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UK regulators announce a further package of measures to ease the burden on issuers.

By Chris Horton, James Inness, Rob Moulton, Koushik Prasad, Connor Cahalane, and Charlotte Collins

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UK regulators have published further measures affecting issuers, to try to preserve the flow of information to investors and support the continued functioning of the UK’s capital markets. However, the FCA has also noted that issuers will still need to observe their other disclosure obligations, in particular those concerning inside information under the Market Abuse Regulation.

Latham explores the primary legal developments for issuers and their advisers in the year ahead.

By Chris Horton, James Inness, and Connor Cahalane

The regulatory regime and disclosure requirements for listed companies in the UK will continue to evolve in 2020. Issuers and their advisers should be aware of the key legal developments that will occur during this year, including FCA consultations, ESMA guidelines and reports, and measures to increase corporate transparency.

For Latham’s timeline of regulatory regime…

10 Key Regulatory Focus Areas for UK/European Wholesale Markets in 2019

By David Berman, Carl Fernandes  Nicola Higgs, Rob Moulton, Charlotte Collins, and Christopher Sullivan.

In the fifth post of this 10-blog series, we identify key milestones in the derivatives market for the year ahead. This is taken from our wider publication: 10 Key Regulatory Focus Areas for UK/European Wholesale Markets in 2019 – Progress Report. Read the full publication here.

10 Key Regulatory Focus Areas for UK/European Wholesale Markets in 2019

By David Berman, Carl Fernandes  Nicola Higgs, Rob Moulton, and Charlotte Collins

The fourth post in this 10-blog series considers the latest developments in relation to the Market Abuse regime. This is taken from our wider publication: 10 Key Regulatory Focus Areas for UK/European Wholesale Markets in 2019 – Progress Report. Read the full publication here.

10 Key Regulatory Focus Areas for UK/European Wholesale Markets in 2019

By David Berman, Carl Fernandes  Nicola Higgs, Rob Moulton, and Charlotte Collins

In the second post of this 10-blog series, we examine recent and upcoming developments relating to MiFID II. This is taken from our wider publication: 10 Key Regulatory Focus Areas for UK/European Wholesale Markets in 2019 – Progress Report. Read the full publication here.

By David Berman, Carl Fernandes  Nicola Higgs, Rob Moulton and Charlotte Collins

In our January publication, we highlighted what we were seeing as the top regulatory focus areas for our clients during the year ahead, focusing on wholesale market structures and conduct risk.

In a series of 10 blog posts, we will take a closer look at the key areas highlighted, mapping developments from the first half of 2019, and looking ahead to the remainder of the year.

ESMA to introduce measures to restrict the provision of CFDs, and prohibit the provision of binary options, to retail investors in the EU.

By Nicola Higgs and Charlotte Collins

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced the first use of its new product intervention powers under MiFID II. ESMA had announced before MiFID II came into force that it would introduce such measures, and had launched a brief call for evidence on its specific proposals on 18 January 2018. Despite receiving almost 18,500 responses to the proposals (many of which were presumably objections from the industry), ESMA has pressed ahead regardless, suggesting that the consultation was a mere formality.

The measures will introduce:

  • A prohibition on the marketing, distribution, or sale of binary options to retail investors in the EU
  • A restriction on the marketing, distribution, or sale of contracts for differences (CFDs) to retail investors in the EU