The PRA has issued a Consultation Paper setting out proposals to make minor amendments to UK Technical Standards (UKTS), PRA rules, supervisory statements, Legacy Supervisory Statements, and a Statement of Policy...
Author - FIN. Team
FIN. Team
Joint Statement from UK Financial Regulatory Authorities: Cryptoassets
On 11 March 2022, OFSI, the FCA and the Bank of England issued a joint statement on sanctions and the cryptoasset sector. The statement comes amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to ensure all firms are...
“Market share test” update on commodity derivatives ancillary activities exemption
Article 2(1)(j) of MiFID II exempts firms trading in commodity derivatives, emission allowances and emission allowance derivatives from authorisation as a MiFID investment firm if they fulfil certain criteria. Firms are...
Insurance business transfer scheme permitted
An application under Part VII of FSMA 2000 was made for sanctioning an insurance business transfer scheme which involved the transfer of insurance policyholders from Assured Guaranty (Europe) PLC (in the UK) to Assured...
FCA portfolio letter for Credit Unions
The FCA has published a portfolio letter to Credit Union Boards setting out the usual key risks of harm that are present for Credit Unions, their members and the markets in which they operate. The letter asks firms to...
PSR issues new Specific Direction 12 to LINK
The PSR has given Specific Direction 12 (SD12) to Link Scheme Holdings Ltd (LINK) allowing them to maintain the broad geographic spread of the UK’s free-to-use (FTU) cash machine network. The new Direction follows...
Former Redcentric CFO sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment
Following the guilty verdict back in February of the two former finance chiefs at a London-listed IT firm found to be misleading investors after they falsified the company’s accounts, Tim Coleman has now been sentenced...
FCA launches claims management companies fees cap
FCA has introduced restrictions on claims management companies (CMCs) to prevent excessive charging of fees to consumers owed compensation from financial services firms. The cap on charges is dependent on how much...
Government publishes Prospectus Regime Review Outcome
Following a consultation on the UK Prospectus Regime, the Government has today published the Prospectus Regime Review Outcome. The document sets out important reforms to the UK’s regime for the public issuance of...
FPC publishes consultation to withdraw affordability test
On 28 February 2022, the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) published a consultation to seek the views of interested parties on the proposal to withdraw the affordability test. The consultation, in particular, asks the...
UK and Singapore sign new digital trade deal
Following its agreement in principle, on 25 February 2022, the International Trade Secretary joined her counterpart in Singapore and signed the trade deal- the Digital Economy Agreement (DEA) – that will help...
FOS publishes diversity, inclusion and wellbeing report
Following the Financial Services Culture Board’s report on inclusion, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has recently published its diversity, inclusion and well being report 2021 which highlights...
Kalifa Review – one year on – open letter from FinTech CEOs
One year on from the Kalifa review, the Innovate Finance membership community (FinTech CEOs and founders) have published an open letter expressing their contentment in seeing action taken to implement a majority of the...
Pay.UK develops new data model
Pay.UK has developed a new tool in collaboration with UK Finance to help prevent Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud. The new ‘logical data model’ will be a useful foundation for categorising relevant customer data to...
Treasury Committee hears from financial regulators
As part of its inquiry into the Future of Financial Services post-Brexit, the Treasury Committee held a session on Monday 21st February with representatives from the PRA, FCA and the Bank of England. The aim of the...
Tribunal upholds FCA’s Decision Notice
HMCTS (Tribunal) has dismissed two applications made by an applicant against the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA had given a Decision Notice to Przemyslaw Soszynski t/a Phenix Consultancy (Applicant) refusing...
ASA publishes guidance on advertising cryptoassets
Advertising and marketing associated with cryptoassets is subject to the UK advertising rules policed by the Advertising Standards Authority. New guidance has been issued to assist businesses with complying with these...
IRSG criticises CRD6
The International Regulatory Strategy Group (IRSG) has published a narrative on the European Commission’s proposal for new rules for third country providers of banking services as part of the EU Capital...
Two former finance chiefs found guilty of misleading investors
Two former finance chiefs at a London-listed IT firm have been found guilty of misleading investors after they falsified the company’s accounts. Timothy Coleman, the former chief financial officer of Redcentric, used...
