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Our progress this year
Here you’ll find our lawyers’ latest perspectives on the business, legal and wider issues that matter.
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Over the course of the last months, the Russian government has ramped up its “countermeasures” intended to counteract the effect of sanctions imposed by Western governments. Among these…
Author(s): Lukas Pomaroli, Dr. Stephan Denk, Stephanie Brown Cripps, Daniel Gruenwald
Background As discussed in an earlier blog post, on 10 July 2023, the Chancellor delivered his first Mansion House speech in which he outlined new “Mansion House reforms” to help unlock additional…
Author(s): James Smethurst, Christopher Bernard, Sebastian Hilbich
It has been a while since the CESR guidelines on “Understanding the definition of advice under MiFID” were published. To be precise, 13 years have passed since CESR, ESMA’s predecessor, clarified and…
Author(s): Marius Raetz, Alicia Hildner
On 19 June 2023, the UK Government published a consultation on reforms intended to clarify and modernise the UK’s transfer pricing (TP), diverted profits tax (DPT) and permanent establishment (PE)…
Author(s): Edward Buxton, Helen Buchanan, Sarah Bond
Following the launch of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) on 15 June 2021, both jurisdictions have maintained intensive cooperation to deepen their level of partnership to coordinate…
Author(s): Natalie Pettinger Kearney, Pablo Artero Lines, Renea Kamenjasevic
Agreement The European Commission has given its consent to the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the UK and the EU on regulatory cooperation in financial services, and the…
Author(s): Andrew Marsh
On 5 May 2023, the German regulator BaFin issued a press release, informing the public about an update of its circular on so-called multilateral trading facilities (MTF). MTF are multilateral…
Author(s): Jan Struckmann, Marius Raetz
Professional football is not just an entertaining happening for millions of fans around the world; it is also a big money game. During the 2021/22 football season, the top 10 clubs based in the EU…
Author(s): Jan Struckmann, Marcel Michaelis
On 30 March 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (the PRA) published a joint discussion paper (DP) on the review of the Senior Managers and…
Author(s): Michael Raffan, Emily Smith, Megan Rodgers
On 2 April 2023, a major amendment to the Italian Consumer Code entered into force, implementing the EU consumer protection “Omnibus Directive”, and more broadly modernizing and enhancing the…
Author(s): Gian Luca Zampa, Ermelinda Spinelli, Cecilia Carli, Filippo Alberti, Mila Filomena Crispino
Italy has finally implemented the EU Whistleblowing Directive now requiring companies to set up effective reporting channels, protect whistleblowers from retaliation, and duly investigate reported…
Author(s): Giuseppe Curtò, Luca Capone, Federico Mercuri, Enrico Mantovani, Francesca Incaprera Huerta
Following its previous work on a new “strong and simple” prudential framework for non-systemic UK banks and building societies (see our previous blog post for more information on the initial work),…
Author(s): Michael Raffan, Claire Harrop, Lauren Moorin, Fran Kahr
It’s a modern love story: a strong, mutually beneficial partnership where each party grew and nurtured the other over the years; then one party went through a difficult period and had to be supported…
Author(s): James Smethurst, Michael Raffan, Claire Harrop
A quick summary “Retained EU law” governing financial services will be revoked. But, with some exceptions, its substance will largely be retained and restated. Much of it will in future be set out in…
Pursuant to the FCA’s new Consumer Duty Principle, firms will have to act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. This overarching duty will be supported by more specific rules and guidance...
Author(s): Mark Kalderon, Elisabeth Overland
Following the introduction of the Financial Services and Markets Bill to parliament on 20 July 2022 (see our post), the PRA has published a discussion paper (DP4/22) on its approach to policy.…
Author(s): Claudia Rugue, Melanie Fitzsimons
The FCA has recently published its policy statement (PS22/10) on the financial promotion rules for high-risk investments (HRI) and firms approving financial promotions. This follows consultation in…
Author(s): Mark Kalderon, Greg King, Claudia Rugue
Are cryptoassets a type of property? This seems like a relatively straightforward question but for something that is very cutting edge, this question takes us back to some longstanding legal…
Author(s): Claire Harrop, Emma Probyn, Claudia Rugue
In April 2022, in the response to its consultation on regulatory approach to, among other things, distributed ledger technology (DLT) in financial markets, HM Treasury (HMT) confirmed that it would…
Author(s): Claire Harrop, Claudia Rugue
In the very last days before the Parliamentary summer recess, the UK Government introduced the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022 for its first and second reading. Whilst the Bill contains…
Author(s): James Smethurst, Melanie Fitzsimons, Claudia Rugue
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has, rather grandly, set out its vision for the future of the monetary system in its recent annual economic report. Its vision is remarkably similar to a…
Author(s): Cyrus Pocha, Craig Dewar, Claudia Rugue, Bhavya Sharma
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has published its “Principles for the effective management and supervision of climate-related financial risks” following a November 2021…
Author(s): Melanie Fitzsimons, Emma Rachmaninov, Claudia Rugue
On the critical list HM Treasury’s (HMT) policy statement on critical third parties (CTPs) to the finance sector e.g. cloud services providers, contains proposals to mitigate the risk that a key…
Author(s): Melanie Fitzsimons, James Smethurst
The OECD has published a consultation on the exclusion of certain Financial Services entities from pillar one of its two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation…
Author(s): Melanie Fitzsimons, Paul Davison, Brin Rajathurai
The 2022 Queen’s Speech contained details of two proposed Bills that will impact the financial services community.The Financial Services and Markets Bill aims to deliver on the Government’s vision…
Author(s): Claudia Rugue
On 30 March 2022, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a Call For Input regarding the use of ‘synthetic’ data in supporting and promoting financial services innovation. The deadline for…
Author(s): Rhodri Thomas, Emma Probyn, Sophie Horton
As we start a new lunar year, we look ahead to the heavy regulatory agenda planned for 2022 in Hong Kong. These include the introduction of a new investor identification regime in the second half of…
Author(s): Kenneth Hui
The Financial Conduct Authority’s long-awaited 2022 Strategic Review of Retail Banking Business Models finds that digital innovation and changing consumer behaviour are reducing the ‘historic…
Author(s): Paul Seppi, Rikki Haria, Rod Carlton, Francesca Triggs
More than six years after the European Commission outlined its proposals for building a capital markets union in its Green Paper, an important milestone towards the establishment of such a union –…
Author(s): Jan Struckmann, Alexander Glos, Nikita Grätsch
As part of an ongoing commitment by the international regulatory community to ensure new technologies are treated using the principle of ‘same risk, same regulation’, the Committee on Payments and…
Author(s): Claire Harrop, Melanie Fitzsimons, Claudia Rugue
Fintech M&A has consistently been in the news, even during the last 18 months. CB Insights reported in April 2021 that there had been 67 M&A deals globally (including announced, but not yet completed…
Author(s): Claire Harrop, Mark Brewer
The growing popularity of crypto-assets has led to their increasing use in money-laundering schemes. A Europol study cited in the European Commission’s impact assessment (PDF) accompanying the EU’s…
Author(s): Alexander Glos, Marius Raetz, Corinna Wiedenmann, Daniel Klingenbrunn
Brexit Zone
Wholesale Markets Review: an enhanced, tailor-made regime for UK markets
Tax matters: UK Spring Budget 2021 podcast
Memorandum of understanding on financial services: A stepping stone to ensuring equivalence?
Post Brexit - What next for financial services
US Executive Order Prohibiting US Investment in Chinese Companies: Key Takeaways
Financial holding companies are now regulated in China
UK equivalence decisions for financial services