Conduct of business – Page 5 – Global Investment Law Watch

United States: A Holiday Gift for M&A Brokers: Congress Passes New Exemption from Securities Broker Registration

Dec 29 2022

On December 23, 2022, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2617, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023,” following Senate passage on December 22. President Biden is expected to sign the legislation before December 30. Among the routine federal funding provisions, the bill includes a holiday surprise “policy rider” on qualifying mergers and acquisitions brokers (“M&A brokers”) in Division AA, Title V, Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales and Brokerage Simplification (“Title V”), effective 90 days after enactment. (H.R. 2617, 117th Cong. Div. AA, Title V, § 501 (2022)).

Europe: Systemically important outsourced service providers, eg cloud services, to be identified and regulated in the UK

Jul 08 2022

By: Kai Zhang

In an 8 June 2022 policy statement, the UK Government proposes a specific regime for supervising “critical” service providers to the financial services industry. This is to address concentration risk as many regulated firms rely on a few large service providers whose failure could potentially threaten the stability of, or confidence in, the UK’s financial system. The Government observes that in 2020 over 65% of UK regulated firms used the same four cloud providers for cloud infrastructure services.

Europe: Pressure Grows on UK Regulated Firms to Manage Cryptoasset-Related Risk

Mar 28 2022

By: Kai Zhang

On 24 March 2022, the FCA issued a notice reminding firms with cryptoassets exposures of its expectations on certain risks. The key themes are:

Avoiding consumer confusion: As cryptoassets are generally not regulated, the FCA expects firms involved in cryptoassets to ensure that consumers understand the distinction between their regulated business and unregulated business (i.e. relating to cryptoassets).

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