In particular, these amendments concern the new activities that will be offered as part of the support services for corporate transactions as well as the new support service for the management of the shareholders’ register.
The amendments will enter into force on the 4 th of April 2022.
In particular, IOSCO points out, Increased retail participation in securities markets could mean retail investors increasingly influence market trends and pricing, with corresponding regulatory implications for retail market conduct.
Increased retail participation leads to increased market risks with particular reference to self-directed trading and the influence of social media on retail investor behaviour.
The consultation will end on 23 May 2022.
FATF GAFI has published a Report analysing the money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with migrant smuggling.
While there has been an increase in migrant smuggling, many countries do not consider it a high-risk crime for money laundering and the associated financial flows are rarely investigated.
The report identifies the most common methods to transfer and launder the proceeds of migrant smuggling, from hawala (an informal method of transferring money without any physical money actually moving), integration of proceeds into legitimate business such as shops, travel agencies and transport companies, and the increasing use of professional money launderers. Using countries’ experiences, the report provides several recommendations and good practices that allow authorities to better trace criminal proceeds and enhance the effectiveness of money laundering investigations.
The report highlights the need for countries to understand the money laundering risks they face from migrant smuggling and to proactively follow the money linked to this criminal activity, including through increased collaboration with national and international authorities and the private sector
Given the cross-border dimension of market data handling, data quality and the necessity to achieve economies of scale, and to avoid the adverse impact of potential divergences on both data quality and the task of data reporting providers, Regulation (EU) 2019/2175 of the European Parliament and of the Council transferred authorisation and supervision powers with regard to the activities of data reporting services providers (“DRSPs”) in the Union to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
At the same time, approved publication arrangements (“APAs”) and approved reporting mechanisms (“ARMs”) are derogated from ESMA supervision, and instead remain in scope of national supervision, where their activities are of limited relevance for the internal market.
The activities of an APA or an ARM should firstly be considered to be of limited relevance for the internal market based on the relative amount of clients established in Member States different from the home Member State of the APA or the ARM.
If the services offered by APAs or ARMs are to a large extent cross-border, derogation should not apply. Secondly the relevance for the internal market should be based on the share of the total reported or published transactions that is reported or published by individual APAs or ARMs.
If this share exceeds a minimum threshold, then the activities should not be considered to be of limited relevance to the internal market. The calculation for the APA should be based on transparency data submitted to the Financial Instruments Reference Data System and the Financial Instruments Transparency System, while the calculation for the ARM should be based on the transaction reports submitted to the competent authorities.
