European Securities and Markets Authority

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Credit rating agencies (‘CRAs’) that operate in the EU will be interested to hear that on 30 March 2017, ESMA published an update to its Questions & Answers (Q&A) on the ‘CRA’ Regulation (Regulation 1060/2009, as amended in 2011 and 2013).  The CRA Regulation requires CRAs within the EU to be registered and to comply with requirements relating to their independence and avoidance of conflicts of interest, their methodologies, their disclosures and their approach to sovereign debt.  It also contains requirements on parties involved in securitisations in respect of the rating of structured finance instruments.
Continue Reading ESMA clarifies timelines for publication of credit ratings and rating outlooks

clocksI bring good news from the Bank of England. Whether you have been up all night trying to close a £1 billion securities transaction for your client, or you are buying a house and there’s a last minute snag, the deadline for settling securities transactions and making high-value cash transfers is due to be extended

Minibonds photoThis may be a slightly odd question with which to start a legal blog post, but do you like burritos, wine, or chocolate? Who doesn’t, right? If only there was a way of making money off your addiction to tasty Mexican treats or decadent Swiss truffles? Well, as it turns out, there might be…

Mini-bonds

Running man - RBSUThe Investment Plan, developed by the European Commission, has the potential to be one of the most important and radical changes to how the European Union operates in the last 25 years.  Not only will it seek to harmonise the financial and regulatory barriers to investment, but it will look to harness the collective

It’s been barely six weeks since the EMIR trade reporting obligations came into effect on 12 February and, as the regulatory dust begins to settle, parties to derivative transactions are still in the process of assessing their duties under the new regime.  In the lead up to the February deadline, bank and securities firms were busy implementing their client outreach programmes whilst we were busy putting out client alerts and blogging about the new requirements under EMIR.  We continue to help clients with their questions on this significant change to the EU regulatory landscape.

Two aspects of the new trade reporting regime in particular repay some close attention to avoid potential trip-ups.  First, the rules relating to what has been termed ‘backloading’, or, in other words, the requirement to transaction report historic trades.  After some uncertainty in the lead up to implementation, the requirements are now clearer.  Broadly, counterparties need to ensure that all historic trades that were either ‘live’ on 12 August 2012 (the date EMIR came into force), or subsequently became live prior to 12 February 2014 (the date the reporting requirements came into force), are reported.  For these trades, the deadline for reporting will range from just one day to a period of three years after the reporting obligations became effective, depending on the date of the trade and, if applicable, its termination date.  Our client alert sets out these timeframes in more detail.

Continue Reading Back(loading) to the Future – the Nuances of EMIR Transaction Reporting Requirements

EMIR’s trade reporting obligations come into effect on 12 February and counterparties to derivative transactions are currently scrambling to ensure they have all the appropriate systems in place to ensure compliance. For large financial institutions, this has already involved many months of hard work and, even still, many are not optimistic about meeting next month’s deadline. At the other end of the spectrum, the administrative burden on one-off or low volume commercial counterparties should be relatively light, and ensuring that the reporting obligations are covered not therefore too taxing.

What then of SPVs – which are neither operational goliaths like their derivative counterparties nor autonomous commercial entities capable of assessing the implications on cost, resources and time of each option open to them?
Continue Reading You Don’t Need EMIRacle – Trade Reporting for SPVs Made Easy

On 28 January the competent authority for supervising securities in Greece, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC), made use of its powers of intervention in exceptional circumstances and decided to introduce yet another emergency measure under Article 20 of Regulation No 236/2012, also known as the EU Short Selling Regulation. As defined in the Regulation, short selling consists in the sale of securities that the seller does not own, with the intention of buying back an identical security at a later point in time in order to be able to deliver the security.
Continue Reading Hellenic Capital Market Commission – New Emergency Prohibition under the EU Short Selling Regulation