On January 9, the Council of the European Union published a cover note annexing the European Commission’s report of December 20, 2012, on its review of the Financial Conglomerates Directive (2002/87/EC) (FICOD), which focused, among other things, on coverage relating to unregulated entities within a wider corporate group which operates in the finance sector.

Having conducted the review, the European Commission concluded that the following issues would be of most relevance in a future revision of FICOD:

• the criteria by which a conglomerate is defined and identified;
• the criteria by which the parent entity ultimately responsible for meeting group-wide requirements is identified; and
• the strengthening of enforcement in respect of the ultimately responsible parent entity.

The European Commission does not propose that FICOD should be amended in 2013.  However, FICOD will remain under constant review in order to identify a more appropriate time for amending legislation to be introduced.