Bank of England launches second round of climate change stress test exercise
As promised, the Bank of England (Bank) has today launched the second round of the Biennial Exploratory Scenario (BES) exercise on financial risks from climate change. The exercise aims to explore what financial risks...
Call for evidence on the UK-India trade negotiation inquiry
The House of Lords International Agreements Committee (IAC) launched an inquiry into the UK-India trade negotiations. The IAC is considering all aspects of the negotiations, but is particularly interested to hear how an...
ECON publishes draft opinion on consumer credits proposal
On 1 February 2022, the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) published a draft opinion on the European Commission’s legislative proposal for a Directive on consumer credits to...
CMA writes to Tesco Bank acknowledging action taken to end breach
The CMA has written to Tesco Bank acknowledging the steps it has taken to end the breach of the Private Motor Insurance Market Investigation Order 2015 (the Order). Article 3 of the Order requires that any additional...
Prepaid cards market hit by huge fines for cartel conduct
PSR has fined five companies – Mastercard, Allpay, Advanced Payment Solutions, Prepaid Financial Services and Sulion – a total of £33 million after finding them to be in breach of Chapter 1 of the...
FMLC reports on UK bank ring-fencing legislation legal uncertainties
Legislation requiring UK banks to separate the provision of core retail services from other activities within their groups has been in force since 1 January 2019. This so-called “bank ring-fencing regime”...
PSR publishes card-acquiring services report
The PSR has published its final market review into the supply of card-acquiring services. The report concludes that the supply of card-acquiring services does not work well for SME merchants and large merchants with...
EU Banking Package 2021
The European Commission has today adopted a review of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) to ensure that EU banks become more resilient to potential future economic...
AFME publishes “Anti-Money Laundering Transaction Monitoring in the Markets sector”
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has published a paper entitled, “Anti-Money Laundering Transaction Monitoring in the Markets sector” in collaboration with Ernst & Young. Recognising the key...
EBA publishes final draft RTS on investment policy disclosure
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today new regulatory technical standards (RTS) on disclosure of investment policy by investment firms. The final draft RTS provides for: specified information that...
Bank of England launches first public CCP supervisory stress test
The Bank of England (BoE) has today launched its first public supervisory stress test (SST) of UK central counterparties (CCPs) to take place over 2021-22 with the clearing services of all in-scope UK CCPs: ICE Clear...
FCA modifies list of derivatives subject to derivatives trading obligation
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has modified the list of derivatives subject to the derivatives trading obligation (DTO) in line with Articles 28 and 32 of UK MiFIR in the newly released PS13/21 in response to the...
ESMA seeks stakeholder input on retail consumer protection
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) today publishes a call for evidence on a number of retail investor protection topics under MiFID II. ESMA is seeking information from stakeholders on three topics:...
G20 Roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published “G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments – First consolidated progress report“, which summarises the progress made during the first year of the...
PIMFA welcomes guidance on ways to structure relationships between advisers and discretionary investment managers
The Personal Investment Management and Financial Advice Association (PIMFA) welcomes the publication of an industry guide by threesixty services LLP, with input and collaboration from PIMFA and DFM Connect, a group of...
PSR responses to consumer protection in interbank payments
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published the outcome of its consultation on consumer protections in interbank payments in PS21/2 – “Consumer protection in interbank payments – response to CP21/4“...
PRA consults on trading activity wind-down
The Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) has published the Consultation Paper CP20/21: “Trading activity wind-down“, which sets out the proposed expectations in respect of firms’ engagement in trading...
PRA policy statement on UK leverage ratio framework
The Bank of England has published the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) policy statement PS21/21, which contains feedback from the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) and the PRA on responses to the Consultation Paper...
FSB reports on regulation, supervision and oversight of global stablecoin arrangements
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published a progress report on the implementation of its high-level recommendations on the regulation, supervision and oversight of “global stablecoin” arrangements...
CMA welcomes new power to tackle competition and consumer law breaches
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) welcomes the Government’s proposals in publishing its responses to the two recent consultations: “Reforming competition and consumer policy“ and “A new...
IAIS reports on first quantitative study on climate change impacts on insurers’ investments
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has published the 2021 special topic edition of its Global Insurance Market Report (GIMAR). As a first global quantitative study, the report “The...
BIS mBridge: a multi CBDC platform for international payments
The mBridge project – a prototype of multiple Central Bank Digital Currencies (mCBDCs) developed by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and the four central banks of Hong Kong, Thailand...
