On October 25th, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of Italy announced the winners of the G20 TechSprint 2021 challenge during a live award ceremony in Milan. The G20 TechSprint 2021, a hackathon-style competition, was launched in May by the Italian G20 Presidency to highlight the potential for new technologies to resolve some of the most pressing challenges in green and sustainable finance. Continue reading…

KPMG said it had no choice but to advise Silentnight to file for bankruptcy and be purchased by a private equity firm. This assertion was deemed “fundamentally untrue” by a British disciplinary court. The fact that KPMG attempted to deceive the regulator is unprecedented in the FRC’s history.

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A joint investigation team (JIT) between the Dutch and German authorities has taken down an organised crime group specialised in explosive attacks on Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs). A total of nine suspects have been taken into custody as a result of this 18-month investigation coordinated by Europol and Eurojust. The criminals were producing step-by-step tutorials on how to blow up cash machines, and have been linked to at least 15 ATM attacks in Germany. The cash machines were blown open using homemade explosive devices, posing a serious risk for residents and bystanders. During one of the test runs of an explosion, one of the suspects died, with the other suspect getting seriously injured. Continue reading…

Charles Randell has asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to commence the process to appoint his successor as Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR). Charles plans to step down in Spring 2022. Under Charles’s leadership as Chair, the FCA has established a significant multi-year transformation programme to become a more proactive, data-led and forward-looking regulator. The FCA has successfully transitioned to a new executive team, which is rolling out detailed strategies to support its transformation. Continue reading…

A new campaign to promote better understanding of modern market making, what it does and its benefits for wider society, has been launched on 27 September 2021. #WeAreMarketMakers is being run by the FIA European Principal Traders Association (FIA EPTA), the European industry body for independent market making companies, as part of its 10th Anniversary activities. The project is not only supported by FIA EPTA’s 30 member firms, but also by others in the markets community that work directly with and alongside the industry. Continue reading…

On October 13, the European Commission proposed bespoke arrangements to respond to the difficulties that people in Northern Ireland have been experiencing because of Brexit, by further facilitating the movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. This follows extensive discussions over the past months with the UK government, as well as outreach by the European Commission to political leaders, businesses, civil society and other stakeholders in Northern Ireland. It also puts forward ideas based on elements raised in the UK’s Command Paper published in July 2021. The Commission now stands ready to engage in intensive discussions with the UK government, with a view to reaching a jointly agreed permanent solution as soon as possible. The Commission will do this in close collaboration and constant dialogue with the European Parliament and Council. Continue reading…

by Frank Staelens

The EU Whistleblower Protection Directive came into force on 16 December 2019. Member States have up till 17 December 2021 to transpose the new EU regulations into national laws. The latest progress reports show that most Member States will not be able to meet this deadline. Even with some delays in some Member States, most EU organisations with more than 250 employees only have a few months left to organise their compliance, while the average implementation time for non complex environments is two months.  Continue reading…

A prototype of multiple Central Bank Digital Currencies (mCBDCs) developed by the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub and four central banks demonstrated the potential of using digital currencies and distributed ledger technology (DLT) for delivering real-time, cheaper and safer cross-border payments and settlements. The mBridge project is a cooperation between the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority; the Bank of Thailand; the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China; and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. The common prototype platform for mCBDC settlements was able to complete international transfers and foreign exchange operations in seconds, as opposed to the several days normally required for any transaction to be completed using the existing network of commercial banks and operate in a 24/7 basis. The cost of such operations to users can also be reduced by up to half, according to the project’s report published recently.
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Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor of Financial Stability at the Bank of England, gave a speech on October 13 at the recently held virtual SIBOS 2021 conference. In his talk, he looked at the impact of ‘crypto’ on the stability of the UK’s financial system. He also spoke about how unbacked crypto-assets (eg Bitcoin) and backed crypto-assets for payments (stablecoins) have begun to connect to the financial system, and how regulators are responding to their rapid growth. Note: as this is Mr. Cunliffe’s speech, we as a platform think that it is very important to publish the whole speech without any modifications due to the fact that it was also checked and verified by several experts. What is written beneath is his original speech. You can find all relevant information on his talk, including footnotes, in the link that is provided at the end of the article. 

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