions of the BMR and to submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council by 1 January 2020. In addition, by 1 April 2020 the Commission must report on the implementation of the BMR’s third-country benchmark regime. The deadline…