Global Risk Regulator - October 2021
COP26: Mark Carney outlines next steps for financial regulators’ role in climate change fight: In an interview with Global Risk Regulator ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26, Mark Carney, former central banker and UN special envoy on climate change and finance, discusses with Victor Smart the urgent regulatory steps needed.
'Arguably, no single individual has done more to draw central banks into taking action on climate change. It is an initiative Mr Carney began some six years ago while governor of the Bank of England, and which has met with surprising success: all major central banks have now moved from shrugging off responsibility for combating climate change to affirming that the issue now falls squarely under their mandates. The bulk of global financial institutions are signed up, too – again, against expectations. Mr Carney rightly feels a degree of optimism: “I’d say we’re very encouraged by how much the system has shifted. And the fact – and I would state it as a fact – that climate finance is mainstream. We see it with the scale of institutions that have committed to net-zero – around 40% of global financial assets.” Boston Consulting group estimated in June that the value of assets under management hit $103tn last year. He insists the effort to combat global warming is now undeniably a C-suite issue, with firms “allocating their best people to figure out how to make this work”. And he emphasises the big opportunities as well as the risks that net-zero offers companies.'
BIS warns supervisors to wake up to AI risks: Global standard-setters are brainstorming international standards to oversee the use of artificial intelligence in finance, a growing disruptive trend that poses serious ethical dilemmas like algorithmic bias which disadvantages minorities. Some AI experts say guidance is long overdue.
'In the financial sector, some degree of human intervention will often be necessary to ensure that applicable regulatory requirements are met, argue lawyers at Linklaters. The law firm put out a report on AI in financial services in September, ‘Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services: Managing machines in an evolving legal landscape 2.0’. It found regulators across regions and sectors – including finance – are taking different approaches, and that certain areas of law, such as data protection law and competition law, take AI into account. The paper concluded: “AI is a constantly evolving disruptive technology posing novel ethical challenges and as a result, law and regulation have struggled to keep up with it.” There are currently no international regulatory standards or guidance specifically on AI for the financial sector. Therefore, the FSI advises supervisors that existing international standards, guidance and national laws can be applied or used as starting points in dealing with governance issues associated with AI models.'
UK seeks to reboot City of London growth with regulatory tweaks: Not only has the UK ceded its top spot among global financial centres to New York, but it is being outpaced by its rivals, which is pressuring the country’s authorities to rethink its regulatory frameworks.
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'Meanwhile, the City of London’s main advocacy group, TheCityUK, set out on September 7 a roadmap for the UK to reclaim the top spot among financial centres within five years. It did so in a report called ‘Making the UK the leading global financial centre: An international strategy for the UK-based financial and related professional services industry’. Despite the UK’s financial services sector performing relatively well, it is losing ground in global markets in some key areas. TheCityUK found that the UK’s global share of cross-border bank lending fell from 17.8% in 2010 to 15.2% in 2020, even as total UK annual cross-border lending rose from $5.3tn to $5.4tn. Insurance premiums fell from 6.9% in 2010 to 5.8% in 2019, despite the value of UK insurance premiums rising from $300bn to $366bn. Pension assets shrank from 8.6% in 2010 to 6.8% in 2020, even as UK pension assets grew from $2.3tn to $3.6tn. Hedge fund assets fell from 20.7% in 2010 to 14% in 2019 while UK hedge fund assets grew from $290bn to $447bn. An area of concern, according to TheCityUK, is that in the decade to 2020 the number of international companies listing on the London Stock Exchange fell from 599 to 370.'
Cryptocurrencies set to shake up payment systems: As investors continue to ride the crypto wave, companies are increasingly accepting bitcoin for transactional purposes. One estimate suggests more than 15,174 businesses worldwide are now doing so, which has implications for payment systems.
'Trillions of dollars are shuffled across antiquated payments systems daily, characterised by slow speed and added fees. For example, a transfer from London to Argentina will likely include an intermediary in the US, where each party takes a cut in addition to the exchange rate fee, and you may not even receive the payment for up to a week. Since digital assets such as bitcoin are decentralised, and transactions are captured and stored on a blockchain ledger which cannot be altered, the requirement for third parties to verify payments is minimised, allowing for faster, cheaper and more secure borderless payments. It is therefore no surprise that payments in the crypto space have seen consistent growth in transaction volume: Ethereum was the first blockchain to settle $1tn in one year in 2020, according to research firm Messari. Crypto also provides the opportunity to tap into a new and more diverse customer base. The number of crypto users is growing in most countries, particularly in emerging markets such as India, Pakistan and Vietnam, where crypto has gained huge traction. Moreover, there remain around 1.7 billion unbanked adults around the world, some of whom will likely be (or become) part of the crypto community, where they have found easier access and operability compared with legacy payment infrastructure. This shift could mean lost revenue for companies that are unable to accept crypto as a means of payment, and opens the door for crypto to potentially become a viable alternative to incumbent credit card networks.'
ESMA defies bond sceptics to impose tougher transparency rules: Despite widespread opposition, the EU’s securities markets regulator has pushed ahead with recommendations to pull more traded bonds into the pre- and post-trade transparency net. Sceptics say it is too soon to impose greater reporting requirements and will hit market makers unfairly.
'ESMA is moving through a four-stage phase-in model to effectively classify more bonds as “liquid” – and thus hit more market participants with MiFID’s pre- and post-trade transparency rules. The aim is to enhance transparency and better inform bond investments, as well as lower the cost for end investors. Right now, the bar is set at stage two, but ESMA proposes moving to stage three for the liquidity criterion and the size-specific to instrument (SSTI) threshold for bonds. The liquidity status of a bond dictates whether pre- and post-trade transparency rules apply to bond traders. Illiquid bonds are exempt. The status is currently assessed through two distinct calculations: the “average daily number of trades” and the “trade percentile for the determination of the pre-trade SSTI threshold”. In its review, ESMA recommends reducing the average daily number of trades from 10 to seven, meaning more bonds traded in the EU would be classified as “liquid” and fall into scope of the rules. ESMA does not recommend a move to stage two for the SSTI threshold for other non-equity instruments. However, the majority of respondents to ESMA’s consultation rejected the move to stage three, citing concerns around data quality, unintended consequences and more. Some respondents felt that the move is premature because the period of data collated under stage two that ESMA used for its assessment was marred by great volatility, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from Brexit.'