As many market participants will know there may be some truth to the "Halloween Strategy" and the adage of "Sell in May and Go Away". This October 2018 has certainly been more of a trick rather than a treat in terms of political developments shaping financial markets. With Brexit ghosts lingering and still no hope for a November let alone a December "Brexit Breakthrough" and with the budget dispute between Brussels and Italy as well as game changing election results in Germany this October 2018 has been eventful. That's the case even before one assesses what all of this may mean for 2019 EU elections and a range of rotations affecting positions at the European Commission as well as the ECB.
The end of October and the start of November marks the entry into force of a number of EU-wide harmonizing measures, notably in the payments field with the go-live of harmonized requirements across the EU (except Italy and France who will implement changes by end of July 2019) in relation to information on types of fees and an annual statement of fees charged as well as the upcoming launch of the EU-wide Target Instant Payments Settlement (TIPS) extension to the Eurozone's TARGET2 settlement system. TIPS permits instant, final and irrevocable payments in Euro, which could be extended further to non-Euro EU currencies. This marks a further defining moment for making the EU's Single Market more single, even if the concepts behind TIPS may have been around for some time in other EU countries, notably the UK. This is an area to watch as the topic of IBAN discrimination remains unsolved as do the issues connected with the admission of certain EU Member States applying to join the Banking Union followed by becoming Eurozone members.
More importantly November 2, marks "Stress Test Results Day" and with many of the 2019 thematic reviews, policy workstreams and enforcement priorities of regulatory policymakers and supervisory authorities being finalized over the next couple of weeks please stay tuned for our forthcoming dedicated Thought Leadership or otherwise pre-register for our special surveillance report "Navigating 2019 – Regulatory, Supervisory and Monetary Policy Workstreams shaping the Eurozone and EU". We also note that a number of firms in the EU-27 and the UK are, in addition to having received either further supervisory notifications on Brexit-preparedness, likely to have received notifications requesting clarifications on the adequacy of liquidity and contingency planning as well as the details of their resilience, recovery and resolution planning and some of this may extend to certain supervisory authorities pre-positioning themselves for on-site inspections in 2019 (see our recent Thought Leadership) and/or a widening of the regulatory perimeter – certainly in the Banking Union as to what the ECB-SSM may in addition supervise and whom.
October 31 also marks the 10 year anniversary of the birth of Bitcoin and the Nakamoto Whitepaper and at a Dentons' Frankfurt "Crowd Tuesday" event on October 30 international lawyers, market participants and regulators discussed the opportunities and barriers to the trading platforms of the future as well as the direction of travel in terms of national as well as EU-level rulemaking in this area. Please stay tuned on our further updates on recent developments in Germany, emerging BaFin practice as well as an evaluation of ESMA as well as FATF's recent policy announcements.
Key Regulatory Developments in the EU
We present you with a selection of key regulatory developments in the EU.
Key Regulatory Developments in Germany
We present you with a selection of key regulatory developments in Germany.
Key Regulatory Developments in Italy
We present you with a selection of key regulatory developments in Italy.
Key Regulatory Developments in Luxembourg
We present you with a selection of key regulatory developments in Luxembourg.
Key Regulatory Developments in the Czech Republic
We present you with a selection of key regulatory developments in the Czech Republic.
Thought Leadership
The following represents a carefully curated selection of our recent Thought Leadership contributions
Moving to Frankfurt – a webinar
If you or your company are thinking about moving to Frankfurt, you certainly will have a number of questions. Some, of course, will be legal questions, but others may be of a more practical nature. This is why we are delighted to welcome you to meet via a webinar with our experienced practitioners from Dentons in Frankfurt and Hubertus Väth, the Managing Director of Frankfurt Main Finance to answer your questions.
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