More than a year ago the world fell victim to a global pandemic that would change life in ways that could never have been predicted. In the early stages of the pandemic, we published a White Paper directed at financial...more
The European Central Bank's decision to establish a Climate Change Center and invest in a green bond fund launched by the Bank for International Settlements reflects the growing importance of climate change, and ESG more...more
German financial institutions may need to consider a risk framework for monitoring their customers' compliance with social and environmental standards.
The German Federal Government recently proposed a draft act on...more
2020 witnessed a flurry of anti-money laundering activity, with the issues and developments continuing to be global in scope. In the United States, suspicious activity reports, outlining transactions involving terrorism...more
The Situation: On January 1, 2021, the U.S. Congress enacted the most significant reforms to U.S. anti-money laundering laws in decades. The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 ("AMLA") and the Corporate Transparency Act...more
The Situation: On January 4, 2021, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") issued an Interpretive Letter permitting national banks and federal savings associations ("Banks") to participate in independent node...more
1/19/2021
/ Banking Sector ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Interpretive Letters ,
OCC ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins
The Development: New Regulation (EU) 2020/2176 (the "Regulation") provides regulatory capital relief, allowing certain software assets to be considered when calculating Common Equity Tier 1 ("CET1") capital. It entered into...more
The Situation: The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has triggered an unprecedented response from European governments to support their economies with government-backed financial support....more
The Situation: The U.S. Congress recently passed landmark anti-money laundering ("AML") legislation for the first time since enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001. The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 ("AMLA") passed both...more
The Situation: The New York State Department of Financial Services ("DFS") and the European Banking Authority ("EBA") have published guidance relating to Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance ("ESG")...more
Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 on the prudential requirements of investment firms and Directive (EU) 2019/2034 on the prudential supervision of investment firms (collectively, "IFR/IFD Framework") significantly change the...more
The Situation: On August 7, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury ("Treasury Department") took the first action under the authority of "The President's Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization" ("HK Normalization EO")...more
The Situation: The requirement for a paper-based note for issuing securities under the German law has been an obstacle for the use of security tokens in Germany. With the release of a draft bill (the "Bill") permitting the...more
The economic crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus triggered an unprecedented response from European governments to support their economies with various measures of support.
This overview summarizes the various...more
7/6/2020
/ Business Interruption ,
Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (the CLBILS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Member State ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Relief Measures ,
State Aid ,
State of Emergency
The Situation: The European Commission issued an Action Plan on Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism ("AML/CFT") in response to recent money laundering scandals and concerns of an increase in crime due...more
6/19/2020
/ AML/CFT ,
AMLD V ,
Banking Sector ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
EU Action Plans ,
European Banking Authority (EBA) ,
European Commission ,
Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) ,
International Data Transfers ,
Law Enforcement
In Short: Since the Cum-Ex Files were released in 2018, the European Banking Authority ("EBA") has been conducting research, through surveys sent to competent authorities, about the risks posed by dividend trading arbitrage...more
The Situation: On June 3, 2020, the European Securities Market Authority ("ESMA") published a consultation paper on Outsourcing to Cloud Service Providers ("Proposed Guidelines"), which will apply to any institution under the...more
The Situation: Following the enactment earlier in 2019 of new French legislation to regulate activities related to digital assets (including cryptocurrency but excluding tokenized securities), final regulatory provisions were...more
1/2/2020
/ AML/CFT ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Instruments ,
Financial Statements ,
France ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment ,
New Legislation ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Token Sales ,
Virtual Currency
The Situation: Three major pillars of the EU action plan on sustainable finance ("EU Action Plan") at varying stages of development have taken steps forward.
The Result: We now have a regulation on climate-related benchmarks...more
12/27/2019
/ Benchmarks ,
Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
EU Action Plans ,
EU Benchmark Regulation ,
European Commission ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Paris Agreement ,
Popular ,
Sustainable Finance ,
Taxonomy
On October 24, 2019, the European Supervisory Authorities ("ESAs"), consisting of the European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Banking Authority, and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority,...more
12/24/2019
/ Bond Markets ,
Comment Period ,
Consultation Papers ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Joint Statements ,
Packaged Retail And Insurance-Based Investment Products (PRIIPS) ,
Popular ,
Regulation Technical Standards (RTS) ,
Retail Investors
The Situation: The European Banking Authority ("EBA") issued its Action Plan on Sustainable Finance ("Action Plan") on December 6, 2019, setting forth an outline for its deliverables and activities related to environmental,...more
The Situation: The LIBOR manipulation scandal and vanishing liquidity in the London inter-bank market for time deposits led the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") to announce that at the end of 2021, banks would no longer be...more
7/8/2019
/ Bank of England ,
Banking Sector ,
Collateral ,
Comment Period ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Libor ,
Liquidity Coverage Ratio ,
Market Manipulation ,
Risk Management ,
Risk-Based Approaches ,
Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) ,
UK
The Situation: The G20, a forum for governments and central bank governors from 19 countries and the European Union, had made the decision to combat money laundering and terrorism financing activities tied to the use of...more
7/1/2019
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
EU ,
EU Directive ,
Financial Instruments ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
G20 ,
Licensing Rules ,
Popular ,
Securities Tokens ,
Virtual Currency
The pending EU risk reduction package is highly relevant for the whole EU banking sector. It addresses the capital provisioning required by banks to facilitate potential resolution measures by resolution authorities if a bank...more
The Situation: The updating of the Euro Interbank Offer Rate ("Euribor") to align it with the EU Benchmark Regulation 2016/1011 ("EU BMR") is in full swing. Under the EU BMR, only EU and third country BMR compliant benchmarks...more