FIA releases principles for cross-border regulation
The Futures Industry Association (FIA) has released a policy paper outlining seven principles to guide the regulation of cross-border activities in the derivatives markets. The paper addresses the threat of market...
ICMA updates on the EU sustainability disclosure regime
In April 2020, the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) published a document summarising the various the new and amended EU legislation on significant sustainability and ESG related disclosure requirements...
EBA to enhance monitoring of digital platform use in EU banking and payments sectors
A Report published by the European Banking Authority (EBA) today on the “platformisation” (use of digital platform-based business models) of the EU banking and payments sector: identifies the rapid growth in...
Update on AIFMD Delegation Rules
The EU has been saying for some time that it wishes to review the rules by which EU AIFMs may delegate investment management to entities outside of the EU. In its August 2020 letter regarding the review of the AIFMD...
FCA updates on property funds and liquidity and consults on LTAFs
FCA has updated on its August 2020 proposals to reduce the potential harm to investors from the liquidity mismatch in property open-ended funds. It had proposed that funds should have notice periods before an...
ABI speech on the insurance industry post Brexit and lessons learned from the pandemic
James Dalton, Director of General Insurance Policy at the ABI, gave a speech to the Westminster Forum on the future of the insurance industry post-Brexit and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting off on a...
Treasury calls for Input on UK funds regime
Treasury has published a Call for Input on the UK funds regime. It views Brexit and the emergence from the pandemic as an opportunity to improve the funds regime to give a wider range of more efficient investments...
FCA writes to Debt Purchasers, Collectors and Administrators
The FCA has written to Debt Purchasers, Debt Collectors and Debt Administrators outlining: its view of the key risks debt purchase, debt collection and debt administration firms pose to their customers or the markets in...
UK Government announces expansion of the Dormant Assets Scheme
The UK Government has announced the expansion of the Dormant Assets Scheme, which is a major boost as the UK recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. £800 million is set to be made available to communities across the UK...
FCA reminds firms to be prepared for Brexit
With the end of the Brexit transition period in sight, the FCA has issued a press release reminding firms to be prepared. The FCA expects firms to have assessed the impact of the changes that will take effect, on both...
Supreme Court dismisses Mastercard’s appeal on collective proceedings
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Mastercard against a Court of Appeal ruling that annulled the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s (CAT) refusal to grant a collective proceedings order in Mastercard...
BoE Financial Stability Report
The Bank of England published the Financial Stability Report for December. The report sets out the Financial Policy Committee’s view on the stability of the UK financial system and what it is doing to remove or...
EIOPA: Peer Review on the collaboration of the insurance NSAs
EIOPA has published the findings of a peer review on the supervisory practices related to the decision concerning the collaboration amongst supervisory authorities in relation to insurance cross-border activities, data...
PRA consults on designating firms within certain banking UK consolidation groups
The PRA has published a consultation paper setting out its proposed approach to designating entities within certain banking UK consolidation groups as responsible for ensuring that consolidated prudential requirements...
EPC Report on Payment Threats and Fraud Trends
The European Payments Council (EPC) has published its report on payment threats and fraud trend for 2020. The report attempts to create awareness amongst stakeholders involved in the payments domain to allow them to...
FCA and PSR Terms of Reference on Access to Cash
On 16 June, the PSR and FCA set out its plans to work with the industry and develop shared solutions to deliver appropriate and sustainable access to cash that meet consumers’ needs, including responding to changing...
UNEP FI Consultation on Guidance: Reporting on Principles for Responsible Banking
The United Nations (UN) Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has published a consultation paper on a draft guidance document designed to support signatories of the Principles for Responsible Banking with...
EBA Guidelines on legislative and non-legislative moratoria
The EBA has announced the reactivation of its Guidelines on legislative and non–legislative moratoria on loan repayments applied in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the Guidelines is to ensure that...
EPC publishes the first SRTP scheme rulebook
Following a three-month public consultation, the European Payments Council (EPC) has published the first version of the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) Request-To-Pay (RTP) scheme rulebook. The rulebook covers the...
PSR intends to operate confidentiality ring as part of card-acquiring services market review
The PSR has published a Notice of intention to operate a confidentiality ring following the publication of its interim report in the market review into card-acquiring services in September 2020. Following a request by a...
