Category:Investment Manager Regulation

1
JAPAN: Proposed Code of Conduct for ESG Evaluation and Data Providers Presents Significant Implications for Asset Management and Investor Communities
2
Australia: DDO Implementation and Enforcement
3
AUSTRALIA: CRYPTO DOWNTURN AND ITS REGULATION
4
Europe: Systemically important outsourced service providers, eg cloud services, to be identified and regulated in the UK    
5
United States: Grayscale Appeals to DC Circuit on SEC Denial of Bitcoin ETP
6
Australia: ASIC Provides Practical Guidance as Long Awaited CCIV Arrives
7
Australia: New Greenwashing Guidance
8
Australia: Cybersecurity now a legal obligation for AFS Licensees
9
Australia: Eagerly Awaits Foreign Financial Service Providers’ Legislation
10
United States: All Square: Amended CFTC “Block Trade” Definition Officially Effective

JAPAN: Proposed Code of Conduct for ESG Evaluation and Data Providers Presents Significant Implications for Asset Management and Investor Communities

By Yuki Sako

On 12 July 2022, as widely anticipated, the Financial Services Agency of Japan (“FSA”) proposed “the Code of Conduct for ESG Evaluation and Data Providers” (“Proposed Code”), and is soliciting comments from the public until 5 September 2022.

The stated focus of the Proposed Code is to provide a set of principles and guidelines for ESG evaluation and data providers (“Provider(s)”) that would require Providers who decide to endorse such code to “comply or explain” such code, i.e., a Provider would be required to comply with, or provide an explanation as to why the Provider is departing from, such code.

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Australia: DDO Implementation and Enforcement

By Daniel Knight and Simon Kiburg

ASIC have announced the first enforcement action it has taken in relation to the Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO), which were introduced late last year. The enforcement action shows that, as described by ASIC deputy chair Karen Chester, “ASIC’s focus has now shifted to compliance. Industry has had sufficient time to bed down its implementation of the DDO regime.

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AUSTRALIA: CRYPTO DOWNTURN AND ITS REGULATION

By Daniel Knight and Kithmin Ranamukhaarachchi

In the wake of the drawn out cryptocurrency market downturn, increased regulation of the sector seems inevitable. With nearly one million Australians transacting in cryptocurrencies last year, there have been widespread calls to enact additional protections for retail investors.

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Europe: Systemically important outsourced service providers, eg cloud services, to be identified and regulated in the UK    

By: Kai Zhang

In an 8 June 2022 policy statement,  the UK Government proposes a specific regime for supervising “critical” service providers to the financial services industry. This is to address concentration risk as many regulated firms rely on a few large service providers whose failure could potentially threaten the stability of, or confidence in, the UK’s financial system.   The Government observes that in 2020 over 65% of UK regulated firms used the same four cloud providers for cloud infrastructure services.

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United States: Grayscale Appeals to DC Circuit on SEC Denial of Bitcoin ETP

By: Stacy L. Fuller, Clifford C. Histed, Cheryl L. Isaac, Richard F. Kerr, Keri E. Riemer, and Peter J. Shea

On Thursday, Grayscale Investments, LLC (Grayscale) filed suit against the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in the D.C. Circuit asking the court to reconsider the agency’s rejection of listing a spot Bitcoin ETP on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In its appeal, Grayscale argued that the SEC’s ruling regarding its spot Bitcoin ETP was “arbitrary and capricious,” because it disregarded facts about the ETP and erroneously determined that listing the ETP would be in contravention of NYSE’s duties under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

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Australia: ASIC Provides Practical Guidance as Long Awaited CCIV Arrives

By Kane Barnett and Bernard Sia

ASIC has published Information Sheet 272 (INFO 272) and Report 728 (REP 728) on the eve of the corporate collective investment vehicle’s (CCIV) commencement.

With the commencement date for CCIVs being 1 July 2022, today ASIC released 7 regulatory guides relating to the registration and licensing requirements for CCIVs. We outline the key features of CCIVs in our previous update. INFO 272 provides much needed clarity on how both the CCIV itself and its initial sub-funds are to be registered.

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Australia: New Greenwashing Guidance

By Jim Bulling and Alex Morrison

ASIC has released Information Sheet 271 (INFO 271) to assist responsible entities of managed funds, corporate directors of CCIVs and trustees of registerable superannuation funds (Product Issuers) in avoiding ‘greenwashing’ when offering sustainability-related products (Products). INFO 271 describes greenwashing and provides a comprehensive overview of the current regulatory setting for communications about sustainability–related products.

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Australia: Cybersecurity now a legal obligation for AFS Licensees

By Kane Barnett and Bernard Sia

As technology continues to drive change within the financial services industry, Australian courts and regulators have confirmed the need for Australian financial services (AFS) licensees to address the cybersecurity risks. On 5 May 2022, the Australian Federal Court ruled in favour of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), holding that AFS licensee RI Advice Group Pty Ltd (RI Advice) had breached its statutory obligations by failing to have adequate cybersecurity measures in place.

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Australia: Eagerly Awaits Foreign Financial Service Providers’ Legislation

By Jim Bulling

In February this year we provided an update on the introduction of the draft legislation providing relief to Foreign Financial Services Providers (FFSPs) in Australia.

As we discussed back in February the draft legislative pack provided three significant potential exemptions for FFSPs namely:

  • Professional Investor Exemption
  • Comparable Regulator Exemption
  • Fit and Proper Person Test Exemption
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United States: All Square: Amended CFTC “Block Trade” Definition Officially Effective

By: Cheryl L. Isaac and Michael G. Lee

On 25 May 2022, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) block trade no-action relief, provided in CFTC No-Action Letter (NAL) 20-35, expired. As of that day, all swap execution facilities (SEFs) are required to comply with the amended definition of “block trade” provided under CFTC Regulation 43.2.

“Block trades” are large, privately negotiated (either directly or through a broker) swap transactions that meet certain quantity thresholds. Block trades must qualify for execution apart from the SEF’s order book or trading platform in accordance with the relevant SEF’s rules, pursuant to CFTC Regulations.

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