Priips: industry begs Commission to clarify scope

A letter seen by Practice Insight has shown that banks and trade associations are imploring the European Commission to clarify the scope of the new retail investor protection framework. Uncertainty within the Priips regime is pushing issuers to err on the side of caution and designate new deals to professional investors only. This means many investors can't access new deals, but are also unable to exit existing investments which can't be sold on without a KID Read more...

The debate on clearing plans post-Brexit is heating up on both sides of the Atlantic, but relocating CCPs to New York as implied by the House of Lords will come with additional due diligence checks and various other legal implications. Either way, here UK banks and investment firms tell Practice Insight that the EU is ignoring the real shape of the market, with around 55% made up of US dollars Read more...

Banks explain that they've stopped chasing clients for LEIs despite it being a legal requirement under Mifid II, arguing that a lack of regulatory attention – including a six-month reprieve of sorts – signifies a relaxed attitude to the rule. Here LEI providers argue that without action from Esma the entire LEI project could be undermined, as the identifying codes are “only as good as the data behind them” Read more...

The recently agreed Brexit transitional agreement has caused everyone to relax on CCP relocation despite nothing being set in stone. If pressure isn't consistently applied and euro clearing is forced to move, trades will be more expensive in terms of risk-weighted assets, plus the capital required to support the business would be around 50 times higher. Aside from capital requirement issues for clearing, banks have also not yet thought about reporting to trade repositories post-Brexit Read more...