Key Dates & Deadlines: Q3 / Q4 2021
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31 July 2021 |
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ESMA Cloud Outsourcing Guidelines effective for new arrangements entered into by UCITS managers and AIFMs with cloud outsourcing services providers. For further details see our June 2021 briefing New Cloud Outsourcing Guidelines for Fund Managers. |
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2 August 2021 |
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Cross-border distribution of funds provisions come into effect. For further details see our May 2021 briefing Cross-Border Fund Marketing Post August 2021: Six Key Impacts of New EU Fund Distribution Rules and June 2021 briefing New Disclosure Rules for UCITS and AIF Marketing Materials. |
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23 August 2021 |
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ESMA Guidelines on Article 25 AIFMD come into effect. The guidelines are directed at NCAs and set down expectations for the assessment of leverage-related risk and the imposition of leverage limits. For further details see briefing below AIF Leverage Limit Guidance Effective August 2021. |
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31 August 2021 |
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Deadline for Investment Limited Partnerships and Common Contractual Funds in existence on 1 March 2021 to file beneficial ownership information with the Central Bank as Registrar for the Central Beneficial Ownership Register for CFVs. |
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1 September 2021 |
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Second last phase of applicants (covered entities with an aggregate average notional amount of non-centrally cleared derivatives greater than ?50 billion) subject to the initial margin requirements under EMIR (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 2016/2251 on bilateral margining). |
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17 December 2021 |
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Transposition deadline for EU Whistleblowing Directive. For further details on the Directive see our December 2019 briefing A New Regime for the Protection of Whistleblowers. On 12 May 2021 draft legislation providing for the transposition of the Directive, in the form of amendments to the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, was published and is proceeding through the Irish legislative process. |
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31 December 2021 |
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Scheduled end date for UCITS transitional arrangements under PRIIPs Regulation. For further details see our April 2021 briefing Is a Further PRIIPs Delay for UCITS Imminent?. |
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31 December 2021 |
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Expiration date for interim company law flexibility measures introduced under the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (COVID-19) Act. For further details see our August 2020 briefing COVID-19 Company Law Changes. |
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31 December 2021 |
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LIBOR cessation date. On 5 March 2021, the UK FCA announced that all of the 35 LIBOR benchmarks settings will cease to be provided by any administrator or will no longer be representative (i) immediately after 31 December 2021, in the case of all GBP, EUR, CHF and JPY settings, and the 1-week and 2-month USD settings; and (ii) immediately after 30 June 2023, in the case of the remaining USD settings. For further details see our August 2020 briefing EU Solution to LIBOR Cessation & Non-EU FX Spot Rate Access. |
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31 December 2021 |
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Central Bank completion deadline for review of fund liquidity risk management frameworks (LRMF) by UCITS managers. For further details see our April 2021 briefing Intense Regulatory Focus on Liquidity Risk Management Continues and the Central Bank's follow-up industry correspondence of 18 May 2021. |
New AML/CFT Regulatory Guidelines
On 23 June 2021, the Central Bank published revisions to its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Guidelines (2021 Guidelines). The 2021 Guidelines set out Central Bank expectations for compliance by credit and financial institutions (including UCITS, AIFs, UCITS managers and AIFMs) with their Irish AML/CFT statutory obligations, as principally set out in the Criminal Justice Act 2010 (as amended) (CJA 2010). The 2021 Guidelines incorporate amendments to the original version of the guidelines (published in November 2019) to take account of Ireland's transposition of the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) and other updates as highlighted below.
Impact of 2021 Guidelines
UCITS, AIFs and their managers (Firms) should, at a minimum, review their approach to compliance with existing statutory AML/CFT obligations, including those introduced by Irish legislation transposing AMLD5 (see previous briefing for details), to ensure they are in line with the regulatory expectations set out in the 2021 Guidelines. And, in circumstances where a Firm's compliance approach is not aligned with Central Bank expectations, consider and, if appropriate, implement any necessary amendments.
New regulatory expectations in the following areas are set out in the 2021 Guidelines, a summary of each of which is available below:
- Firms' AML/CFT internal governance frameworks
- Transaction monitoring and controls and suspicious transaction reporting
- Beneficial ownership registers
- Whistleblowing
The Central Bank has also amended existing expectations in several areas, as briefly summarised below.
Effective date of 2021 Guidelines
As the 2021 Guidelines do not contain any transitional arrangements and relate to existing statutory obligations, they are effective from the date of publication of 23 June 2021 and Firms should now begin the process of aligning AML/CFT compliance approaches, as appropriate, with published regulatory expectations.
AML/CFT has and is likely to continue to be a key focus of the Central Bank, not least due to the extensive range of new and ongoing EU AML initiatives, the latest of which is expected to be published next month and provide for several key legislative amendments to the EU AML/CFT framework.
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