ESMA, the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has published its 2025 Annual Work Programme (AWP), which reaffirms ESMA’s strategic orientation and commitment to safeguarding resilient, transparent, and sustainable European financial markets. ESMA has contributed to the ongoing discussion of how to make European capital markets more efficient and attractive, and in 2025 will advance on those aspects within its control, while working with the co-legislators and others to support the construction of the European Savings and Investment Union. Continue reading…

With just over a week until the compliance deadline for NIS2 hits, Andy Norton, European Cyber Risk Officer at Armis, made some remarks about it. He specifically looks at why the technical requirements of NIS2 are far from an easy tick-box exercise. Continue reading…

The value of EU trade covered by the vast network of 42 agreements with 74 partners in place in 2023 was more than €2.3 trillion, having risen by over 30% over the past five years, according to the Annual Report on the implementation and enforcement of EU trade policy published recently. EU exports to preferential trade partners are increasing more steadily than our overall exports – our preferential agreements with South Korea with Canada, for example, each deliver an average export growth of 7% annually – and have made the EU more resilient in the face of global challenges by providing safer, more diverse sources of supply for our imports and markets for our exports. Continue reading…

On 30 September 2024, the remaining synthetic LIBOR settings were published for the last time and LIBOR came to an end. All 35 LIBOR settings have now permanently ceased. The transition away from LIBOR, once referenced in an estimated $400 trillion of financial contracts, has made financial markets safer, more stable and fit for modern use.  UK regulators, their international counterparts and market participants have worked together over the past decade to move to risk-free rates (RFRs), based on robust data. Continue reading…

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Work Programme outlining the key priorities and initiatives for 2025. Throughout next year, the EBA will be  i) implementing the EU Banking Package and enhancing the Single Rulebook, ii) enhancing risk- based and forward-looking financial stability for a sustainable economy, iii) enhancing data infrastructure and launching a data portal, iv) starting oversight and  supervisory activities under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR), and v) developing consumer oriented mandates and ensuring a smooth transition to the new anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework. Continue reading…

The FCA has fined Starling Bank Limited £28,959,426 for financial crime failings related to its financial sanctions screening. It also repeatedly breached a requirement not to open accounts for high-risk customers. Starling grew quickly, from approximately 43,000 customers in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2023. However, measures to tackle financial crime did not keep pace with its growth.

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Quantios, the global provider of Wealth and Corporate Services SaaS solutions, is pleased to announce it has completed the acquisition of Klea, an AI-powered legal entity management (LEM) tool. Led by a highly experienced management team, Klea has built an innovative platform to effectively manage recurring corporate statutory events for a global customer base. Klea’s collaboration tool provides a single source of truth, streamlining corporate secretarial work for legal teams and giving access to real-time, accurate entity data. Continue reading…

On 29 September, the European Commission announced €10 million in additional humanitarian aid to help people in Lebanon affected by the ongoing escalation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. This emergency funding aims to tackle the most urgent needs such as protection, food assistance, shelter and health care. The EU stands ready to provide further support by mobilising all the available emergency response tools, including via use of the Civil Protection Mechanism. Continue reading…

German and Italian authorities worked together with Eurojust and Europol to stop a fraudulent scheme. The suspects targeted public institutions, cities, and municipalities, and were able to cause damages of several million euros. On 24 September, an operation took place where technology and assets were seized and search warrants against five suspects were executed.

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The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published its Thematic Review on Money Market Fund (MMF) Reforms. The review takes stock of the measures adopted or planned by FSB member jurisdictions in response to the 2021 FSB report, Policy Proposals to Enhance MMF Resilience. The review does not assess the effectiveness of those policy measures in addressing risks to financial stability, as this will be the focus of separate follow-up work by the FSB in 2026. Continue reading…