Tag:Governance

1
Europe: UK’s FCA Intensifies Scrutiny on Private Markets Valuations
2
Europe: UK’s FCA Seeks to Simplify Its Rules
3
Australia: APRA Proposes Reforms to Strengthen Governance Standards
4
Europe: National Regulators Announce Digital Operational Resilience Act Reporting Windows
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Europe: ESMA and National Regulators Launch Coordinated Review of Fund Manager Compliance and Internal Audit Functions
6
Australia: ASIC Continues Increased Scrutiny Into AFS Licensees for Hire
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Australia: How Do Your Internal Dispute Resolution Processes Stack Up?
8
Australia: AI and Your Obligations as an Australian Financial Services Licensee
9
Australia: ASIC Enforcement for Sustainability Reporting Will be Different to Greenwashing
10
United States: Cooking the Books: CFTC Turns Up the Heat on Voluntary Carbon Market Fraudsters

Europe: UK’s FCA Intensifies Scrutiny on Private Markets Valuations

By: Daniel Greenaway and Flavio Picaro

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has published the findings of its multi-firm review of valuation processes for private market assets. This review follows the highlighting of vulnerabilities in private markets stemming, in part, from opaque valuations, in both the Bank of England’s June 2024 Financial Stability Report and IOSCO’s September 2023 report on emerging risks in private finance markets.

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Europe: UK’s FCA Seeks to Simplify Its Rules

By: Laura Price and Kai Zhang

Acknowledging “longstanding concerns from firms about the length and complexity of [its] rules and guidance”, the UK’s FCA published a call for input in July 2024. It invited firms to comment on whether some FCA rules may be unnecessary following introduction of the outcomes-based Consumer Duty. It has now outlined its proposed approach in a Feedback Statement, explaining that its aims are to achieve more flexibility, more predictability, and improved efficiency. The approach includes:

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Australia: APRA Proposes Reforms to Strengthen Governance Standards

By: Jim Bulling, Simon Kiburg and Eddie Frost

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has proposed reforms to strengthen core prudential standards and guidance on governance, currently set out in SPS 510 Governance, SPS 520 Fit and Proper, and SPS 521 Conflicts of Interest.

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Europe: National Regulators Announce Digital Operational Resilience Act Reporting Windows

By: Shane Geraghty, Dr. Ulrike Elteste, and Ruth Hennessy

EU national supervisory authorities will collect the Register of Information (ROI) pursuant to the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) from in scope financial entities in April 2025, with the reference date set as 31 March 2025. ROIs are reports by in-scope EU financial entities on all contractual arrangements on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) services provided by ICT third-party service providers. The financial entity must differentiate between providers who are not critical and providers who are considered critical and important.

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Europe: ESMA and National Regulators Launch Coordinated Review of Fund Manager Compliance and Internal Audit Functions

By: Shane Geraghty, Hazel Doyle, and Gayle Bowen

On 14 February 2025, the EU’s securities and markets regulator, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), launched a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) with EU Member State National Competent Authorities (NCAs), in relation to compliance and internal audit functions of UCITS management companies and Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs) across the EU.

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Australia: ASIC Continues Increased Scrutiny Into AFS Licensees for Hire

By: Kane Barnett and Bernard Sia

ASIC has accepted a court enforceable undertaking (CEU) from Private Wealth Pty Ltd (Sanlam) after it admitted that it failed to discharge its general Australian financial services (AFS) licensing obligations in connection with its authorised representatives.

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Australia: How Do Your Internal Dispute Resolution Processes Stack Up?

By: Claudine Salameh and Tamsyn Sharpe

Financial firms are required to maintain clear internal dispute resolution (IDR) processes to allow customers to seek redress where they are dissatisfied with the firm’s products or services. Access to fair, timely and effective IDR is an important tenet of consumer protection. Financial firms are required to acknowledge the receipt of a customer’s complaint within 24 hours and resolve standard complaints within 30 days.

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Australia: AI and Your Obligations as an Australian Financial Services Licensee

By: Daniel Knight, Ben Kneebush and Madison Jeffreys

As Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be adopted and used by Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensees broadly, it has become increasingly evident that many licensees’ deployment of AI falls short of their existing regulatory obligations and emerging best practices.

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Australia: ASIC Enforcement for Sustainability Reporting Will be Different to Greenwashing

By: Jim Bulling, Simon Kiburg and Alex Parker

When assessing how to comply with the new reporting obligations, reporting entities should recognise the differences in the enforcement approach that ASIC will take in relation to mandatory climate reporting compared with the approach adopted by it in relation to Greenwashing.

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United States: Cooking the Books: CFTC Turns Up the Heat on Voluntary Carbon Market Fraudsters

By: Cheryl L. Isaac, Clifford C. Histed, and Benjamin C. Skillin

On 2 October 2024, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced multiple actions related to fraud in the voluntary carbon credit (VCC) market, just over one year after establishing the Environmental Fraud Task Force. Specifically, the CFTC filed a complaint in federal court against the former CEO of a carbon credit project developer and, on the same day, settled charges against CQC Impact Investors LLC (CQC) and its former COO, all related to a deceptive scheme purportedly intended to reduce carbon emissions. 

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