Watch and listen to Baker McKenzie specialists and industry experts talk about recent legal and commercial developments affecting financial institutions around the world. The latest webinar in the series looks at Sustainability for Financial Institutions – Global Trends and the LatAm Perspective.

Following the Treasury’s confirmation that it intends to introduce a new “regulatory gateway” for authorized firms approving financial promotions, the FCA has launched a consultation on proposals to operationalize this new gateway. Complementing a wider program of reform to the financial promotions regime, the proposals will affect both authorized firms approving financial promotions as well as unauthorized firms communicating approved financial promotions.

On 22 November 2022, the FCA announced the formation of a new ESG data and ratings group, which will work to develop a Code of Conduct for Environmental Social and Governance data and ratings providers.

In this series of short podcasts, Baker McKenzie ESG Debt & Equity experts discuss key tips and things you should you when considering raising sustainable finance, including the ever-evolving legal and regulatory requirements across regions.

Regulators and policymakers have left emergency measures behind and returned to their reform agendas. In this piece, Baker McKenzie regulatory experts set out the top ten UK developments for financial institutions and fintechs to watch in 2022 covering: good culture, Consumer Duty, BNPL regulation, crypto regulation, AML regulation, appointed representatives regime, financial promotions gateway, operational resilience, ESG regulation, divergence, Future Regulatory Framework Review.

This series of ESG-focused thought leadership webinars will share insights and practical guidance for businesses considering what ESG means for them. Set out are details of our forthcoming demystifying ESG webinar series for 2022 including: regulations, executive pay, climate change, strategic initiatives and corporate responsibility.

The FCA has published a consultation (CP21/34) proposing changes to the Appointed Representatives (AR) regime. In parallel, HM Treasury (HMT) has published a Call for Evidence on possible legislative reforms to the AR regime. These papers present significant, wide-ranging changes that have the potential to seriously impact the way that AR arrangements operate, and the burdens placed on principals in particular.

On 30 November 2021, the FCA published PS21/20 on reforms to UK MiFID’s conduct and organisational requirements, setting out changes to the research rules and, in a move that will no doubt be welcomed by market participants, the removal of the best execution reporting in RTS 27 and RTS 28.

The European Commission has sent a letter to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU announcing a delay to the date of application of regulatory technical standards (RTS) under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). The Commission has now deferred implementation of the SFDR RTS to 1 January 2023.

The third day of COP2 focused on long-term climate finance. Scaled-up public finance commitments are critical to building trust between developed and developing countries, and enabling developing countries to deliver on the “conditional’ elements of their Nationally Determined Contributions.