The sale of pre-paid funeral plans is currently regulated by the Funeral Planning Authority (“FPA”), a self-regulatory body, rather than the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). Due to concern about the potential risk to consumers within this sector, the UK government is intending to bring all pre-paid funeral plans within the [...]
Of relevance to: All firms In a speech by Megan Butler, Executive Director of Supervision – Investment, Wholesale and Specialists at the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), delivered at the Anti-Money Laundering TechSprint event on 22 May 2018, the FCA revealed that 2,100 firms, including all the major banks and life [...]
Of relevance to: All regulated firms Key dates: Royal Assent 23 May 2018 The Data Protection Act 2018 replaces the Data Protection Act 1998 and provides a comprehensive legal framework for data protection in the UK, supplemented by the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) until the UK leaves the European [...]
Of relevance to: All regulated firms Key date: Royal Assent 23 May 2018 The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 received Royal Assent on 23 May 2018, creating a new sanctions regime for the UK after Brexit, needed to keep UK Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (“CTF”) measures up [...]
Of relevance to: All firms subject to the financial crime rules in SYSC 6.1.1R, and who arrange or execute transactions in financial markets Key dates: Comments to FCA by 28 June 2018 Proposed to be in effect on 1 October 2018 The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) is consulting on [...]
Of relevance to: All firms The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) has set out its key priorities for the coming year in its Business Plan for 2018/19, along with its annual Sector Views. Inevitably, the priority for its discretionary activity is preparing for and implementing the changes resulting from European [...]
Of relevance to: All firms providing contracts for differences and/or binary options to retail investors Key date: Applicable from two months, for CFDs, and one month, for binary options, after their publication in the Official Journal of the EU ‘in the coming weeks’ The European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) [...]
Of relevance to: All firms carrying out algorithmic trading in wholesale markets The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) and Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) have been reviewing firms’ algorithmic trading activity and issued supervisory publications. For firms solo-regulated by the FCA, please refer to the FCA supervisory publication. Firms regulated by the [...]
Around this time of the year the FCA publishes its Risk Outlook (identifying the most important areas of focus) and its Business Plan (setting out the Regulator’s priorities for the year ahead). In a break with tradition the FCA has decided to combine the two in the publication of its [...]
The FSA has published the findings from the latest Hedge Fund Survey (HFS) and Hedge Fund as Counterparty Survey (HFACS). As will be known from earlier Regulatory Roundups e.g. issue 9, the FSA carry out these surveys every six months or so in order to analyse the systemic risk posed [...]
The FSA has published proposed guidance on derivative risk management practices following a survey of twelve asset managers. Although a ‘derivative risk management process’ is normally associated with authorised funds (COLL 5.2.24), the thematic review looked beyond COLL (‘taking a holistic and outcomes approach ..’) with the survey taking in [...]
Somewhat later than usual the FSA has published its 2010 Financial Risk Outlook. The FSA’s 2010/11 Business Plan (‘BP’) will follow in the next few days. It should cover the period 1/4/10 to 31/3/11, although page 73 of the FRO does refer to 2011/12. The purpose of the FRO is [...]
And to round off a heavy FRO 2010 the FSA recommend the Asset Management Sector Digest 2010. There are nine key messages in the publication, four of which are deemed ‘priority risks’ being: Controls over client money and assets; The valuation of assets in funds; Platforms; and (of course) The [...]
Neatly following on from the latest developments in the ongoing AIFM saga is the publication by the FSA on ‘Assessing possible sources of systemic risk from hedge funds’. The FSA conducts two different surveys every six months: Hedge Funds as Counterparties Survey (“HFACS”) – which has been running for 5 [...]
