News Centre

MiFID II And The Fight Against Financial Crime - Speech By Mark Steward, Director Of Enforcement And Market Oversight At The FCA, Delivered At The Duff & Phelps Global Enforcement Review 2018

Date 13/07/2018

Highlights:

• From 3 July, firms require Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) before they can trade on behalf of their clients. A LEI is a unique code, included in a global data system, which allows every legal entity or structure that is a party to a relevant financial transaction to be identified, no matter where it is located.
• Since the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II) commenced on 3 January 2018, our market data processor has ingested nearly 3.5 billion transaction reports, averaging over half a billion reports per month.
• Using software developed in-house to normalise and ingest disparate order book data-sets from the main lit and dark UK trading venues, it is now possible to track potentially related trading activity on different venues and detect cross-market manipulation.
• We have commenced a small number of investigations into firms’ systems and controls where, for the first time, we have indicated to those firms that we are looking at whether there has been any misconduct that might justify a criminal prosecution under the Money Laundering Regulations.

Bureau Veritas Verifies Landmark First Certified Green Bond For Solar Energy In Brazil

Date 13/07/2018

Leading Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) provider, Bureau Veritas has verified the very first Certified Green Bond for solar energy in Brazil. The bond has been issued by distributed solar energy company, Faro Energy in response to the rapid growth of the solar market in Brazil and will be used to finance distributed solar power projects across the country.    

ESMA Consults On Tick Size Regime

Date 13/07/2018

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a Consultation Paper (CP) proposing amendments to the tick size regime (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/588 (RTS 11)). The MiFID II tick size regime aims at creating a level playing field between the different trading venues in the EU by regulating the minimum price increment that can be used by those trading venues. The CP aims to address issues, in a timely manner, that have arisen with respect to financial instruments where only a marginal proportion of trading is executed on EU trading venues and the main pool of liquidity is located outside the EU (third country instruments).

Hong Kong's Securities And Futures Commission Standardises Rules For Prescribing Professional Investors

Date 13/07/2018

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announces that amendments to the Securities and Futures (Professional Investor) Rules (PI Rules) have come into operation today.

New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority: CBL Investigation Update

Date 13/07/2018

The FMA investigation into the conduct of CBL Corporation Limited (“CBL”) and its directors is ongoing. Due to investor interest in these matters an update on the investigation is appropriate at this time.

Hong Kong's Securities And Futures Commission Amends Takeovers Rules

Date 13/07/2018

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today released consultation conclusions on proposed amendments to the Codes on Takeovers and Mergers and Share Buy-backs (Codes). The amended Codes, gazetted today, will apply with immediate effect.

Shenzhen Stock Exchange Holds A Forum Of Listed Companies

Date 13/07/2018

According to the unified deployment of CSRC, SZSE held on July 12th the Forum of Listed Companies to listen to the listed players’ opinions and suggestions on the robust running maintenance and sound development promotion of capital market and the working of SZSE. The leading personnel in charge from SZSE attended the forum.

FINRA Handles Record Volume Of Market Activity Through First Six Months Of 2018 - Cloud Strategy Enables Seamless Processing And Robust Market Surveillance

Date 12/07/2018

FINRA processed an unprecedented amount of market activity through the first six months of 2018, averaging a record 57.9 billion electronic records per day during the period — a 62-percent increase over the average daily volume in 2017. FINRA’s pioneering cloud strategy has allowed it to handle the record-setting volume smoothly while performing vigorous regulatory oversight of securities trading.

ISDA Publishes Consultation On Benchmark Fallbacks

Date 12/07/2018

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) has launched a market-wide consultation on technical issues related to new benchmark fallbacks for derivatives contracts that reference certain interbank offered rates (IBORs). The consultation sets out options for adjustments that would apply to the fallback rate in the event an IBOR is permanently discontinued.

CalPERS Reports Preliminary 8.6 Percent Investment Return For Fiscal Year 2017-18

Date 12/07/2018

CalPERS today reported a preliminary 8.6 percent net return on investments for the 12-month period that ended June 30, 2018. CalPERS assets at the end of the fiscal year stood at more than $351 billion.