United Kingdom

Europe: UK Government Proposes To Regulate ESG Ratings Providers

Apr 11 2023

Responding to encouragement from both the FCA and IOSCO, HM Treasury has proposed regulating ESG ratings providers in a consultation paper dated 30 March 2023. It primarily aims to improve the transparency of the methodologies and governance objectives adopted by ESG ratings providers, as well as to mitigate risks arising from conflicts of interest where the rating provider also provides other services to the rated entity.

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

Apr 11 2023

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:

EUROPE: Here’s Your Chance to Improve the UK’s Senior Managers & Certification Regime

Apr 04 2023

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.

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

Mar 31 2023

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.

Europe: UK Regulation of Cryptoassets – Another Glimpse But Still None the Wiser

Feb 15 2023

By Kai Zhang and Philip Morgan

On 1 February, the UK Government published another consultation paper on the proposed regulation of business relating to cryptoassets in the UK. This is to seek views (by 30 April 2023) on the overall approach and policy direction, and includes a call for evidence to gather more pertinent information on decentralised finance. As such, the consultation does not contain details on any specific proposed rules. For example, the proposed cryptoasset-related regulated activities described in the consultation paper are stated to be illustrative of the sorts of activities the Government intends to regulate, rather than specific proposals. For further information on this consultation please see our fintech blog here.

Tag: United Kingdom