Tracker, Financial Services Regulation & Compliance - Cross Sectoral

DOMESTIC:

Central Bank of Ireland Director of Market Supervision Resigns
Gareth Murphy, Director of Market Supervision in the CBI has resigned. A replacement is yet to be announced and Mr Murphy will remain at the CBI until November.

Central Bank of Ireland publishes special edition of 'Intermediary Times' focusing on Anti-Money Laundering compliance
A special edition of the CBI's Intermediary Times publication has been published which focuses on the recent on-site inspections of retail intermediaries carried out by the CBI. The results of the inspection were generally considered 'satisfactory'; however, a number of key issues were identified in the course of the CBI inspections, including inadequate completion of formal Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing risk assessments in retail intermediaries. In addition, the CBI identified a number of inadequacies in the manner in which consumer due diligence was being carried out among the intermediaries in the test sample, with verification documents not being available and evidence of on-going monitoring not being kept on record. Insufficient evidence of appropriate staff training; and policies and procedures which were not adhered to in practice were also found during the inspections. The CBI has used the special edition of the Intermediary Times publication to stress the importance of retail intermediaries of adhering to the anti-money laundering rules.

Central Bank of Ireland publishes Regulatory Services Standards Performance Report
On 2 August 2016, the CBI published its Regulatory Services Standards Performance Report for the first half of 2016. The report reviews the CBI's performance against Service Standards that it has committed to in respect of the authorisation of financial services providers and investment funds, and the processing of fitness and probity pre-approval controlled functions individual questionnaire applications. These processes are an important supervisory mechanism of the CBI. The review was largely positive, with 39 out of the 40 targets set being met or exceeded.  

EUROPEAN:

UK Financial Conduct Authority seeks input on review of crowdfunding rules
The FCA is seeking to update crowdfunding rules introduced in 2014 to address concerns in the market. The FCA is examining a number of loan-based crowdfunding issues including: whether financial promotions, due diligence and prudential standards are still appropriate, whether to change disclosure rules to consumers and if platforms should be required to assess investor knowledge or experience of investment risks. On the topic of investment-based crowdfunding the FCA is seeking views on how conflicts of interest are managed on these types of platforms, if due diligence rules for platforms need to be enhanced and whether to mandate disclosure of risk warnings in certain cases. The FCA is accepting submissions on the topic up to 8 September 2016.

ESMA issues final implementing standards on sanctions and measures under the Market Abuse Regulation
ESMA has finalised the ITS in relation to sanctions and measures which will implement MAR. The final ITS have been submitted to the European Commission for endorsement which will be followed by a non-objections period by the European Parliament and Council. The ITS provide guidance to the national competent authorities (NCAs) of Member States on how they should notify ESMA annually of the investigations they conduct and the sanctions and measures imposed in their jurisdictions under Article 33 of MAR. Article 33 provides for two forms of information submission. Firstly, the annual submission by NCAs of aggregate information regarding all sanctions and measures imposed under MAR and secondly, the simultaneous reporting to ESMA of any administrative or criminal sanctions and measures that are disclosed to the public by the NCA.

ESMA publishes extract from its database of enforcement decisions on financial statements
ESMA has released an extract from its confidential database of enforcement decisions in relation to financial statements. The intention of this release is to provide market participants with examples of how IFRS is applied by ESMA so that there is consistent application of IFRS in the EEA.

For further information please contact a member of the Financial Regulation team.

Date published: 06 Sep 2016