This publication features the latest Financial Regulatory developments in Italy.
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 with local market knowledge. This edition takes a bite-size look at the latest environment, social and governance developments in Brazil, the European Union, Belgium, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore issued the Notice on Business Conduct Requirements for Corporate Finance Advisers on 23 February 2023. This comes around 14 months after the MAS issued the Consultation Paper P020-2021 which proposed to introduce regulatory requirements on the conduct of due diligence by corporate finance advisers, strengthen public confidence and promote informed decision making by investors through quality disclosures.
On 15 November 2022, the National Assembly of Vietnam passed the new law on anti-money laundering which will replace the current law from 1 March 2023. Reporting entities as covered in the new law should take into account certain key changes in anti-money laundering regulations.
In late February 2023, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Plenary officially “greylisted” South Africa when it concluded that it would adopt the Report on South African Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Measures. Being greylisted brandishes a country as being financially unsafe, in that it has inadequate safeguards against money laundering and terrorist financing. Countries and organizations shy away from, or increase their own compliance requirements for dealing with countries that may be unable to prevent these crimes.
On 14 February 2023, the Treasury finally published its delayed consultation on draft legislation to bring BNPL within the regulatory perimeter. The legislation follows the general approach set out by the Treasury last summer to bringing BNPL within the regulatory perimeter. There are, however, some key updates in the Treasury’s final policy position from its thinking from last summer on the scope of regulation.
To close out 2022, US states passed a range of rules broadly applicable to all businesses, while global regulators took steps to regulate ESG and crypto-assets comprehensively. While the digital asset industry bore the brunt of enforcement, regulators will give private equity, real estate and hedge fund managers much to think about in 2023.
This article provides an overview of the German regime for crypto securities and of the recent and future expansion of the scope of the German Act on Electronic Securities, which will allow for more use cases. The eWpG provides a reliable regime for crypto securities. It entered into force in the summer of 2021, but its scope has recently been expanded. Under even more ambitious plans, the German government intends to expand its scope further.
On 28 December 2022, significant amendments to the ordinance on notifications pursuant to Section 2c of the German Banking Act and Section 17 of the German Insurance Supervision Act, the Ownership Control Ordinance went into force.
With a significant delay, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority has issued detailed rules on the new notification requirement regarding proposed outsourcings introduced in the Financial Market Integrity Strengthening Act, a law passed on 3 June 2021 in reaction to market failures.