The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued its latest “Regulation Round Up” (see here). The document discusses enforcements against authorised firms who have not complied with all of the requirements. It mentions that over 200 authorisations have been cancelled this year. This issue is also refereed to in this article on the FT web site. The document also covers other issues such as the required use of LEIs and the extension of the Senior Managers’ Regime (see here).

With MiFID II less than 5 months away, there is still a great deal for many to prepare. Whilst a large proportion of those in energy and commodities could remain exempt from most of MiFID II due to the use of the Ancillary Activity exemption under Article 2(1)j or other (see here), investment firms have amuch work to carry out in order to comply.  One issue which is affecting many investment firms across the spectrum is that of research unbundling, which requires research to be charged for separately rather than being “built in” to other fees. This article on the Bloomberg web site looks at some of the issues and possible unintended consequences around the issue.