On 13 November 2025, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched Ensemble TX, the pilot phase of Project Ensemble, and with it moved tokenised-deposit settlement out of the laboratory and into real-value transactions. HKMA Project Ensemble had spent more than a year as a sandbox; Ensemble TX now lets participating banks settle interbank tokenised deposit…
On 7 August 2026 the FCA published a statement confirming that it is applying increased scrutiny to Annex 1 firms, including unregulated lenders, safe custody providers, money brokers and financial leasing companies registered with it for anti-money laundering purposes. Alongside the statement, the regulator said it had sent an information request to around 900 Annex…
On 6 August 2026 the Financial Stability Board published the public responses to its consultation on Sound Practices for Responsible Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The FSB AI sound practices were put out for comment on 10 June 2026, the comment window closed on 22 July 2026, and the FSB now says it expects to…
On 6 August 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority began serving its Handbook of rules and guidance through a new application programming interface. The FCA Handbook API lets a firm’s own software pull the text of UK conduct rules, technical standards and defined terms directly, instead of reading them off the website or waiting for a…
When a UK issuer prices a new residential mortgage-backed security or a credit-card asset-backed security this autumn, one decision is taken long before the roadshow: whether the senior notes will meet Bank of England collateral eligibility. A security that qualifies as Level B collateral may be used in SMF facilities that accept Level B, subject…
On 31 December 2025 the Hong Kong Monetary Authority completed its annual assessment and confirmed the list of authorized institutions designated as domestic systemically important banks. The HKMA D-SIB designation for 2026 names the same five institutions as a year earlier, and it leaves their Higher Loss Absorbency (HLA) requirements at the levels each already…
Since 29 July 2026, BaFin has had an additional market-surveillance mandate for AI systems placed on the market, put into service or used by entities listed in section 2(3) KI-MIG where the system is directly connected with a regulated financial activity. This mandate sits alongside existing prudential and conduct supervision. BaFin may exercise the market-surveillance…
Hong Kong Taxonomy Phase 2A, published by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on 22 January 2026, expanded the HKMA’s voluntary framework for classifying economic activities as green, transition-aligned or adaptation-aligned. The classification that Phase 1 introduced in May 2024 covered 12 economic activities across four sectors and dealt only with climate change mitigation. Phase 2A…
On 3 August 2026 the Financial Conduct Authority published PS26/15, the policy statement that finalises its overhaul of UK transaction reporting. From 3 April 2028, firms reporting under UK MiFIR will populate 52 fields instead of 65, will no longer report foreign exchange derivatives, and will drop roughly 7 million instruments that trade only on…
On 31 July 2026, SECO adjusted SESAM, the sanctions database that Swiss financial intermediaries screen against, to reflect a 30 July 2026 decision by the responsible UN Sanctions Committee that amended the list attached to the Taliban sanctions ordinance (SR 946.231.07). FINMA flagged the change in a supervisory notice on 4 August 2026. For a…