On April 19, the Bank of England (BoE) and HM Treasury announced the joint creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Taskforce to explore a potential UK CBDC. A CBDC would be a new form of digital money issued by the BoE and would exist alongside cash and bank deposits to be used by households and businesses.
Continue Reading UK Announces New Central Bank Digital Currency Taskforce

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 April 6, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that legal entity identifiers (LEIs) of non-EEA third country issuers will not need to be reported under the UK version of the European Union’s Regulation on reporting and transparency of securities financing transactions (UK SFTR), until at least April 13, 2022.
Continue Reading FCA Update on Reporting LEIs of Non-EEA Third Country Issuers Under UK SFTR

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 March 24, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a statement announcing that it has not observed market or regulatory developments that warrant a change in its use of the Temporary Transitional Power (TTP) applying to the United Kingdom’s derivatives trading obligation (DTO).
Continue Reading FCA Confirms No Current Revisions to Temporary Transitional Power Applying to UK’s Derivatives Trading Obligation

On March 8, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a consultation paper detailing its proposals to regulate bidding for emissions allowances on the UK auction platform under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) (the Consultation Paper).
Continue Reading FCA Publishes Consultation Paper on Regulating Bidding for Emission Allowances Under UK ETS