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PIMFA NEWS BULLETIN | 5 June 2020 Welcome to your Weekly PIMFA Bulletin Grab a coffee and take 10 minutes to read this week's highlights and key issues affecting you and your firm
WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER Dear Nigel,
We hope you and your loved ones are safe and well during this difficult time. Due to the virus, PIMFA is continuing to work remotely, and we remain committed to representing our members and providing as much useful information as possible.
This Bulletin contains the latest news on the impact of the virus and other key issues PIMFA are working on for our members. If there is anything we can be of assistance with,
please contact us at enquiries@pimfa.co.uk.
Best wishes The Team at PIMFA
COVID 19 & What's happening in PIMFA
Brexit 1: Fourth round of talks
Brexit 2: European Parliament legal services opinion
The fourth round of UK-EU negotiations on the terms of the future relationship
The European Parliament’s legal service
ended on 5 June with little progress.
responded to UK Chief Negotiator David
Negotiators did not advance discussions
Frost’s claim made in the letter to his EU
on any of the four points that made up the
counterpart Michel Barnier, that the EU
EU's opening requirements in the talks i.e
wants the UK to sign a “low-quality trade
fisheries, level playing field, governance,
agreement” and that it is “hard to see what
and law enforcement and security matters.
makes the UK so unworthy of being offered the kind of well-precedented
David Frost, UK Chief Negotiator, said
arrangements commonplace in modern
that “progress remained limited” but the
trade deals.”
tone of the talks had been “positive.” Michel Bariner, Frost’s EU counterpart,
The European parliament’s legal service
said that “it is not possible to go on like
said that claiming that “the EU is legally or
this forever” and accused the UK of
morally obliged to give certain rights or
backtracking on the Political Declaration.
trade preferences the UK wants is no
Both sides agreed they were close to the
more justified than it would be for the EU
limits of what could be achieved through
to consider that it had a right to specific
remote rounds of negotiations and will
commitments from the UK”. It added that
consult the Commission on how to
there is no clause in global trade law that
intensify, accelerate and make the talks
would substantiate such claims. While the
more effective.
European Parliament does not have an active role in negotiations, it is regularly
The UK and EU high level stock-taking
briefed on the talks by Michel Barnier and
meeting is due to take place later in June.
it will have to ratify the final agreement
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected
before it comes into effect.
to attend but the date has not been set FCA publishes further steps on
yet.
Defined Benefit (DB) transfers Brexit 3: Bank of England The FCA has published a package of measures designed to address perceived The Bank of England (BoE) has urged the
weaknesses across the DB transfer
UK’s retail lenders to intensify
market.
preparations for the UK ending the transition period on 31 December this year
These measures include a ban on
without a deal with the EU. “The possibility
contingent charging as well as further
that negotiations between the UK and EU
measures to provide guidance for advisers
over a future trading relationship might not
as to advising on transfers confidently and
conclude in a deal is one of a number of
providing good quality of advice. We are
outcomes that UK banks need to prepare
still assessing the impact of these
for over the coming months," the central
measures.
bank said in a statement. Please contact Simon Harrington with any It was reported earlier this week that BoE
queries, and the full Policy Statement can
Governor, Andrew Bailey, said during a
be read here.
call with chief executives of the UK’s big banks that they should accelerate their nodeal preparations. If there is no agreement
PIMFA Learning Library
between the UK and EU, the two sides will
Webinars & Podcasts
have to trade on the World Trade Organisation terms.
Click below or visit the PIMFA Learning Library to listen to on-demand recordings
Your Cyber Security During COVID-19
of podcasts on topics such as: •
How to manage, protect and enhance your reputation during
The National Cyber Security Centre has warned firms implementing remote working practices to ‘be aware of email
COVID-19 •
Identifying and supporting vulnerable clients
scams and to encrypt/protect sensitive data’, Beyond Encryption is a PIMFA Plus
Members can also log in to watch on
member and provides secure encryption
demand webinars related to COVID-19, Wellbeing, Cyber Resilience, SM&CR,
to safeguard the data within your emails,
Money Laundering etc.
read more here. Please click here if you have forgotten Warning: alarming new trend in
your password or to create a free user
ransomware attacks
account.
Our PIMFA Plus member, Mitigo, reports that foreign cyber criminal gangs are
PIMFA Website:
targeting financial services firms using
COVID-19 Information
new tactics. Theft of data is followed by encryption. Ransom demands for decryption are followed by threats to
Visit our members only COVID-19 web
publicly release, bit by bit, the confidential
area for latest information on the virus, to
data of the firm and its clients. Read more
access webinar recordings, download
here.
briefing notes, and view the latest global response tracker.
Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) Guidance
On the 1st June 2020, the JMLSG published its final amendments to Part I, Part II and Part III of its Guidance. This sets out what is expected of firms and their staff in relation to the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Board-approved revisions take account of comments received on the consultation text that was published in February 2020 and have been submitted to HM Treasury for Ministerial approval.
You can read the revised guidance here.
LATEST PIMFA BLOGS & PRESS RELEASES
•
Regulator working on how to avoid ‘lumpy bills’ for firms in future, FCA Executive Director of Supervision, Megan Butler, tells PIMFA’s Virtual Fest
•
Financial services has a chance to help consumers in the aftermath of COVID-19, Baroness Morgan tells PIMFA’s Virtual Fest
•
UN Special Envoy Mark Carney says financial services sector has ‘jumped ahead of government’ on issue of climate change at PIMFA’s inaugural Virtual Fest
•
Treasury’s John Glen signals government stands ready to do ‘whatever is needed’ to support financial services at PIMFA’s inaugural Virtual Fest
•
Blog: ESG and Covid 19
•
PIMFA’s Virtual Fest adds Treasury’s John Glen and FCA’s Megan Butler to panel of keynote speakers
EVENTS & LEARNING
VIRTUAL FEST The inaugural PIMFA Virtual Fest took place earlier this week on 3 and 4 June 2020. If you missed it, you can still catch up with all the sessions using our on-demand service for 2 months. Simply register your place to gain access. The content is FREE to members, (paid for tickets are also available for non-members).
Catch up with sessions from 30+ high profile experts such as Mark Carney, Megan Butler, John Glen and Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Nicky Morgan) on topical areas which you have identified to us as key priorities for the profession.
ALL SESSIONS AVAILABLE ONDEMAND. BOOK NOW
BEST PRACTICES IN BUSINESS CONTINUITY: HOW YOUR FIRM CAN RESPOND PROACTIVELY TO DISRUPTIVE EVENTS To support member firms meet their regulatory obligations and proactively assess, review and update their business continuity plans, PIMFA is running a live interactive online learning course to ensuring your business continuity plan is fit for purpose not just now but for the future. What you’ll learn: •
Recognise what makes an effective business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan
•
Understand what information goes into each document and how to obtain that information
•
How to implement and audit a business continuity management system
•
Identify and address in your firm the known and unknown risks, threats, and incidents
•
and more.
You can click here to register your place.
22 June 2020
BUILDING OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT FIRMS This online course will explore the FCA’s interpretation of Operational Resilience as it applies to wealth management firms and their expectations of those firms who will be required to evidence that they are have identified their critical business services and set challenging impact tolerances for each of them. What you’ll learn: •
Understand what the regulator means to achieve operational resilience in your firm
•
Recognise the business value of operational resilience and business continuity
•
Co-ordinate people and resources to build an effective resilient management
•
Leverage proven approaches to set impact tolerances for each important business service you provide
•
and more.
You can click here to register your place.
29 June 2020
LATEST PIMFA CONSULTATION RESPONSES
PIMFA’s latest consultation response is to the European Commission regarding their Review of MiFID II and MiFIR.
Read this and all of our other PIMFA consultation papers here.
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR INDUSTRY
European Union Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II) revision
The revised European Union Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II) amends the existing directive from 2009, to enhance the rights of shareholders and imposes certain minimum standards on the exercise of shareholder voting rights at EU listed companies. SRD II will require certain disclosure requirements for EU asset managers and asset owners on engagement and investment strategies for investors in European Economic Area (EEA) companies. It will also include shareholder identification and data transmission requirements for intermediaries and for issuers, and provides for improved transparency and approval procedures for related party transactions and executive remuneration.
The overall aim of SRD II is to enhance information flow across the institutional investment community and promote common stewardship objectives between institutional investors and asset managers, whilst also improving issues of transparency for issuers, investors and intermediaries.
On 9 April 2020, joint trade associations wrote to the European Commission (EC) relating to the impact of COVID-19 on the further implementation of SRD II and requesting an extension to the September implementation date. The EC responding, on 27 May 2020, declined to agree to an extension and expressed its confidence that “all intermediaries and listed companies have had sufficient time to plan and prepare to comply with the new EU rules as from 3 September 2020, synchronously throughout the EU and the EEA”. For further information, please contact Des FitzGerald.
FCA publish final rules and guidance on Pension Transfer advice
The FCA have published new rules and guidance on pension transfer advice, particularly defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) transfers. These include reducing the conflicts of interest created by current charging structures and enabling firms to give high quality advice, creating a more sustainable market for the long term. This Policy Statement forms part of a wider package to improve the suitability of pension transfer advice. They are publishing it alongside Guidance Consultation GC20/1 and the findings of their multi-firm review into the suitability of pension transfer advice.
Read the full Policy Statement here.
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