Italy Gives UK Finance Firms Six-Month Operating Extension Post-Brexit

By Crispian Balmer January 2, 2021, Reuters British financial intermediaries can keep on operating in Italy until the end of June as they await authorisation to do business in the country as non-European Union companies, Italy’s banking and bourse...

The City is fretting over these three snags in the 1,200-page Brexit deal

By Emily Nicolle December 30, 2020, Financial News The government has published the full text of its more than 1,200-page agreement with the EU ahead of the end of the transition period on 31 December. But with less...

Will City banks be ready for 1 January Brexit cliff edge?

By Penny Sukhraj December 29, 2020, Financial News The UK’s financial services sector saw little detail in the published Brexit trade deal that gave any indication of how the markets would operate after 1 January. The country’s financial...

Brexit talks on rules for financial services could drag past March, Frost warns

By Penny Sukhraj December 29, 2020, Financial News Discussions between London and Brussels to hammer out an additional deal on financial services could run past the first three months of 2021, the UK’s chief negotiator has said. Speaking...

Brexit Deal Offers Scant Solace to City of London Under Threat

By Viren Vaghela December 29, 2020, Bloomberg The trade deal that both sides of the English Channel say reflects a new era of cooperation is essentially a sideshow for the City of London, which is still awaiting its own...

Fears EU’s ‘tough legacy’ fix could tie risk managers’ hands

By Natasha Rega-Jones December 29, 2020, Risk The European Union’s proposed approach to tackling Libor-linked products classed as “tough legacy” have caused concern among market participants, with some worrying it could limit banks’ ability to risk-manage the products...

Blast from the Past: Trading venues decry disruptors as MTF battle heats up

By Ben St. Clair January 14, 2020, Risk Imagine, for a moment, a trading tool that allows buy-side users to send quote requests to multiple dealers in one click. The tool collects responses and then displays the quotes on the...

Blast from the Past: Mifid II creates ‘existential threat’ for small research groups

By Siobhan Riding December 8, 2019, Financial Times Boutique research providers’ business models are coming under increasing pressure two years on from the introduction of EU markets rules, in what an industry association describes as an “existential threat” to the...

Blast from the Past: EU regulator says Mifid II rules have failed on market data costs

By Philip Stafford December 5, 2019, Financial Times European exchanges will face closer monitoring of the prices they charge customers for basic data, after regulators ruled that the Mifid II markets revamp had not delivered on its aim of cutting...

Blast from the Past: Why Europe’s markets might need Mifid III

By Samuel Wilkes December 5, 2019, Risk Whispers of a review of Europe’s almost two-year-old trading and transparency rules have become full-throated talk. Disquiet among dealers and buy-siders over the provision of data on new bonds and derivatives is fuelling...

Blast from the Past: How Mifid II is slowly killing the trade

By Alice Tchernookova November 14, 2019, Practice Insight from IFLR Although recent reports showed Mifid II has helped make savings and improve conditions for end investors, many argue its impact on their activity and the EU market as a...

Italy business lobbies urge EU to ease credit default rules

By Stefano Bernabei December 28, 2020, Reuters  Italy’s main banking and industry associations have urged European Union authorities to temporarily ease EU bank rules on loan defaults and credit provisioning to help businesses cope with the impact of the...

Large asset managers boost staffing in EU by 38% since 2015

By Siobhan Riding and Attracta Mooney December 28, 2020, Financial Times Big asset managers have expanded their combined EU workforces by 38 per cent over the past five years in response to the growth of the market, Brexit uncertainty...

How better financial infrastructure can drive bond market development in Hong Kong and the region

By Kenny Shui and Louise Wen December 27, 2020, South China Morning Post More Chinese companies that have listed overseas are turning to Hong Kong for secondary listings, giving new impetus to the local stock market. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s...

Ignorance impedes growth of China ETF market, survey reveals

By Echo Huang December 28, 2020, Financial Times China’s burgeoning exchange traded fund industry has been outshone by the explosive growth of domestic active strategies this year, with market participants blaming a persistent lack of knowledge among retail investors...

