On 18 January 2022, HM Treasury confirmed that it will bring certain cryptoassets into the scope of the financial promotion regime. The Treasury’s view is that the evidence of risks to consumers provides a strong case for intervention, and as such it intends to expand the scope of the Financial Promotions Order to include cryptoassets. The Treasury’s announcement was followed the next day by the launch of an FCA consultation on strengthening the financial promotion rules for high-risk investments, including cryptoassets.
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 7 December 2021, the FCA published its second consultation on the Consumer Duty, setting out more developed proposals for rules and guidance following feedback from its first consultation. The proposals set out in the first consultation have been mostly carried forward, though the FCA has made some important amendments and clarifications in response to feedback received. For more detail on the first consultation, including background to the introduction of a Consumer Duty.
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.
On 21 October 2021, HM Treasury published its much-anticipated consultation on the regulation of buy-now-pay-later products. The consultation arrives nearly seven months after the Treasury confirmed that it would formally consult on bringing BNPL products into the regulatory perimeter “as a matter of priority”.
Financial crime remains at the top of the regulatory agenda across the globe. As responses to the pandemic stabilise, and following some high-profile global incidents, regulators face renewed pressure to manage financial crime more effectively through robust supervision and enforcement. In the October 2021 edition of the City Library’s Compliance Officer Bulletin, our business crime, regulatory and cybersecurity lawyers explore the latest developments in anti-money laundering and financial crime in a series of articles
A series of briefings that take a “bite-size” look at international trends in different jurisdictions, drawing on Baker McKenzie’s expert financial services practitioners.