On April 28, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched a consultation paper (CP21/9), alongside HM Treasury, on changes to the conduct and organizational rules in the UK Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II): research and best execution reporting.

The consultation proposes to:
Continue Reading FCA Consults on Changes to Conduct and Organizational Rules Under UK MiFID

On April 8, the Market Participants Division (MPD), Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR), Division of Data (DOD) and Division of Market Oversight (DMO) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission jointly issued no-action relief, effective immediately, to maintain the regulatory status quo for swap dealers (SD) following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the

On March 25, the UK Government published the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (High-Risk Countries) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/392) on its website together with an explanatory memorandum (the Regulations).
Continue Reading AML: UK Government Publishes Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (High-Risk Countries) Regulations 2021

On March 26, HM Treasury published a press release announcing it had concluded technical discussions on the text of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for UK-EU regulatory cooperation in financial services (the Press Release).
Continue Reading UK Treasury Announces Technical Discussions on MoU on UK-EU Regulatory Cooperation in Financial Services

On March 23, the United Kingdom’s House of Commons Treasury Committee published the Bank of England’s (BoE) ‘written evidence’/responses to a UK Government inquiry into the post-Brexit future of financial services in the United Kingdom (the Response).
Continue Reading Post-Brexit Financial Services in United Kingdom — Bank of England Commentary Published

On March 19, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a statement announcing that it is establishing temporary measures on RTS 27 reports on execution quality. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/575 contains regulatory technical standards (RTS) specifying the content, format and periodicity of the data published by execution venues on the quality of execution of transactions. The FCA refers to these RTS as RTS 27.
Continue Reading COVID-19: FCA extends Flexibility on RTS 27 Reports and 10 Percent Depreciation Notifications

On February 2, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) updated its webpage on its supervisory statement on the operation of the transparency regime under the retained EU law version of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (UK MiFIR) following the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union (the Webpage).
Continue Reading FCA Updates Webpage on Operation of UK MiFIR Transparency Regime

On January 22, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published an amended and restated memorandum of understanding (MoU) between itself and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in light of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

The key understandings discussed by the FCA and SEC in the MoU include:
Continue Reading FCA Publishes SEC MoU on Financial Services Supervision Post-Brexit

On January 13, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a statement reminding firms of the requirements under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) relating to the provision of investment services to retail or professional clients by firms not established or situated in the EU (the Statement).
Continue Reading ESMA Reminds Firms of MiFID II Rules on Reverse Solicitation Post-Brexit

On December 14, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its first consultation paper on the implementation of the Investment Firms Prudential Regime (IFPR) (CP20/24) with its proposal for the UK’s new regulatory capital/ prudential rules following the end of the Brexit transition period (the Consultation Paper).

The FCA intends to create a new Prudential sourcebook for Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) Investment Firms (MIFIDPRU).
Continue Reading UK Regulatory Capital/Prudential Rules: FCA Publishes First Consultation on Implementation of IFPR