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Two of our projects accepted into the FCA sandbox
Posted by Martin Bartlam on 12 August 2020We are advising on two projects accepted into cohort 6 of the FCA regulatory sandbox.
Cohort 6 of the FCA regulatory’s sandbox received 68 applications in total from firms looking to bring innovation and improvements to the financial services space. For the first time, the FCA has called out for innovation including propositions that ‘make finance work for everyone’ and ‘support the UK in the move to a greener economy’.
Taking security in Australia
Posted by Hugo Thistlewood, Shehan Canagasingham and Catherine Beahan on 11 August 2020At a time in which many businesses are struggling to adapt to often drastic and sudden losses of revenue flowing from the COVID-19 pandemic and are forced to maximise access to existing facilities and to pursue new financing opportunities, it is not surprising that many financiers have an enhanced interest in the risk mitigation that may be afforded by taking robust security interests in support of corporate loans.
This briefing is a high-level guide for off-shore entities to taking and enforcing security in Australia. Our focus is upon security over Australian assets (other than real property) in the context of a commercial transaction.
FCA publishes the findings of a review into relending by firms that offer high-cost credit
Posted by Michael McKee and Erna Soljanin on 7 August 2020On 6 August 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a report setting out review findings of relending by firms in the high-cost lenders portfolio. The FCA also commissioned a study by PWC as an aid to understand repeat borrowing in the high-cost credit market.
EC proposing change of law to continue non-deliverable forwards
Posted by Mark Daley on 31 July 2020Last week we saw the UK take action to prevent the onshored Benchmarks Regulation preventing UK regulated entities being able to refer to unauthorised spot FX rates, some of which (such as KRW/USD and TWD/USD) are widely used in non-deliverable forward contracts. Its solution was to delay the current transition period under the BMR until the end of 2025. The EC’s second proposed amendment from last Friday to amend the Benchmarks Regulation concerns the same issue, and proposes amending the BMR to permit the EC to designate certain spot FX rate benchmarks.
ISDA cautions the EU on upcoming cliff edge
Posted by Mark Daley on 31 July 2020ISDA and some other European trade bodies have updated and re-issued their October 2018 paper, “The impact of Brexit on OTC derivatives” (not yet on its website). Given the current impasse on a free trade agreement and the absence of completed equivalence declarations, the possibilities of “cliff-edge” disruption to the derivatives market are largely as they were back in 2018, save to the extent that the quantum of affected contracts may have been reduced (if this has indeed happened to a material extent).
EBA’s latest Brexit statement
Posted by Mark Daley on 31 July 2020The EBA’s latest Brexit statement on Wednesday contained familiar reminders and warnings: passporting will end on 31st December 2020 and if UK firms want to offer services into the EU27, they will need to check they are permitted by the relevant local law and whether or not it permits reverse solicitation nor has an overseas persons exemption, etc), and UK firms should not set up brass plate subsidiaries and then sub-contract everything back to the UK, and instead “ensure that associated management capacity, including appropriate technical risk management capabilities, is effectively in place ahead of time, and is commensurate to the magnitude, scope and complexity of their activities, to allow for effective and efficient management of risks they generate”.
EC proposals to encourage NPL securitisations and synthetics
Posted by Mark Daley on 31 July 2020The EC’s unexpected announcements and proposed legislation last Friday, 24 July, to amend the Securitisation Regulation and to amend the CRR (nothing yet about Solvency II) to:
- promote the securitisation of NPLs
- create a regime for balance sheet synthetic securitisations
- make their regulatory capital treatment more benign
- tweak the rules on the regulatory capital implications of unfunded credit protection
CBILS relaxed to permit lending to small “businesses in difficulty”
Posted by Mark Daley on 31 July 2020One problem with CBILS is that, to comply with EU state aid rules, the borrower must not have been an “undertaking in difficulty” on 31 December 2019. The CBILS scheme rules have been relaxed with effect from 30 July for borrowers which “have fewer than 50 employees and a turnover of less than GBP9 million”.
and then 