Information which might constitute business secrets loses, generally, its secrecy when it is at least five years old Mr Ewald Baumeister is one of the investors who suffered loss due to the activities of the German company Phoenix Kapitaldienst, whose business model took the form of a Ponzi scheme. Insolvency proceedings having been initiated against Phoenix in the course of 2005 that company has been dissolved and is now in judicial liquidation.
Continue reading…

This article outlines he EDPS on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on strengthening the security of identity cards of Union citizens and of residence documents issued to Union citizens and their family members exercising their right of free movement. In this context, the EDPS observes that the Commission has clearly chosen to prioritise the free movement aspects of the Proposal and to treat the security-related objective as corollary. The EDPS remarks that this might have an impact on the analysis of necessity and proportionality of the elements of the Proposal.
Continue reading…

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has made available new data for bonds subject to the pre- and post-trade requirements of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and Regulation (MiFIR) through its data register. ESMA has started, since July 30, to make available the second quarterly liquidity assessment for bonds. For this period, there are currently 466 liquid bonds subject to MiFID II transparency requirements. However, this assessment, which is dependent on the data submitted to ESMA, experienced data quality issues. The content of the non-equity file has now been updated, by removing the affected instruments.
Continue reading…

The 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code, published by the Financial Reporting Council, is shorter and sharper than its predecessor and emphasises the importance of the way in which boards and companies apply the spirit of the Code Principles. Whilst reasserting the importance of risk management and risk reporting, it puts the relationships between companies, shareholders and stakeholders at the heart of long-term sustainable growth in the UK economy.
Continue reading…

Today, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes fully applicable to all companies and organisations operating within the EU. The European Data Protection Supervisor welcomes the news that the EU legislator has now reached a political agreement on equivalent rules on data protection in the EU institutions and bodies and they will continue to support the EU institutions to ensure that they are ready to implement these rules from day one, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) said today.

Continue reading…

The European Central Bank (ECB) publishes the European Framework for Threat Intelligence-based Ethical Red Teaming (TIBER-EU), which is the first Europe-wide framework for controlled and bespoke tests against cyber attacks in the financial market. The ECB promotes the safety and efficiency of payment, clearing and settlement systems in the euro area under its oversight mandate, guided by oversight regulations, standards, guidelines and expectations. At Eurosystem level, the ECB is the competent authority for the systemically important payment systems in the euro area: TARGET2, EURO1 and STEP2-T, and is the lead overseer for TARGET2-Securities; oversight of other payment systems lies with the national central banks.

Continue reading…

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) issued the Fourteenth progress report on adoption of the Basel regulatory framework. The report sets out the adoption status of Basel III standards for each BCBS member jurisdiction as of end-March 2018. It includes for the first time the finalised Basel III post-crisis reforms published by the Committee in December 2017. These recent reforms will take effect from 1 January 2022.
Continue reading…

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation to propose extending the scope of application of the existing Joint Committee (JC) Guidelines on complaints-handling to the new institutions established under the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) and the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD). The proposal, which does not envisage any changes to the substance of the existing Guidelines, will ensure that an identical set of requirements for complaints-handling continues to apply to all financial institutions across the banking, investment and insurance sectors. The extension of the scope will provide consumers with the same level of protection, irrespective of which regulated product or service they are purchasing and which regulated institution they are purchasing it from. The consultation runs until 27 May 2018.
Continue reading…

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on Friday published an outline of discussions at its meeting on 15–16 March 2018 in Basel and announced it will publish summaries of each meeting in future. “The Basel Committee is committed to transparency and accountability in its role as the global standard setter for the prudential regulation of banks,” said Stefan Ingves, Chairman of the Basel Committee and Governor of Sveriges Riksbank.

Continue reading…

The Basel Committee published the results of its latest Basel III monitoring exercise based on data as of 30 June 2017. The Committee established a rigorous reporting process to regularly review the implications of the Basel III standards for banks, and it has published the results of previous exercises since 2012. The Committee’s finalisation of the Basel III reforms is not yet reflected in the results; the collection of relevant data for those reforms started for the end-2017 reporting date.

Continue reading…