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Financial Services

Regulator’s spotlight now firmly on COREP returns accuracy

Last year, the PRA issued a ‘Dear CEO letter’ setting out its intention to review the accuracy of COREP returns. Now, the Regulator has started to press ahead with their review, and has issued a wave of S166 reviews to investigate individual business’ COREP processes and procedures. We now believe that the next step will be for the FCA to take the same approach for those firms that fall under its regulation.

Extending the Senior Managers & Certification Regime to all FCA firms – summary of Consultation Paper 17/25 on Individual Accountability

On Wednesday, the FCA issued a consultation paper (CP17/25)  on the extension of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime (‘SM&CR’) to those FSMA authorised firms that are not currently in scope of the regime.
The key drivers of this reform are still the same as the original SM&CR that is currently applicable to the banking sector; Improving culture and governance in financial services firms, holding senior managers to high standards through individual accountability and increasing consumer protection remain amongst the highest priorities for the FCA.

MiFID II : governance and organisational requirements

In addition to changes to market structure, conduct of business and transparency, MiFID II will introduce extensive requirements in respect of internal management, organisational arrangements, individual responsibilities and governance. The reform takes provisions derived from the Capital Requirement Directive (CRD IV) that were originally intended for banks and large institutions, and extends these to all MiFID firms.

The future of regulation in the shadow of Brexit

With the Prime Minister Theresa May indicating that there is insufficient time to replace European bodies with a new British regulatory regime, the implications of Brexit look to have limited short term impact on Financial Services regulation. However, beyond March 2019, what would a hard or soft Brexit look like in terms of future regulation?

MiFID II: common misconceptions

With only seven months to go until its implementation date, MiFID II is one of the most talked-about topics in the financial industry. However, we are still finding that a number of firms fall victim to some misinterpretations and common misconceptions about the changes brought about by MiFID II.

How ready are you for MiFID II?

With an implementation date of 3 January 2018, the deadline for readying your firm for the required changes is rapidly approaching. However, in a recent Moore survey, it was found that only 7% of firms had started their implementation plans and more than half did not even have a plan in place yet to achieve timely compliance.
 
To aid firms in scope of MiFID II, this article highlights the key milestones you need to work towards over the coming nine months.

MiFID II authorisations gateway

The FCA announced the opening of the MIFID II authorisations gateway on 30 January. It is thought that around 600 applications will be submitted over the coming months including new applications for authorisation of organised trading facilities, commodities dealers and data reporting service providers. Similarly, variations of permissions and notifications from existing firms that require a change of permission or passporting rights are expected.