Financial Institutions Regulation

Recent Articles

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  14.03.2023

  Luxembourg

  ESMA Guidelines to ap­ply for per­mis­sion to op­er­ate a DLT mar­ket in­fra­struc­ture

  Regulation (EU) 2022/858 on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (“DLT”) provides for, inter alia, specific permissions to operate DLT market infrastructures (“DLT MI”), namely a DLT Multilateral Trading Facility, a DLT Settlement System and a DLT Trading and Settlement System (the “Permission”). On 8 March 2023, ESMA released its Guidelines which set out standard forms, formats and templates to apply for the Permission (the “Guidelines”) and pertain to competent authorities as well as to applicants...

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  14.03.2023

  Luxembourg

  Amend­ments to the SF­DR RTS on fossil gas and nuc­le­ar en­ergy re­lated activ­it­ies

  On 20 February 2023, the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/363 of 31 October 2022 (the Amended SFDR RTS) entered into force, amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 of 6 April 2022 (SFDR RTS).The aim of the Delegated Regulation is namely to include, in the SFDR disclosures, disclosure requirements about nuclear and gas-related activities, introduced in the EU Taxonomy in March 2022 by the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1214. The key elements of the amendments to the SFDR RTS are the following: Revised annexes: the SFDR Annexes (pre-contractual and periodic) are amended with...

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  28.12.2022

  Germany

  New guide­book to the meta­verse pub­lished

  In collaboration with CMS, Germany's digital association Bitkom has recently published a guidebook to the metaverse. The metaverse is often seen as the next big thing in tech and "the future of the internet". However, the metaverse's business potential and legal framework have not been widely discussed in German business and society. To close this gap, Bitkom, Germany's association for the digital economy with more than 2,000 members, has released a guidebook to the metaverse, which provides an overview of the metaverse regarding concept, technologies, business models, impact on society and legal...

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  06.12.2022

  Luxembourg

  The CSSF pub­lished FAQs on SF­DR

  On 2 December 2022, the Luxembourg supervisory authority for financial services (the “CSSF”) published FAQs on the application of the Sustainable Financial Disclosures Regulation[1] (“SFDR”) and its regulatory technical standards[2] entering into force on 1 January 2023 (the “RTS”). The FAQ applies to alternative investment fund managers (“AIFMs”), management companies of undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (“UCITS Management Companies”), managers of a qualifying venture capital fund (“EuVECA”)...

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  25.11.2022

  Luxembourg

  ECJ judg­ment in­val­id­ates the pro­vi­sion of AM­LD V al­low­ing ac­cess to the be­ne­fi­cial own­er re­gisters by the gen­er­al pub­lic

  The European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) rendered a decision on 22 November 2022[1] in response to questions raised by the Luxembourg district court in relation to inter alia the validity of Article 1(15)(c) of AMLD V[2], amending the first subparagraph of Article 30(5) of AMLD IV[3]. Pursuant to this decision, the ECJ recognises that Article 30(5) of AMLD IV, as amended by AMLD V, constitutes a serious interference with the rights guaranteed under Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (respectively respect for private and family life and protection...

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  23.11.2022

  Polska

  The Anti-Usury Act has been passed

  PL

  An act to amend the laws to combat usury[1] (the “Act”) has been passed. It introduces important changes to the operations of lending institutions and to the lending of capital to consumers. Although the purpose of the Act is to combat rogue lenders, the changes provided for in the Act will affect all entities offering financing to Polish consumers. What changes does the Act provide for? The Act introduces the following key changes: Reduction of limits on non-interest costs of consumer credit Changes to the creditworthiness assessment process Supervision of lending institutions by...

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