Archive: December 2023

On 11 December 2023, the European Banking Authority (EBA), European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) – together, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – published a report on ‘innovation facilitators’, a term that encompasses innovation hubs and regulatory sandboxes.

On 13 December 2023, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published an interim report (MR22/2.6) for its market review into UK-EEA consumer cross-border interchange fees. It is now seeking views on the provisional findings and proposed approach to remedies, which are set out in the report, to help inform its final report.

On 8 December 2023 the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) launched public consultation on a second package of technical standards under Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). This includes the following draft regulatory technical standards (RTS), implementing technical standards (ITS) and guidelines.

On December 13, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to update a 16-year-old privacy rule expanding breach notification requirements for telecommunications, interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and telecommunications relay services (TRS). Under the new rule, these companies are now required to adequately safeguard sensitive customer information in an attempt to hold phone companies accountable for protecting customer information and to allow customers to protect their own information.

In our previous post, we discussed specific considerations for common boilerplate provisions in data processing agreements (DPAs). Due to the sensitivity of data transfers and privacy laws, DPAs require careful drafting to ensure the data processor complies with appropriate privacy obligations and is responsible for any non-compliance.

On 14 December 2023, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel Committee) issued a consultative document setting out proposed amendments to its standard on banks’ exposures to cryptoassets.

On 14 December 2023, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a Discussion Paper on MiFID II investor protection topics linked to digitalisation.

Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, speaking last week at a virtual currency summit in Washington, DC, made an urgent call to action to the digital asset industry to partner with the US Government to cut off illicit actors’ access to virtual currency exchanges. Pointing to regulatory partnerships forged over decades with traditional financial institutions, Adeyemo called on digital asset players in blunt terms to work with Treasury “to prevent terrorists, transnational criminals and rogue states” from using virtual currencies to move and shield their assets while recognizing the great potential the still relevant infant technology holds.

In the fourth podcast in our DE&I series, Hannah McAslan-Schaaf and Lara White discuss the data protection aspects of the FCA’s recent consultation paper on diversity and inclusion.

The CMA’s Initial Report (Report), published on 18 September 2023, considers three levels of the AI Foundation Model (FM) value chain (although it focuses predominantly on the first two levels).