United Kingdom (UK) – Page 4 – Global Investment Law Watch

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

Feb 01 2023

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.

Europe: AIFMD II – Proposed Refinements to Loan Originating Fund Proposals

May 31 2022

By: Philipp Riedl

On 18 May 2022, the Rapporteur submitted to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) a report suggesting changes to the EU Commission’s envisaged regulation of loan originating funds under its proposed AIFMD amendments (AIFMD II). The report includes some proposed relief, notably:

Europe: FCA Consults on Permitting Side Pockets for UK Retail Funds Affected by Conflict in Ukraine

May 09 2022

By: Andrew Massey and Robert Lloyd

On 28 April 2022, the FCA published consultation paper 22/8 on proposals to protect investors in UK authorised funds by allowing authorised fund managers (AFMs) to create side pockets in the form of separate unit classes for funds affected by the conflict in Ukraine.

The proposals are novel for UK authorised funds in at least two respects. Firstly, they would allow side pockets to be created without requiring a shareholder extraordinary resolution or at least 60 days’ prior notice. Secondly, the AFM would be able to suspend dealings in the unit class formed to create the side pocket without having to suspend dealing in the entire fund.

Europe: FCA Challenge to UK Fund Service Providers

May 09 2022

By: Andrew Massey and Melissa Vance

Fund managers can expect changes to custodian and other fund service provider practices in response to regulator challenge, and should review their due diligence of service providers.

In a letter on 23 March 2022, the FCA instructed the Chief Executive and Boards of third-party custodians, depositories for authorised and non-authorised funds, and third-party administrators to review key risks identified by the FCA, including the following:

Europe: Divergence Between UK and EU Priips Disclosures Set to Add Complexity for Managers

Mar 29 2022

By: Andrew Massey

On 25 March 2022, the FCA confirmed new requirements for the key information document (KID) required for package retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) in the UK: policy statement 22/2. Investment funds are generally categorised as PRIIPs, although UK UCITS and UK non-UCITS retail schemes are exempted from the PRIIPs KID requirement until 31 December 2026.

Europe: Pressure Grows on UK Regulated Firms to Manage Cryptoasset-Related Risk

Mar 28 2022

By: Kai Zhang

On 24 March 2022, the FCA issued a notice reminding firms with cryptoassets exposures of its expectations on certain risks. The key themes are:

Avoiding consumer confusion: As cryptoassets are generally not regulated, the FCA expects firms involved in cryptoassets to ensure that consumers understand the distinction between their regulated business and unregulated business (i.e. relating to cryptoassets).

Europe: Has the New CSDR Penalties Regime Escaped Your Notice?

Feb 25 2022

By Joanna Treacy

The Central Securities Depositaries Regulation (CSDR) originally entered into force in the EU on 17 September 2014, aiming to harmonise timing and standards of conduct in the EEA’s securities settlement industry. It introduced measures for the authorisation and regulation of EEA central securities depositaries (CSDs).

While much of the regulation focuses on prudential, organisational and business standards of CSDs, some of its requirements directly affect trading entities that settle trades on EEA CSDs. These include measures to address and prevent settlement fails and improve settlement discipline, which became effective on 1 February 2022.

Tag:United Kingdom (UK)