On 9 December 2013, the FCA published its policy development update for November 2013 (PDU 8) which details forthcoming FCA publications relating to a number of areas, as detailed below. High level standards Initiative Current Expected Publication Date Previous Expected Publication Date Recovery and Resolution Plans: policy statement to   CP11/16 No reference within PDU 8 TBC (PDU […]

An article in today’s Financial Times reports that, today’s meeting of finance ministers in Brussels is expected to make further progress on the creation of a single banking framework union. Following a meeting of key countries and EU officials in Berlin last Friday, unsubstantiated reports that France and Germany were resolving ongoing differences and a deal […]

As the electrified ringfence-erecting Banking Reform Bill is poised to enter the statute books, the FT reports HSBC is thinking of hiving off its UK operations in response. The global bank has proposed carving out its UK operation, and floating this retail-focussed, reconfigured bank on the London exchange. The article points out that such an […]

This week’s International Financing Review reports that BNY Mellon is closing its swaps clearing service, a mere three years after its inception. “We are exiting the derivatives clearing business in the US due to market and regulatory factors that will limit our ability to grow the business in the future,” said a spokesperson for the […]

Four of the five regulatory agencies needed to enact the Volcker Rule are voting on the 10th December 2013. The SEC has said it will vote on or near the same date. The CFTC has scheduled a public meetingat 9.30 am EST to discuss proprietary trading and other business. In what is almost certain to […]

A consortium of finance trade bodies have mounted a legal challenge to the CFTC’s Cross-Border Interpretive  Guidance. ISDA, SIFMA and the Institute of International Bankers (IIB) yesterday filed suit in the District of Columbia, alleging that the CFTC: Unlawfully circumvented the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Commodity Exchange Act by characterizing its regulations as […]

Firms continue to take inadequate steps to ensure compliance with the Client Money rules.  The latest case involving insurance broker Towergate highlights the FCA’s renewed sense of purpose and the fact that insurance brokers are not immune. The broker misallocated £15m of client and insurer money over a four year period (from November 2007 to […]

On 2 December 2013, the Council of the European Union published a press release announcing that it has approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) (15963/13) between the Council and the European Central Bank (ECB) relating to the single supervisory mechanism (SSM).  A few days earlier on 30 November 2013, the Inter-institutional Agreement (IIA) between the […]

On 29 November 2013, ISDA published its standard FOA/ISDA Clearing Member Disclosure Document, a document which facilitates clearing members’ compliance with certain obligations under Article 39(7) of EMIR to: offer clients a choice between individual client accounts or omnibus client accounts; publicly disclose the levels of protection and costs associated with different levels of segregation; […]