ESMA has submitted its first report on national rules governing the marketing of investment funds under the Regulation on cross-border distribution of funds.
ESMA provides an overview of the marketing requirements across Member States, and analyses the effects of national laws, regulations and administrative provisions governing the marketing of investment funds. The report is based on responses provided by National Competent Authorities (NCAs) to two questionnaires prepared by ESMA.
Key findings:

  • National laws, regulations and administrative provisions governing marketing requirements are usually based on the transposition of the AIFMD and the UCITS Directive, although NCAs’ responses showed that some additional national requirements may be applicable.
  • Only a very limited number of NCAs carry out ex-ante or ex-post verification or marketing communications.
  • It is expected that greater harmonisation of the marketing requirements will be achieved after the transposition of the Directive on cross-border distribution of collective investment undertakings by 2 August 2021.

ESMA has published its latest edition of the Newsletter “Spotlight on Markets”.
Your one-stop-shop in the world of financial markets focuses this month on the 2020 Annual Report. ESMA was at the forefront of the response to the COVID-19 crisis and Brexit on EU financial markets, while assuming new powers and supervisory responsibilities under the European Supervisory Authorities’ Review and EMIR 2.2.
Other key publications include:

  • the Central Counterparties Stress Test;
  • the first Risk Dashboard for 2021;
  • the Final Report on the MiFIDII/MiFIR obligations on market data;
  • the approval of the first two securitisation repositories; and
  • the Joint Statement with the European Commission, ECB Banking Supervision, and the European Banking Authority on LIBOR cessation.

EBA has published an Opinion to ease the implementation of the Investment Firms Regulation (IFR) and Investment Firms Directive (IFD).
In a few cases, especially for investment firms of third country groups, the Opinion provides guidance on the actions to be taken in case of uncertainty on whether these investment firms should apply for an authorisation as a credit institution in the absence of the delegated act establishing the methodology for the calculation of the highest threshold (the EUR 30bn threshold), on which the EBA has currently opened a second public consultation.
In general, the EBA advises competent authorities to apply a pragmatic approach for those investment firms, where the relevant EUR 30bn threshold for the identification of the prudential regime to be applied to the investment firm cannot be determined without the guidance provided in the EBA RTS currently being consulted on. More specifically, the EBA advises supervisors not to prioritise any supervisory or enforcement action in relation to the identification of investments firms, until six months after the final methodology is in place.

EBA has published a revised Decision confirming the quality of unsolicited credit assessments assigned by certain External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAIs) for calculating institutions’ capital requirements.
The revised Decision, which reflects the recognition of two additional ECAIs and the de-registering of three ECAIs, is part of the Single Rulebook in banking and will ensure regulatory harmonisation across the European Union (EU) regarding the use of unsolicited credit ratings for determining institutions’ own funds requirements.

(only in Italian)
Banca d’Italia con Provvedimento del 30 giugno 2021, ha apportato delle modifiche alle disposizioni in materia di “Trasparenza delle operazioni e dei servizi bancari e finanziari. Correttezza delle relazioni tra intermediari e clienti”.
Le modifiche danno attuazione all’articolo 106 della Direttiva 2015/2366/UE (PSD2), nella parte in cui prevede che i prestatori di servizi di pagamento mettano a disposizione in modo facilmente accessibile nei rispettivi siti web e su supporto cartaceo l’opuscolo della Commissione europea illustrativo dei diritti dei consumatori nell’ambito dei sistemi di pagamento nell’UE.

(only in Italian)
Banca d’Italia pubblica una comunicazione con cui esclude alcune esposizioni verso le banche centrali dal calcolo del requisito di leva finanziaria alla luce della pandemia di COVID-19 nell’ambito dell’esercizio della discrezionalità per le banche meno significative ai sensi della recente disposizione della BCE.