The European Commission has launched an infringement procedure by sending a Letter of Formal Notice to Poland regarding the new disciplinary regime for judges. The Polish government has 2 months to reply. The new disciplinary regime undermines the judicial independence of Polish judges by not offering necessary guarantees to protect them from political control, as required by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Firstly, the Commission is of the opinion that Poland failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 19(1) of the Treaty on European Union read in connection with Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which enshrine a right to an effective remedy before an independent and impartial court.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its final instruments and guidance that will apply in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal or an implementation period. As the UK prepares to leave the EU, the FCA has been working to deliver a transition that is as smooth as possible. The package of documents published contains the majority of the final instruments and guidance, following the February publication of the FCA’s Policy Statement with near-final instruments.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co KGaA (FMC) has agreed to pay more than $231 million to resolve parallel SEC and U.S. Department of Justice investigations related to its violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) across multiple countries for nearly a decade. The SEC’s order finds that FMC, a German-based worldwide provider of products and services for individuals with chronic kidney failure engaged in misconduct in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Angola, Turkey, Spain, China, Serbia, Bosnia, Mexico, and eight countries in the West African region against a backdrop where the company failed to have sufficient internal accounting controls. 

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Following the support from Heads of State or Government expressed at the European Council on 22 March for a concerted approach to the security of 5G networks, the European Commission recommended a set of concrete actions to assess cybersecurity risks of 5G networks and to strengthen preventive measures. The recommendations are a combination of legislative and policy instruments meant to protect our economies, societies and democratic systems. With worldwide 5G revenues estimated at €225 billion in 2025, 5G is a key asset for Europe to compete in the global market and its cybersecurity is crucial for ensuring the strategic autonomy of the Union.
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Mortgage customers who have previously been unable to switch mortgages despite being up-to-date with their payments (commonly known as mortgage prisoners), could soon be able to find a cheaper deal after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) proposed changes to how lenders assess whether or not a customer can afford the loan. In the final report of its Mortgages Market Study the FCA confirmed its earlier findings that the mortgage market is working well in many respects but falls short of the FCA’s vision in some specific ways. The consultation on new lending rules forms part of a package of remedies designed to help the market work better.
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UBS AG (UBS) has been fined £27,599,400 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failings relating to 135.8 million transaction reports between November 2007 and May 2017. Mark Steward, FCA Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight said: “Firms must have proper systems and controls to identify what transactions they have carried out, on what markets, at what price, in what quantity and with whom.  If firms cannot report their transactions accurately, fundamental risks arise, including the risk that market abuse may be hidden.”
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its second thematic review of the debt management sector, looking at commercial and not-for-profit firms that provide debt advice and administer debt management plans to help customers deal with their debts. The FCA’s first thematic review in 2015 found significant concerns with the quality of advice being given by commercial providers in particular. Today’s review shows that most customers are getting better advice and outcomes today than was previously the case.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated will pay over $8 million to settle charges of improper handling of “pre-released” American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). ADRs – U.S. securities that represent foreign shares of a foreign company – require a corresponding number of foreign shares to be held in custody at a depositary bank.  The practice of “pre-release” allows ADRs to be issued without the deposit of foreign shares, provided brokers receiving them have an agreement with a depositary bank and the broker or its customer owns the number of foreign shares that corresponds to the number of shares the ADR represents.
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by Geert Vermeulen

Since my visit to the World Economic Forum in 2018 I have been following the technological developments in IT and the medical sciences with great interest. These two industries have something important in common. The technological developments are progressing at an astonishing pace. Great benefits lie ahead of us. However, these same developments also trigger a whole lot of ethical dilemmas. Organizations struggle with them. They don’t know how to deal with these issues and as a result they ask for more legislation. So, I was thinking: Are new laws really the best answer to these ethical dilemmas? And who would be in a better position to facilitate this debate than the Ethics & Compliance Officers? I am going to let the developments in the medical industry rest for a future occasion and concentrate on the IT developments. In my view, we have recently witnessed a couple really exciting developments in this area, namely the rise of blockchain, data analytics and artificial intelligence.
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