United Kingdom – Page 2 – Global Investment Law Watch

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

Jun 08 2023

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.

Europe: UK Government Proposes To Regulate ESG Ratings Providers

Apr 11 2023

By Philip Morgan and Zainab Kuku

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 and 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.

Europe: FCA Sets 2023 Regulatory Priorities for UK Asset Managers

Feb 09 2023

By Philip Morgan

One of the UK FCA’s favoured ways of regulating is through “Dear CEO” letters, which seek to place a direct onus on CEOs to address FCA priorities. On 3 February 2023, CEOs of UK asset management firms were the recipients of one such letter. Much of the content is not surprising (e.g. the emphasis on consumer outcomes) but we highlight here some particularly notable points:

Europe: UK Regulator Issues New Recommendations to Firms on Consumer Duty Implementation

Feb 03 2023

By Andrew Massey and Robert Lloyd

With effect from 31 July 2023*, a new Consumer Duty will require firms conducting regulated activities in the UK to act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. The FCA has conducted a review of the implementation plans of a number of larger firms, and published its findings on 25 January 2023.

Although pertaining to larger firms, the findings – particularly the examples of good practice and areas for improvement – are intended to be “useful” for all firms preparing for the Duty. The underlying concern identified by the FCA is the risk that firms may not be ready in time, or may struggle to embed the Duty effectively throughout their business.

Europe: Asset Managers – Are You Ready for Climate-Related Reporting Under UK TCFD?

Feb 01 2023

By Maya Ffrench-Adam and Andrew Massey

1 January 2023 marked the latest regulatory milestone in the UK’s phased implementation of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.

The TCFD – first set up in 2015 by the Financial Stability Board – is an international body that has issued recommendations, targeted at multiple sectors, for disclosing climate-related financial information.

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

Jul 08 2022

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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