UK Financial Conduct Authority publishes Notice 120

Welcome to UK Regulation Round Up, a regular newsletter outlining the latest developments in financial services regulation in the UK and EU.

Key events in June 2024:

June 28

PRIIPs Regulation: Joint Committee of European Supervisory Authorities (“ESA”) published an updated version of its Questions and Answers (JC 2023 22) on the Key Information Document under the PRIIPS Regulation (EU/2018/1122)1286/2014).

FCA Handbook: The British Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published Manual Notice 120, which sets out changes to the FCA Manual made by the FCA Board on 27 June 2024.

June 27

Appointed representatives: The FCA has launched a new website for firms with overseas representatives.

Cryptoassets: European Banking Authority (“EBA”) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) published a joint final report (EBA/GL/2024/09 / ESMA75-453128700-10) on two sets of guidelines for assessing the suitability of the management body and holders of qualifying holdings under the Crypto-Asset Markets Regulation (EU/2023/1114) (“Mica“).

FCA Summary: The FCA has published its June 2024 regulatory review, which includes items on the consumer duty, investment labels and the firm attestation form.

Bank of England Financial Policy Committee: The Bank of England has published a summary of financial policy and the minutes of the Financial Policy Committee meeting of 11 June 2024, including commentary on the private equity industry.

June 26

Consumer obligation: The FCA has published its findings following a multi-firm review of 20 major insurers’ Consumer Duty performance monitoring. Read our dedicated article on the subject here.

AML/CTF: The European Banking Authority has published a press release welcoming a new package of legislative proposals to strengthen and modernise the EU’s anti-money laundering regime (“AML”) and financing of anti-terrorist activities (“CTF”). It also set out its AML and CTF priorities for 2024/25.

June 25

Regulation of investment firms: Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1771 containing regulatory technical standards (“RTS”) specifying the details of the scope and methods of prudential consolidation of a group of investment firms in accordance with the Investment Firm Regulation (EU/2019/2033) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

20th of June

Digital Commerce: The FCA has published a research note on digital engagement practices in trading apps.

June 19th

AML: The Regulation on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing (EU/2024/1624), the Regulation establishing the Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering (EU/2024/1620) and the Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (EU/2024/1640) have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union (here, here and here).

ESG: The Network for Greening the Financial System has published the second edition of its guide on climate-related disclosure by central banks.

Cryptoassets: EBA published final reports containing draft RTS implementing technical standards (“HIS”) and one set of guidelines under MiCA ( here , here , here and here ). These cover supervisory colleges, liquidity stress tests, and asset-backed and e-money tokens.

June 18

Artificial intelligence: The European Commission has published a targeted consultation on Artificial Intelligence in the Financial Sector to inform the Commission services on the specific application and impact of AI in financial services, taking into account the development of different use cases in financial services.

ESG: The European Supervisory Authorities have published a joint opinion (OJ 2024 06) on the evaluation of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation ((EU) 2019/2088) (“SFDR”). Check out our dedicated article on this topic here.

Capital Markets Union: The European Commission has published a speech by Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union. The speech announced, among other things, a delay in the application by the European Commission of market risk reforms to the EU banking sector.

ESG / Securitization:Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1700 has been published in the Official Journal of the EU. The Delegated Regulation supplements the Securitisation Regulation ((EU) 2017/2402) with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying, for simple, transparent and standardised traditional non-ABCP securitisation and simple, transparent and standardised balance sheet securitisation, the content, methodologies and presentation of information on the principal adverse effects of the assets financed by the underlying exposures.

June 17th

Market abuse: The European Commission has published a report (COM(2024) 248 final) on the delegation of power to adopt delegated acts conferred on it by the Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014).

June 12

Retail Investment Package: The Council of the European Union has published a press release announcing that it has agreed its negotiating position on the Retail Investment Package, which consists of the proposed Retail Investment Protection Directive (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Omnibus Directive’) and the proposed Regulation amending the PRIIPs Regulation (1286/2014).

MiFIR: The European Commission has published for consultation a draft delegated regulation supplementing the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (600/2014) (“MiFIR”) in relation to reference data identifying OTC derivatives to be used for the purposes of the transparency requirements set out in Articles 8a(2), 10 and 21 of MiFIR.

Adjusting reference points: The European Commission has published a report (COM(2024) 244 final) on the delegation of power to adopt delegated acts conferred on it by the Benchmarks Regulation (EU/2016/1011).

June 6

Cryptoassets: The EBA has published final reports (here, here and here) containing regulatory technical standards and guidelines on governance, conflicts of interest and remuneration under MiCA.

June 5th

Market disruptions: International Organization of Securities Commissions (“International Federation of Olympic Associations”) published its final report on market interruptions (FR/043/24).

June 4th

ESG: The European Supervisory Authorities have published their final reports on greenwashing in the financial services sector (here, here and here).

June 3

Leveraged Loans/CLO: The International Organization for Leveraged Credit (IOSCO) has published its final report on good practices for leveraged and collateralized loan obligations (“Best Practices for Leveraged and Collateralized Loan Obligations”).DUTY”) markets.

Regulation of investment firms: The European Banking Authority has published a consultation paper (EBA/DP/2024/01), prepared jointly with ESMA, on the European Commission’s request for an opinion on the prudential framework for investment firms contained in the Investment Firm Regulation (EU/2019/2033) and the Investment Firm Directive (EU/2019/2034).