The Court of Justice of the EU (the “ECJ”) ordered Ireland to pay a fine of €2 million to the European Commission, due to Ireland’s failure to fully transpose the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (EU) 2015/849 (“MLD4”) on time. Under the EU treaties, the European Commission may take infringement proceedings [...]

ESMA has updated two statements on its approach to the application of key provisions of MiFID II/MiFIR and the Benchmark Regulation (BMR). The Impact of Brexit on MiFID II/MiFIR The Impact of Brexit on the BMR These statements update previous ones issued in March 2019 and October 2019 reflecting ESMA’s approach, should the UK [...]

On 2nd September 2019 ESMA issued its final report on the Guidelines on Liquidity Stress Testing (LST) in UCITS and AIFs. The report and its requirements came into effect on 30th September 2020. The new guidelines aim to promote financial stability by mitigating liquidity risk across Europe and ensuring supervisory convergence through [...]

What is the Fifth Money Laundering Directive? The Fifth Money Laundering Directive, commonly known as ‘5MLD’, was an amendment to the Fourth Money Laundering Directive. The amendment aimed to improve transparency of financial transactions and eliminate the anonymity associated with cryptocurrencies to prevent fraudulent activity and combat terrorist financing. EU [...]

The FCA updated its webpage on the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) for solo-regulated firms with new information on good and bad practices in two key areas.  The updates include tables setting out good and bad practice (using positive and negative indicators) relating to training staff on the conduct rules as [...]

The FCA published a Dear CEO letter it has sent in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic relating to the increase in levels of client money held by firms providing non-discretionary investment services. This Dear CEO letter was issued in response to a number firms who hold client money reporting an increase (in some cases a [...]

The FCA published a statement for firms providing portfolio management services or holding retail client accounts that include positions in leveraged financial instruments or contingent liability transactions. It outlines a further 6-month extension and amendments to a temporary coronavirus (Covid-19) measure issued in March. The original measure on 10% depreciation [...]

The FCA has published an updated version of the FCA Handbook to show the rules that will apply at the end of the transition period. It has also set out details on how it intends to use the Temporary Transitional Power (TTP). The TTP gives the FCA flexibility as to [...]

Advisers have been warned of a scam email purporting to be from the FCA, asking them to complete a survey on its conduct rules and the effect coronavirus is having on their business. The email  was sent from fcaimpact4@fcanewsletter.org.uk but according to the FCA the email may also come from [...]

The FCA published a Final Notice in respect of Conor Foley, the former Chief Executive Officer of Worldspreads, publicly censuring him for market abuse and banning him from performing any roles linked to regulated activity. The FCA published a Decision Notice on 3 July 2020 that also imposed a financial [...]

The FCA is considering extending the scope of its annual financial crime reporting obligation to include firms that carry on regulated activities that potentially pose a higher money laundering risk. The FCA’ s annual financial crime reporting obligation shows the potential money laundering risk faced by a firm, based on [...]

In May 2020, the FCA, acting in the public interest, decided to bring a test case to resolve any contractual uncertainty arising from selected Business Interruption (BI) policies relating to the coronavirus pandemic. The FCA formally started the legal process on the 9th of June 2020, based upon which the [...]

The FCA has incorporated data quality reviews into its supervisory programme by conducting desk-based analyses and on-site inspections of counterparties. In this respect, the FCA has included in Market Watch 59 and 62 a list of common errors observed in MiFIR transaction reports and highlighted the importance of firms maintaining adequate systems and controls [...]