Last week, global negotiations concluded on the landmark Treaty of the High Seas to protect the ocean, tackle environmental degradation, fight climate change, and prevent biodiversity loss. The new treaty will allow to establish large-scale marine protected areas on the high seas, which are also necessary to meet the global commitment of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Agreement concluded last December to protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030. For the first time, the treaty will also require assessing the impact of economic activities on high seas biodiversity. Developing countries will be supported in their participation in and implementation of the new treaty by a strong capacity-building and marine technology transfer component, funded from a variety of public and private sources and by an equitable mechanism for sharing the potential benefits of marine genetic resources. Continue reading…

The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) – the internal audit profession’s leader in standards, certifications, education, research, and technical guidance worldwide – released on 1 March for public comment, a draft on proposed changes to the International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF), with focus on the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. The 90-day public comment period opened on 1 March and runs through May 30. The public comment draft is the next step in the IPPF Evolution Project, an extensive research effort launched in 2020 that has engaged thousands of internal audit practitioners and stakeholders, including regulators, corporate directors, and standard-setting bodies from across the globe. Continue reading…

by Elina Karpacheva & Branislav Hock

This brand new paper that was recently published entitled “Foreign whistleblowing: The impact of US extraterritorial enforcement on anti-corruption laws in Europe” investigates the expansion of US law in the area of transnational economic crime by discussing the case of foreign whistleblowers, defined as non-US citizens who help US enforcement authorities to sanction both non-US corporations and US corporations that engage in economic crime. Written by Elina Karpacheva and Branislav Hock, the paper shows that extraterritorial application of US whistleblowing laws is part of a broad trend associated with extraterritorial enforcement of US laws, allowing the USA to become the leader in sanctioning US corporations as well as non-US corporations for economic crime. Continue reading…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has recently published a letter from its Chair, Klaas Knot, to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, ahead of the G20 meeting on 24 and 25 February. The letter notes the recent easing in global financial conditions but warns that, while expectations of a ‘soft landing’ for the global economy have grown, the outlook remains clouded by uncertainty. The combination of near record-high levels of debt, rising debt service costs and stretched asset valuations in some key markets could pose serious threats to financial stability. Continue reading…

The Arkansas Insurance Department has become a member of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU) – an international supervisory cooperation and information exchange agreement. “We are pleased to welcome Arkansas as a signatory to the MMoU,” said Vicky Saporta, Chair of the IAIS Executive Committee. “As we have experienced over the recent years of social and economic challenges, there are enormous benefits for the global insurance sector when supervisors are able to cooperate quickly and effectively across jurisdictions. The MMoU is an essential regulatory tool for supervisors to foster safer and more stable insurance markets.” Continue reading…

Yesterday, the European Commission and the Government of the United Kingdom reached a political agreement in principle on the Windsor Framework. This constitutes a comprehensive set of joint solutions aimed at addressing, in a definitive way, the practical challenges faced by citizens and businesses in Northern Ireland, thereby providing them with lasting certainty and predictability. The joint solutions cover, amongst other things, new arrangements on customs, agri-food, medicines, VAT and excise, as well as specific instruments designed to ensure that the voices of the people of Northern Ireland are better heard on specific issues particularly relevant to the communities there. These new arrangements are underpinned by robust safeguards to ensure the integrity of the EU’s Single Market, to which Northern Ireland has a unique access. Yesterday’s political agreement in principle allows the two sides to open a new chapter in our partnership, based on mutual trust and full cooperation, also allowing to unlock the full potential of their relationship.
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The Commission has presented a set of actions aimed to make Gigabit connectivity available to all citizens and businesses across the EU by 2030, in line with the objectives of Europe’s Digital Decade, and to enable the transformation of the connectivity sector in the EU. The recent initiatives on Connectivity consist of: First, the Commission has adopted a proposal for a ‘Gigabit Infrastructure Act’, a regulation that will put forward new rules to enable faster, cheaper and more effective rollout of Gigabit networks across the EU. Second, it has published a draft Gigabit Recommendation, which seeks to provide guidance to National Regulatory Authorities on the conditions of access to telecom networks of operators with significant market power, in order to incentivise faster switch-off of legacy technologies and accelerated Gigabit networks deployment. Third, the Commission has launched an exploratory consultation on the future of the connectivity sector and its infrastructure, to gather views on how increasing demands for connectivity and technological advances may affect the future developments and needs. Continue reading…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has on 16 February published a report on the financial stability risks of Decentralised Finance (DeFi). DeFi is commonly used to describe services in crypto-asset markets that aim to replicate some functions of the traditional financial system in a supposedly decentralised manner – though the actual level of decentralisation varies widely. The report, which was delivered to the February G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, concludes that while the processes to provide services are in many cases novel, DeFi does not differ substantially from traditional finance in the functions it performs or the vulnerabilities to which it is exposed. Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has used its powers to enter and inspect several sites around Leeds suspected of hosting illegally operated crypto ATMs. The FCA gathered evidence from several sites around the city as part of a joint operation with West Yorkshire Police’s Digital Intelligence and Investigation Unit. Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, said: “Unregistered Crypto ATMs operating in the UK are doing so illegally. We will continue to identify and disrupt unregistered crypto businesses operating in the UK. Crypto businesses operating in the UK need to be registered with the FCA for anti-money laundering purposes. However, crypto products themselves are currently unregulated and high-risk, and you should be prepared to lose all your money if you invest in them.”

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Ursula von der Leyen : “For almost one year now, Russia’s war of aggression has been sowing death and destruction. Putin is not only waging a brutal war on the battlefield but he is also viciously targeting civilians. The aggressor has to pay for this. Today, we are turning up the pressure with a 10th package of sanctions. First, we propose further export bans worth more than €11 billion, to deprive the Russian economy of critical technology and industrial goods. For maximum impact, we are targeting many industrial goods that Russia needs, and that it cannot get through backfilling by third countries. Vital goods such as electronics, specialized vehicles, machine parts, spare parts for trucks and jet engines. And we are targeting goods for the construction sector which can be directed to Russia’s military, such as antennas or cranes.
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