FSCS Outlook November 2020
FSCS has published its half year edition of Outlook, which gives an overview of the levy position. FSCS acknowledges that 2020 has been a challenging year for the financial services sector. It has adapted well to the...
Pay.UK reports on impact of COVID-19 on SME business banking
Pay.UK published its findings from its research into the impact of COVID-19 on SME business banking. Overall, SMEs are more likely to say that they are satisfied (rather than dissatisfied) with their bank’s...
FCA outlines its supervision Strategy for Lloyd’s & London Market Insurers
The FCA has published a ‘Dear CEO‘ letter addressed to Lloyd’s and London Market Insurers, providing an overview of the areas of focus of its supervision strategy. In particular, the letter sets out...
FCA confirms fund reporting extension deadlines
FCA has announced its plans to end the temporary reliefs it had given to fund managers to give them more time to produce their periodic reports. It plans: to keep the relief in place for funds with an annual or half...
FCA launches open-ended funds survey
FCA has published a survey to kick-start the joint review it and the BoE are carrying out of liquidity mismatch in open ended funds. The survey was originally due to launch in March. It has asked asset managers to...
FCA consults on open-ended fund improvements
FCA is consulting on reducing the potential for investor harm from the liquidity mismatch in open-ended property funds. Investor harm is caused by the fact that investors can redeem frequently, often daily, yet the...
FCA Guidance on Vulnerable Customers
The FCA has set out new best practice guidance for firms to do more to protect vulnerable customers, and ensure they are receiving positive outcomes. The first phase of the FCA consultation in July 2019 found that some...
FCA Guide: Prepare Your Firm for Brexit
The Brexit transition period is currently operating until 31 December 2020. The FCA have produced a list of key considerations to help firms consider how they will be impacted by this and what action they may need to...
FCA to Ban Motor Finance Discretionary Commission Models
The FCA has announced that it will introduce a ban on discretionary commission models following a consultation in October 2019. As background, some car retailers and motor finance brokers receive commission which is...
HMT Payments Landscape Review – Call for Evidence
In light of recent developments in technology, HMT announced in June 2019 that it was leading a Payments Landscape Review. The first stage of this review, released today, is a Call for Evidence paper which sets out the...
EBA Consults on RTS for Indirect Subscription of MREL Instruments
Today, the EBA launched a public consultation on its draft RTS. The RTS is aimed at specifying the methods to avoid hampering the smooth implementation of the resolution strategy, where instruments indirectly subscribed...
FCA Launches New Register to Protect Consumers
Today, the FCA has launched its updated Financial Services Register. The FCA claim the redesign of the Register aims to help consumers protect themselves from harm and will provide a better experience for the...
Court rules “No DSS” unlawful under the Equality Act
York County Court has ruled that so called “no DSS” policies – which put in place a ban on renting property to people who are on housing benefit – are discriminatory and unlawful under the...
Enhancing Cross-border Payments – A Global Roadmap
Building on the FSB’s report published in April this year, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures released its Stage 2 report. This report aims to identify the building blocks with which a roadmap...
COJ Rulings on Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer Credit Agreements
The following are summaries of two recent Court of Justice of the European Union judgements. Both concern interpretation of the unfair contract terms provisions found in Council Directive 93/13/EEC as concern terms of...
Mortgage prisoners: FCA call for for mortgage intermediaries willing to help
Further to the FCA’s recent change to the rules around mortgage prisoners, they are now looking for mortgage intermediaries to sign up to become part of the new journey these customers can go through. The FCA see...
FCA speaks on investment management role in recovery
Christopher Woolard has spoken to the IA on the role investment managers could play in the post-Covid recovery. He said he is very proud of what FCA has managed to achieve during the crisis to provide the regulatory...
Basel Committee updates on Regulatory Framework Adoption
BIS has recently published a report from its Basel Committee. It provides an update to the October 2019 report on the adoption of Basel Standards across each BCBS member jurisdiction as of May 2020. The Committee note...
PRA release statement on the approach to the application of the Matching Adjustment during Covid-19
The PRA has released a statement (7 July 2020) to insurers on the application of the matching adjustment (MA) during Covid-19. The PRA considers that the MA has functioned as intended thus far throughout the Covid-19...
