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Professional investors will benefit from increased exposure to cryptoassets via traditional financial instruments, though retail investors’ exposure remains limited.

By Stuart Davis, Gabriel Lakeman, and Ivan Pizeta

In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency, regulatory clarity is essential for both investors and market participants. In March this year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) made a significant announcement regarding listing cryptoasset-backed Exchange Traded Notes (cETNs) in the UK. This decision marks an important step towards greater regulatory clarity in the crypto industry and presents new opportunities for professional investors.

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The FRC’s future work will be assessed through the lens of the UK’s economic growth and international competitiveness.

By Mark Austin, Chris Horton, James Inness, Anna Ngo, and Johannes Poon

On 7 November 2023, the FRC announced a significant and wide-ranging policy update which included a material change of direction in relation to how it will approach its work in the future and a significant recalibration of how it will take forward its consultation on proposed changes to the UK Corporate Governance Code. That consultation, which ran from 24 May 2023 to 13 September 2023, sought to implement certain proposals in the UK government’s paper, “Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance”. The vast majority of those proposals will no longer be taken forward.

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The FCA reveals its initial thinking on the regulatory framework for primary multilateral trading facilities and public offer platforms.

By Chris Horton, James Inness, Anna Ngo, and Johannes Poon

On 13 July 2023, the FCA published its fifth and sixth engagement papers to solicit discussion and feedback on the regulation of public offer platforms and primary multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) under the new regime for public offers and admissions to trading.

All firms should take note of the FCA’s latest feedback on SMCR implementation.

By Rob Moulton, Charlotte Collins and David Berman

In its latest piece of feedback on firms’ implementation of the SMCR, the FCA indicated that firms must improve their implementation of the Certification Regime and, most particularly, the Conduct Rules. While the FCA’s review focused on SMCR implementation within banks, which have been subject to the regime for more than three years, the findings are relevant to all firms, whether already subject to the SMCR or due to become so this December.

The FCA observes that firms are taking the regime seriously, and focusing on the spirit of the regime. Generally, there is a correlation between size, resources and regulatory interaction, and how mature firms are in their approach to the SMCR. However, the FCA has found that some firms seem to have been less successful in embedding the regime below senior manager level. The FCA considers that there is some room for further progress on the Certification Regime, and that there are potentially more significant weaknesses in the implementation of the Conduct Rules.

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

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

This blog post explores developments relating to the EU Benchmarks Regulation and the transition away from LIBOR. This is the third blog of this series, which has been 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 Nicola Higgs, Fiona MacLean, Brett Carr, and Catherine Campbell

Technology outsourcing by financial institutions (FIs) has increased in recent years as FIs look to the latest innovations to improve their day-to-day business processes and to reduce costs. FIs outsource key functions to a host of regulated and unregulated third-party service providers, and the sector is poised for continued growth. According to research conducted by business outsourcing provider Arvato and analyst firm NelsonHall, outsourcing agreements worth £6.74 billion were agreed in the UK last year across all industries (a 9% increase on the prior year), and financial services firms signed £3.26 billion of them. With this continued growth, the outsourcing sector is increasingly likely to be a hotbed of PE deal activity; and, as regulators place a greater focus on outsource providers, deal teams should monitor regulatory engagement and policy developments.

Outsourcing Companies Evolve

IT and business process outsourcing are converging, meaning outsourcing deals are now different to the traditional, bespoke, dedicated service arrangements firms have entered into in the past. Modern-day outsource providers who have grown exclusively as tech companies are looking to meet the demand for processing and administration solutions for financial products and services in a heavily regulated environment. Notably, the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) recent Investment Platforms Market Study identified that most investment platforms purchase their technology from third-party providers, and more than half of the platforms the study considered are in the process of re-platforming to a new provider. Less than a third of firms in the study rely on proprietary technology. Areas such as cybersecurity and data analytics have also become increasingly important for the sector, driving demand for specialist third-party providers with robust processes.

Examples of good and poor practices provide helpful guidance, and a reminder of supervisory expectations.

By Frida Montenius, Jonathan Ritson-Candler, and Charlotte Collins

The FCA has published TR18/3, setting out the findings from its thematic review of the anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) systems and controls in 13 Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs). Although the review only focused on EMIs, the findings have wider read-across and therefore are of interest to all firms within scope of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 (MLRs 2017).

Indeed, given the FCA’s current focus on financial crime as a priority area in its supervisory (and enforcement) activities — and the fact that updating policies and procedures to reflect changes brought about by the MLRs 2017 perhaps may have been overlooked by some — now is a good time for firms to reflect on AML and CTF systems and controls and check that they are up to date and meeting expectations.

Legislative Decree 107/2018 clarifies new reporting obligations, disclosure obligations, and sanctions, effective September 29.

By Antonio Coletti and Isabella Porchia

Italy has published in the Italian Official Gazette Legislative Decree no. 107 of August 10, 2018, amending the Italian legislative provisions (Legislative Decree no. 58/1998) to transpose the Market Abuse Regulation no. 596/2014 (MAR). The decree will enter into force September 29, 2018 — marking Italy’s completion of the implementation process of MAR. The process began in March 2017 with the amendments to the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) Issuers Regulation.

The EBA’s draft guidelines on outsourcing will impact cloud outsourcing and institutions’ deployment of FinTech.

By Fiona Maclean, Charlotte Collins, and Terese Saplys

On 4 September 2018, a wide audience of interested individuals gathered at Canary Wharf for a public hearing (Public Consultation) to listen to what the European Banking Authority (EBA) had to say in relation to its long-awaited Draft Guidelines on Outsourcing (Draft Guidelines). The Draft Guidelines, which review the existing CEBS Guidelines on Outsourcing published in 2006 (CEBS Guidelines), are the EBA’s opportunity to refresh its recommendations on outsourcing to align more closely with the technical, political, and operational landscape banks face today. The attendees at the Public Consultation raised a number of questions which have, no doubt, given the EBA considerable food for thought. This blog post identifies and explores the key themes of the day. Beyond the key themes identified below, the Public Consultation included discussions of the issues of internal audit, reporting and registration, and supervisory oversight.

Scope

The extension of scope of the Draft Guidelines, as compared to the scope of the CEBS Guidelines, was a particular area of focus during the Public Consultation.

The Draft Guidelines describe their subject matter as “specify[ing] the internal governance arrangements that institutions … should implement when they outsource functions and in particular with regard to the outsourcing of critical and important functions” (paragraph 5 of the Draft Guidelines). The term “critical and important functions” is consistent with the wording used in MiFID II and includes functions which, if a defect or failure were to occur, would materially impair the continuing compliance of the firm’s activities and obligations. In this regard, the Draft Guidelines align with the CEBS Guidelines which described the requirements for “material outsourcing,” a term defined in a similar manner. However, while the CEBS Guidelines noted that “there should be no restrictions on the outsourcing of non-material activities of an outsourcing institution” (Guideline 5), the Draft Guidelines extend to all outsourcing, unless expressly stated otherwise. Many attendees at the Public Consultation noted that this scope was unduly onerous and would become administratively burdensome for firms to manage.

Notably, the broadening of the addressees of the Draft Guidelines (In-scope Entities), to include payment institutions (subject to the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)) and electronic money institutions (subject to the e-money Directive), was not discussed in detail at the Public Consultation. However, an attendee raised a question as to the applicability of the Draft Guidelines to industry utilities. The EBA confirmed they had not yet considered this point and advised that they would reflect and clarify the position in the final guidelines.