Recent Articles

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  30.05.2023

  UAE Se­cur­it­ies and Com­mod­it­ies Au­thor­ity in­tro­duces two new vir­tu­al as­set reg­u­la­tions

  The UAE has seen a number of developments in the virtual assets space over the last 18 months, including the UAE designating the Securities Commodities Authority (“SCA”) as the UAE’s federal regulator for virtual asset service Operators (“VASP”) (see our summary here). In addition to this, there has also been the introduction of a virtual assets regime in the Emirate of Dubai and the establishment of the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (“VARA”), which, through the delegation by the SCA pursuant to Cabinet Decision 111 and 112,  is the regulatory...

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  05.05.2023

  FCA con­firms changes to UK equity mar­kets trans­par­ency re­gime and fi­nal­ises im­ple­ment­a­tion timetable

  In PS23/4: Improving Equity Secondary Markets, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed a range of targeted changes to the UK’s post-trade transparency regime, pre-trade transparency waivers and tick size regime for equity instruments that it consulted on in July 2022. The introduction of the new designated reporter (DR) regime will also affect trading in non-equity instruments. The FCA also provides an update on potential further reforms to operational resilience standards for trading venues and the retail service provider model.Firms will be pleased to see that the FCA has listened...

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  04.05.2023

  FCA pub­lishes con­sulta­tion pa­per on pro­posed re­forms to the UK list­ing re­gime

  On 3 May 2023 the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published its consultation paper on the proposed UK equity listing rule reforms (and feedback to its discussion paper published in May 2022). The consultation paper follows extensive engagement on the UK listing regime and the recommendations from the UK Listing Review. It represents a substantial and welcome overhaul of the current listing regime, with the aim of making UK equity capital markets more competitive with other markets and attractive to companies considering an IPO. Key ProposalsThe consultation paper sets out a...

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  24.04.2023

  De­mys­ti­fy­ing Bank Res­ol­u­tion

  Whilst the events surrounding HSBC’s acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) demonstrated that the UK bank resolution regime worked well, regulators and firms will now be scrutinising resolution plans, the potential impact of a bank resolution and measures which can be taken to minimise risks.  But what is bank resolution?  In this note we seek to explain this, the effect of resolution for a counterparty of a resolved firm and how firms can prepare for a resolution.Please click here to read the briefing.

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  14.04.2023

  The im­plic­a­tions of the new Span­ish Law on Se­cur­it­ies Mar­kets and In­vest­ment Ser­vices on the Fintech and Crypto-as­set eco­sys­tem

  On 17 March 2023 Spanish Law 6/2023 of 17 March on Securities Markets and Investment Services ("LMVSI") was published in the BOE (Spanish Official Gazette). In this regard, the LMVSI has been approved with all the amendments proposed by the Plenary Session of the Senate, except for the amendments proposed to Article 5.The LMVSI represents a major step forward for the financial sector in Spain as it has integrated a variety of European regulations, included new forms of distribution of financial instruments, and introduced the necessary adaptations for the application of the Regulation of the European...

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  14.04.2023

  Re­view of the Seni­or Man­agers and Cer­ti­fic­a­tion Re­gime (SM&CR)

  On 30 March 2023, the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) and Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) (the PRA and FCA together being the “Regulators”) published a joint Discussion Paper (DP1/23) seeking input on potential ways to improve the Senior Managers & Certification Regime (“SM&CR” or the “Regime”). HMT has also separately launched a Call for Evidence to review legislative aspects of the regime. In December 2022, the government announced, as part of the Edinburgh Reforms, that HMT and the Regulators...

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