EC

EC Seeks Guidance on Sustainable Finance

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The European Commission (“EC“) published an open letter to EIOPA and ESMA on August 1, 2018. The letter sought technical advice in relation to sustainable finance, in particular technical advice relating to legislation.

The letter, the full version of which is available here, outlines that the European Commission adopted a package of measures on sustainable finance on May 24, 2018, however they are seeking advice in relation to the possible amendment of legislation such as UCITS, MiFID II and Solvency II.

The aim of the letter, and the possible changes proposed therein, is to incorporate sustainability risks in the decisions taken and processes applied by financial market participants.

The letter asks that EIOPA and ESMA provide their insight by April 30, 2019.

EC Publishes Results of Public Consultation on a Revision of EU Consumer Law Directives

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The European Commission (“EC“) has published a summary of the results from a public consultation it held relating to a revision of the EU consumer law directives.

Launched on June 30, 2017, the consultation aimed to gather relevant opinions from consumers and businesses on how to improve EU consumer law and ran until October 8, 2017.

In total, 414 responses were received in the consultation, with a mix of individual citizens, companies, business and consumer associations, public bodies and member states responding. The highest number of responses came from Germany.

A summary document of the responses (available here) groups the responses into a number of categories.

The Commission plans to take the results of the consultation into account in preparation of its Impact Assessment on a targeted revision of the relevant EU consumer law directives. This Impact Assessment will primarily consider legislative amendments to the current consumer law framework and will aim to, inter alia:

  • Extend consumer rights to contracts where consumers provide data rather than pay with money;
  • Simplify certain rules and requirements;
  • Provide further transparency on whom consumers conclude contracts with when buying online and whether relevant EU consumer rights are applicable to such contracts; and
  • Improve potential remedies for consumers that have been harmed by unfair commercial practices.

European Commission Adopts Delegated Regulation on RTS on Risk Mitigation Techniques for Uncleared OTC Derivative Contracts under EMIR

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On October 4, 2016, the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation supplementing EMIR (the Regulation on OTC derivatives, CCPs and trade repositories) (Regulation 648/2012) with regulatory technical standards (“RTS”) on risk mitigation techniques for uncleared OTC derivative contracts, together with related Annexes (C(2016) 6329 final).

The Delegate Regulation sets out the levels and types of collateral that OTC derivatives counterparties must exchange bilaterally if the transaction is not cleared through a central counterparty (“CCP”). In the event that one counterparty to the transaction defaults, the margin collected will protect the non-defaulting counterparty against resulting losses.

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) submitted the final draft RTS to the Commission in March 2016. In July 2016, the Commission informed the European Banking Authority that it intended to endorse the draft RTS with some amendments, including in relation to the concentration limits for pension scheme arrangements and the timeline for.

The Council of the EU and the European Parliament will now consider the Delegated Regulation. If neither of them objects to it, the Delegated Regulation will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

ECON Objects to Delegated Regulation on RTS on Key Information Documents for PRIIPs

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The European Parliament published a press release on September 1, 2016 announcing that the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) has voted to object to the European Commission’s proposed Delegated Regulation supplementing the Regulation on key information documents (KIDs) for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) (Regulation 1286/2014) (PRIIPs KID Regulation). This market is worth up to €10 trillion in Europe.

The proposed Delegated Regulation sets the regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the presentation, content, review and revision of the KID, together with the conditions for fulfilling the requirement to provide such documents.

ECON’s concerns include the fact that the proposed formulas in the KID for predicting investment performance contain flaws which would make performance look far better than it was likely to be. As such, this would be potentially misleading for investors.

The Commission adopted the Delegated Regulation (C(2016) 3999 final) in June 2016. The resolution will now proceed for consideration by the European Parliament in a plenary session to be held September 12-15, 2016. The PRIIPs KID Regulation is to apply from December 31, 2016. The press release does highlight that the Commission is prepared “as a second best option” to allow the PRIIPs KID Regulation to apply without the RTS in place.

EC Summary of Contributions of the Green Paper on Retail Financial Services

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On July 14, 2016 the European Commission published a summary of responses to the public consultation launched on December 10, 2015 relating to the Green Paper on retail financial services prepared by the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union.

The summary report sets out the broad content of responses received. Firms highlighted a number of obstacles to offering services cross-border, including local financial regulation, tax laws, access to data and information, local network for insurance claims handling, and divergent national interpretations of the anti-money laundering directive (2015/849/EU).

The report states that work is ongoing in the Commission services on a follow-up initiative, which might take the form of an action plan.

European Commission Adopts Delegated Regulation on RTS Relating to Maintenance of Relevant Data Relating to Orders in Financial Instruments under MiFIR

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On June 24, 2016, the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation and annex supplementing the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (Regulation 600/2014) (“MiFIR“) with regard to regulatory technical standards (“RTS“) for the maintenance of relevant data relating to orders in financial instruments (C(2016) 3821 final).

The Delegated Regulation will now be considered by the Council of the EU and the European Parliament. If neither of them objects, it will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. The Delegated Regulation will apply from the application date of MiFIR (that is, January 3, 2018).