Mutual fund conversions to ETFs pose challenge

By David Isenberg December 22, 2020, Financial Times Compliance and operations teams in fund houses that are planning to convert mutual funds to ETFs have lots to do to ensure their compliance and operations teams are ready, lawyers say....

What Does the Brexit Deal Mean for Financial Services?

By Simon Clark December 24, 2020, The Wall Street Journal The U.K. government and the European Union have agreed a trade deal to replace current arrangements which end on New Year’s Eve when the Brexit process is completed.Britain left...

Boris Johnson admits Brexit deal is limited for financial services

By Sebastian Payne, Chris Giles, and Jim Brunsden December 27, 2020, Financial Times Boris Johnson has admitted that the Brexit trade deal failed to meet his ambitions on financial services, as Brussels signalled that the City of London must...

‘The devil will be in the detail’ – City reacts to Brexit deal

By James Booth December 24, 2020, Financial News The UK and EU sealed an historic trade deal on 24 December as the clock ticked towards the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December.Here’s how the City reacted:Miles...

Investors eager for next round of China financial reforms

By Karen Lai and Blake Evans-Pritchard December 23, 2020, Risk For China, Covid-19 was a case of first in, first out. That has sparked a strong inflow of money into Chinese financial markets this year, with foreign investments in...

Money market funds need reform to prevent runs, US regulators say

By Colby Smith December 22, 2020, Financial Times A group of powerful financial regulators have called for sweeping reforms to US money market funds after the $4.9tn industry showed signs of severe strain during the market turmoil in March....

Exchange operators face scrutiny after bout of outages in 2020

By Philip Stafford December 23, 2020, Financial Times Stock exchanges began the year with praise for their resilience during the pandemic turbulence but are ending it with their reliability under scrutiny. A series of high-profile outages in the second...

SEC’s Market Data Infrastructure Rule Not Easily Said or Done

By Joanna Wright December 22, 2020, WatersTechnology The market data infrastructure rule finalized by US regulators this month will bring major changes to the National Market System if it is adopted—but many of the important details of how...

Negative rates may trigger derivative ‘enhancements’ – report

By Wendy LisneyDecember 22, 2020, Global Investor Group Derivative trade capture and pricing models may need significant enhancements to account for negative interest rate payments, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma). In a whitepaper,...

Pandemic Delays Market’s Shift From Libor, StanChart Says

By Apple Lam December 22, 2020, Bloomberg The pandemic has delayed the global market’s shift away from the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), according to a banker closely involved with the work. John Tan, global head, financial markets regions...

Treasury Department’s Senior Leaders Were Targeted by Hacking

By David E. Sanger and Alan Rappeport December 21, 2020, The New York Times The Russian hackers who penetrated United States government agencies broke into the email system used by the Treasury Department’s most senior leadership, a Democratic member...

Fines against financial institutions hit $10.4B in 2020

By Jaclyn Jaeger December 22, 2020, Compliance Week Financial institutions have been hit with $10.4 billion in global fines and penalties related to anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC), data privacy, and MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive)...

ESMA opens consultation on impact of algorithmic trading under MiFID II

By Annabel Smith December 18, 2020, The Trade European watchdog ESMA has released a consultation paper seeking feedback from market participants on the impact of algorithmic trading requirements set out by MiFID II and MiFIR regulations. The consultation explores...

Mifid transparency battle pits dealers against non-banks

By Philip Alexander December 17, 2020, Risk Swap dealers and non-bank market-makers are lining up on opposite sides of what is shaping up to be a contentious debate over reforming the European Union’s transparency rules for financial markets. Banks...

FCA Sets Out MiFID Plan In Case Of No-Deal Brexit

By Lucia Osborne-Crowley December 17, 2020, Law360 Britain’s financial regulator has told banks and financial services companies how it plans to implement the European Union’s sweeping capital markets rulebook if negotiators fail to strike a trade deal before the...