The Consultation Paper includes draft Guidelines on a wide range of topics related to reporting, data quality and data access under EMIR Refit. ESMA has also published validation rules that clarify dependencies between data fields, as well as their applicability in the different use cases.
The Consultation Paper focuses on:
- how reports should be constructed and in what circumstances reports should be made;
- reporting logic, including the use of action and event types;
- reporting in the case of delegation as well as under provisions on allocation of responsibility for reporting;
- the population of specific sections of fields; and
- the correct population of fields for different reporting scenarios and different products.
The Draft Guidelines also clarify important aspects of the procedures to be implemented by reporting entities and Trade Repositories to enhance data quality. The paper also clarifies certain operational aspects concerning data access.
PFOF is the practice of brokers receiving payments from third parties for directing client order flow to them as execution venues. PFOF causes a clear conflict of interest between the firm and its clients, because it incentivises the firm to choose the third party offering the highest payment, rather than the best possible outcome for its clients when executing their orders.
ESMA is of the view that, in most cases, it is unlikely that the receipt of PFOF by firms from third parties would be compatible with MiFID II. In addition, ESMA also addresses specific concerns regarding certain practices by zero-commission brokers.
ESMA is telling firms that they must thoroughly assess whether, by receiving PFOF, they are able to comply with relevant MiFID II requirements, most notably those on best execution, conflicts of interest, inducements and cost transparency. ESMA also requests National Competent Authorities, especially in those Member States in which PFOF has been observed, to prioritise this topic in their supervisory activities for 2021 or early 2022.
The two consultations are a response to the European Commission’s request for technical advice and are part of the implementation of the Capital Markets Union action plan. The consultations run until 08 September.
The Guidelines, published in the official languages of the Union on 10 May 2021, provide recommendations on the identification, management and monitoring of risks originating from agreements for the outsourcing of activities and services to companies providing cloud services, with particular reference to:
- the risk assessment and due diligence to be carried out on cloud service providers;
- the governance, supervision and control requirements to be put in place to monitor the performances of cloud service providers, as well as how to exit from such outsourcing agreements without interruption of its activities;
- the contractual requirements between the parties (companies and cloud service providers), there including their respective rights and duties;
- IT security requirements and exit strategies from outsourcing agreements;
- the compliance with the requirements if the cloud service provider on behalf of a company uses other subjects for the performance of certain critical or important functions (or parts thereof) (so-called sub-outsourcing);
- the information to be notified to the competent Authorities.
The Guidelines will be applicable from 31 July 2021 to all outsourcing agreements with cloud service providers entered into or renewed from that date. The aforementioned subjects will have time until 31 December 2022 to review and amend, where necessary, the existing outsourcing agreements with the cloud service provider to ensure that they take into account the aforementioned Guidelines.
(Only in Italian)
Nel corso della sua relazione ha sottolineato come in un contesto regolamentare e di mercato sempre più complesso, ulteriormente impattato dall’attuale scenario condizionato dagli effetti della pandemia da Covid-19, le BCC ambiscono ad assicurare quella capacità di servizio di cui le comunità di riferimento necessitano soprattutto in prospettiva della ripresa. La rapida evoluzione dell’offerta dei prodotti e servizi bancari indotta dalle innovazioni tecnologiche potrà riflettersi sulla gamma dei servizi di investimento offerti e sulle modalità di erogazione degli stessi alla clientela. L’appartenenza ad un gruppo consentirà, anche in questo ambito, vantaggi a livello di economie di scala e sinergie.
