Tag:EMEA

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EU Commission announces much anticipated political agreement on AIFMD 2
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Europe: At Last, the UK and EU are Due to Begin Active Post-Brexit Cooperation on Financial Services Matters
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Europe: Public Marketing of Cryptocurrencies in the UK – The End is (Nearly) Nigh
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Europe: ESMA Advocates More Specific Restrictions on the Costs Fund Managers May Pass on to Investors
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Europe: Central Bank’s Dear CEO Letter Highlights Actions to be Addressed by FMCs and AIFMs Without Delay
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Europe: Proposed German Legislation Will Support Investments in Renewable Energy Facilities
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Europe: UK Government Proposes To Regulate ESG Ratings Providers
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Europe: Significant Changes Proposed to Market Abuse Regulation in the UK
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Europe: Here’s Your Chance to Improve the UK’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime
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Europe: UK’s FCA Issues Stern Warning to ESG Benchmark Administrators for Lack of Rigour

EU Commission announces much anticipated political agreement on AIFMD 2

By: Shane Geraghty and Áine Ní Riain

On 20 July, the European Commission announced political agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council on proposed amendments to the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). This follows the Commission’s proposal in the form of a draft directive amending AIFMD (AIFMD 2) issued in November 2021, protracted negotiations between the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament since 8 March of this year, and the issuance in June of a compromise text by the Council.

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Europe: At Last, the UK and EU are Due to Begin Active Post-Brexit Cooperation on Financial Services Matters

By Robert Lloyd and Philip Morgan

On 27 June 2023, the UK and the EU Commission entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on regulatory cooperation in financial services triggered, it seems, by the agreement of revised arrangements on Northern Ireland.  You could be forgiven for thinking that the MoU was agreed a long time ago – accordingly to a nonbinding joint declaration between the EU and the UK, the targeted date was 31 March 2021.  At the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020 few people would have expected that it would take the best part of two and a half years to reach this modest objective. 

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Europe: Public Marketing of Cryptocurrencies in the UK – The End is (Nearly) Nigh

By Kai Zhang and Jin Enyi

Thousands of advertisements for cryptoasset-related products were displayed on London public transport, including the underground network, in 2021. There has been a drop-off since the Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) issued standards for crypto adverts. Nonetheless, in 2022 there were reportedly adverts for 24 crypto products on London public transport. Now, however, legislation seems likely to end much of this public advertisement of crypto in the UK.

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Europe: ESMA Advocates More Specific Restrictions on the Costs Fund Managers May Pass on to Investors

By Áine Ní Riain and Gayle Bowen

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has suggested that the European Commission should clarify the costs that UCITS management companies and AIFMs may pass on to investors under existing rules that prohibit “undue costs”.  Costs for this purpose include fees payable to the manager and other fund service providers and all other one-off, recurring or transaction-related costs.  The purpose of the proposed clarification would be to provide for better convergence between the approaches of different EU member states, and a better basis for national regulators to take supervisory and enforcement actions in this area.

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Europe: Central Bank’s Dear CEO Letter Highlights Actions to be Addressed by FMCs and AIFMs Without Delay

By Gayle Bowen and Áine Ní Riain

On 24 March, the Central Bank of Ireland issued a “Dear Chair” letter following its review in 2021 of the costs and fees charged to UCITS as part of the ESMA Common Supervisory Action (the CSA).

The letter, which is addressed to Irish UCITS fund management companies (FMCs), sets out the Central Bank’s main findings from the 2021 review and its expectations on actions to be taken by FMCs to address deficiencies identified. Despite the focus being on UCITS FMCs, the Central Bank specifically emphasises that it will expect its findings and actions to be considered also by Irish AIFMs with reference to AIFs under management.

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Europe: Proposed German Legislation Will Support Investments in Renewable Energy Facilities

By Hilger von Livonius

On 12 April 2023, the German Ministry of Justice (Bundesministerium der Justiz) published a legislative proposal which would broaden the eligible assets for German open-ended real estate funds to include certain renewable energy assets. The proposal mentions both facilities for the generation, transport and storage of electricity, gas or heat from renewable energy sources, and charging stations for electric vehicles and bikes. The proposed rules would, for the first time, allow investment in facilities which are on open land  and not directly connected with a building held by the fund. The new rules may also have an impact on non-German real estate funds available to certain German investors.  For example, German pension schemes may require that non-German real estate funds share certain features with similar German funds.

Europe: Significant Changes Proposed to Market Abuse Regulation in the UK

By Michael Ruck and Aurelija Grubytė

HM Treasury and the FCA have completed their joint review of the criminal market abuse regime, and published a joint statement on 24 March 2023. Their observations are relevant to both the criminal and civil market abuse regimes in the UK.  Most notably:

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Europe: Here’s Your Chance to Improve the UK’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime

By Samuel Gordon

The FCA, PRA and UK Government are looking for feedback by 1 June 2023 to guide potential changes to the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR), the UK’s regime designed to improve individual accountability and conduct standards of (mostly) senior personnel in financial services firms. To this end, the FCA and PRA jointly published a discussion paper on 30 March and HM Treasury published a call for evidence.

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Europe: UK’s FCA Issues Stern Warning to ESG Benchmark Administrators for Lack of Rigour

By Zainab Kuku

The FCA did not hold back in its most recent comments to ESG benchmark administrators, in an indication of its increasingly adversarial approach to ‘greenwashing’. It described the quality of disclosures of ESG factors considered in benchmark methodologies as ‘poor’, and aimed clear warning shots at administrators who fail to comply with the FCA’s feedback. 

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