Payday Lending Market Investigation Order 2015: CMA secures loan write-off from payday lender
The CMA have written to Shelby Finance Limited regarding breaches of Part 4 of the Payday Lending Market Investigation Order 2015 (the “Order”). Shelby Finance breached the Order by failing to send out...
Covid 19 – FCA confirms additional support for consumer credit customers
The FCA has today (1st July 2020) confirmed the new guidance for firms on how they treat consumer credit customers who are still experiencing financial difficulties due to Covid-19. The new guidance comes in to force on...
European Commission consults on consumer credit agreements
The European Commission is consulting, as part of its review of EU consumer policy, on the Consumer Credit Directive. It wants to review the Directive in light of the recent evaluation which highlighted a number of...
PSR confirms widespread implementation of Confirmation of Payee
The PSR have confirmed that from today (1 July 2020), there is now widespread coverage of Confirmation of Payee (CoP). This is the fraud prevention tool which allows people to check the name of who they want to pay...
FCA and PSR publish update on access to cash
The FCA and PSR have today published more information on their joint work to map access to cash and how this will shape their future work in this area. This is a follow up to their joint statement which was published on...
FCA publish statement on Wirecard
On 29th June the FCA provided written consent to allow Wirecard to resume issuing e-money and providing payment services on 29th June. The restriction on activities lifted today (30 June). This means that Wirecard can...
European Commission report on impact of Interchange Fee Regulation
On 29 June 2020, the European Commission published a report on the impact of interchange fees for card-based payment transactions which entered into force in June 2015 (the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR)). The IFR...
FCA updates mortgages Covid-19 page
FCA has updated its website on its finalised guidance for firms on mortgages and Covid-19. The updates are minor, making a few clarifications only, mainly to confirm that firms that could not provide personalised...
Access to Cash: FCA and PSR publish their approach
Access to cash is a shared priority between HM Treasury, the Bank of England, the FCA and the PSR. On 16th June, the PSR and FCA published a joint statement on their approach to Access to Cash. Covid-19 The Statement...
Commission reports on AIFMD impact
The European Commission has published the report required by the AIFMD on the effects the Directive has had on the alternative investment funds industry. Its review covered 13 Member States, selected to give a broad...
Pay.UK heralds COP launch
Pay.UK has heralded the introduction of Confirmation of Payee and has reminded users of the importance of using “first name surname” rather than a nickname on payment details. Its data shows that 34% of...
Covid 19 – FCA confirms additional support measures for mortgage customers
Following its proposal published on 22nd May, the FCA has today (2nd June 2020) confirmed its new guidance for firms on how to deal with mortgage customers who are struggling financially as a result of Covid-19. The...
Pay.UK launches rules and standards for Request to Pay
Pay.UK has launched its Request to Pay framework comprising the message standards, rules and terms and conditions for developing Request to Pay services. Organisations can use it to create the first Request to Pay...
Covid 19 – FCA publishes proposed updated guidance for mortgages
On 22nd May, the FCA outlined its proposed additional guidance (following the original guidance on 20 March) for mortgage lenders, mortgage administrators, home purchase providers and home purchase administrators, in...
FMLC responds on Overseas Funds Regime
FMLC has published its response to Treasury’s consultation on a new Overseas Funds Regime. It notes: the uncertainty around the timing of the start of the new regime – and whether the new regime will overlap...
SCA E-Commerce deadline extended
The FCA have today extended the deadline for firms to implement their e-commerce Secure Customer Authentication (SCA) by 6 months from 14 March 2021 to 14 September 2021. This is to minimise potential disruption to...
FCA updates guidance for pensions firms
The FCA has published an update for financial services firms operating in the pensions market. This represents an attempt to allow both the FCA and those firms to reprioritise resources towards preventing and reducing...
ESMA publishes fund performance fee guidance
ESMA has published guidance on performance fees in investment funds, applicable to UCITS and AIFs that are open-ended (but not EuVECAs). The guidelines are designed to harmonise the way fund managers charge performance...
Regulator Covid-19 update 31 March
Payment Services and SCA Today, the FCA has published an updated version of its webpage on strong customer authentication (SCA) under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs 2017). Protecting customers –...
Annual increase to FOS award limit confirmed
The FOS award limit is the maximum amount FOS can require a firm to pay when it upholds complaints. This limit is adjusted each year in line with inflation. From 1 April 2020, the new award limit will be: £355,000 for...