Following the rejection by the Council of the European Union (“the Council”) on 07 March 2019 of a draft list of 23 high-risk countries, as proposed in February 2019 by the European Commission in accordance with Article 9 of Directive (EU) 2018/843 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing (AMLD5), the Commission’s services have been working to amend the methodology used to identify…

On 3 July 2019, our financial services team will be holding its next 40 minute briefing, discussing key anti-money laundering (AML) developments. This event will take the form of a webinar; registration and further details can be found here. This briefing will discuss, amongst other things: The changes under the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive High risk customers including politically exposed persons Key themes arising from FCA anti-money laundering enforcement action…

On 12 June 2019, the Financial Supervision Funding Regulation 2019 (Regeling bekostiging financieel toezicht 2019, the Regulation) was published in the Dutch Government Gazette (Staatscourant). The Regulation is based on the Financial Supervision Funding Act (Wet bekostiging financieel toezicht) and the Financial Supervision Funding Decree 2019 (Besluit bekostiging financieel toezicht 2019) and sets out the bandwidths and tariffs for ongoing supervisory costs levied by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, AFM)…

On 13 June 2019, the PRA published Policy Statement 12/19 (PS12/19) on regulated fees and levies, detailing its rates for 2019/20. Specifically, PS12/19 sets out the PRA’s final policy on: the fee rates to meet the PRA’s 2019/20 Annual Funding Requirement (AFR) for the financial period 1 March 2019 to 29 February 2020; amendments to the Fees Part of the PRA Rulebook (Appendix 1); and updates to Supervisory Statement (SS) 3/16 ‘Fees: PRA approach and…

On 12 June 2019, the European Commission issued a press release which takes stock of the progress made to deepen Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union since the Five President’s Report. The press release also states that ahead of the Euro Summit of 21 June, the Commission invites EU leaders to: reach an agreement on the main features of the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness with a view to supporting a swift adoption by the…

On 13 June 2019, the PRA published an updated version of Policy Statement 5/19, regarding the Bank of England’s amendments to financial services legislation under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The Appendix of the Policy Statement has been amended to include B.2A, containing the PRA Rulebook (EU Exit) (Amendment) Instrument 2019. The updated Instrument has in turn been amended so that Annex BF does not enter into force on 1 July 2019 (the…

On 13 June 2019, the Bank of England (BoE) published a press release alongside the FCA and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) regarding collaboration in the field of cyber security. Specifically, the MAS, the BoE and the FCA have announced that they will be working together to strengthen cyber security in their financial sectors. The MAS and the UK financial authorities will commence work towards a Memorandum of Understanding to signify this enhanced collaboration.…