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The Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) refers to concepts that will be introduced by MiFID II, such as organised trading facilities (OTFs), small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth markets, and emission allowances or auctioned products based on them. MAR states that its provisions will not apply to those concepts until 3 January 2017. This was the scheduled date of entry into application of MiFID II. However, on 10 February 2016, the European Commission published a draft directive to delay this by 12 months to 3 January 2018. The Commission has, therefore, also published a draft regulation to amend, amongst other things, MAR, so that its provisions will not apply to the above concepts until 3 January 2018.

Source: Hogan Lovells

The Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) enters directly into force on 3 July 2016, replacing and repealing the existing framework under the Market Abuse Directive (MAD). The new MAR regime aims to introduce a single market abuse rulebook across EU member states, allowing less scope for national discretion than under the existing MAD rules. The new framework seeks to enhance confidence in the integrity of European markets and in so doing it is hoped to reduce regulatory and administrative costs, especially for firms operating on a cross-border basis. [Read more]

Source: William Fry

The banking individual accountability regime comes into effect today. The regime applies to relevant banks, building societies, credit unions and PRA-designated investment firms, and branches of foreign banks operating in the UK. The regime is likely to impact on nearly all staff in such firms and internal HR processes will play an important role in managing the effect of the regime on all stages of the employment relationship, including recruitment, promotion and termination. [Read more]

Source: CMS Cameron McKenna

On February 29, 2016, the FCA published good practices for liquidity management for investment management firms. The good practices are an outcome of the FCA’s work with the Bank of England to assess the risks of open-ended investment funds investing in the fixed income sector, culminating in a collation of practices which the regulator has seen being used by investment firms to manage liquidity. The FCA hopes that by publishing the good practices, all investment management firms can improve their liquidity management. The good practices cover four areas: (i) good disclosure of liquidity risks to investors; (ii) good processes and tools for liquidity risk management, including continuous re-assessment and updating to keep track with market conditions; (iii) good practices for managing redemptions and costs relating to redemptions, including disclosing those practices to investors; and (iv) thorough preparation for implementation of exceptional liquidity tools and measures, such as maintaining a procedure manual for implementation of each tool and testing implementation of tools to ensure that the measures work in practice.

The good practices are available at: http://www.fca.org.uk/news/liquidity-management-for-investment-firms-goodpractice.

Source: Shearman & Sterling LLP

On February 26, the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation supplementing the Market Abuse Regulation (No. 596/2014) (“MAR“) laying down regulatory technical standards on accepted market practice.

MAR defines “accepted market practice” as a specific market practice that is accepted by a competent authority of a member state (Article 3(1) MAR). ESMA is required to develop draft regulatory technical standards specifying the criteria, procedure and requirements for establishing an accepted market practice and the requirements for maintaining or terminating it or modifying the conditions for its acceptance. The Delegated Regulation provides for a list of “supervised persons” for the purposes of the Delegated Regulation, and lays down requirements for establishing an accepted market practice.

The Council of the EU and European Parliament are expected to review and consider the Delegated Regulation. Provided there are no objections the Delegated Regulation will apply from July 2, 2016.

Source: Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

On February 26, the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation supplementing the Market Abuse Regulation (No. 596/2014) (“MAR“) laying down regulatory technical standards on accepted market practice. MAR defines “accepted market practice” as a specific market practice that is accepted by a competent authority of a member state (Article 3(1) MAR). ESMA is required to develop draft regulatory technical standards specifying the criteria, procedure and requirements for establishing an accepted market practice and the requirements for maintaining or terminating it or modifying the conditions for its acceptance. The Delegated Regulation provides for a list of “supervised persons” for the purposes of the Delegated Regulation, and lays down requirements for establishing an accepted market practice. [Read more]

Source: Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Previous articles in our MiFID 2 series have considered the effects of MiFID 2 on, among other things, dealings with customers, advice, transparency, and compliance. This article, by Tom Harkus, looks at how MiFID 2 will affect the safeguarding of client assets With the exception of an outright ban on the use of title transfer collateral arrangements (TTCAs) for retail clients, the MiFID 2 package does not change the fundamental principles of the client assets regime laid out in the Directive it is replacing (MiFID). [Read more]

Source: Dentons

The European Commission has announced a delay to the implementation of MiFID II (the latest piece of EU legislation dealing with the regulation of investment services within Europe). MiFID II will amongst other things introduce greater regulation of certain markets where complex financial products can currently be traded with limited reporting or transparency requirements. Greater regulation of these types of trading arrangements was widely viewed as one of the key lessons learnt from the global financial crisis. [Read more]

Source: Bryan Cave