Insights

New Irish rules require gender balance on listed company boards by 2026, marking a major shift in corporate governance and diversity accountability.

Managing compliance across companies is time-consuming and often overlooked. Eliminating dormant companies reduces administrative and audit costs, freeing up finance directors.

Discover changes to company size criteria under new EU regulations. From July 2024, increased thresholds for 'micro,' 'small,' 'medium,' and 'large' companies take effect.

The Individual Accountability Framework (IAF) impacts all Regulated Financial Services Providers (RFSPs) and individuals who perform controlled functions (CFs) on their behalf. Certain RFSPs (including most credit institutions, insurance firms and MiFID firms) are additionally in scope for the Senior Executive Accountability Regime (SEAR).

On 30 January, the Central Bank published Guidance for (Re)insurance Undertakings on Intragroup Transactions and Exposures following a consultation that ended in September 2022.

In response to the fast growth of the payment services market, the European Commission issued a Revised Payments Legislative Package. This seeks to ensure the EU’s financial sector is fit for purpose and capable of adapting to the ongoing digital transformation, and the risks and opportunities it presents – in particular for consumers.

Counterparty credit risk was identified as a supervisory priority by the ECB for 2022 - 2024, as banks had been increasingly offering capital market services to riskier, leveraged and less transparent counterparties, in particular with non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), at a time when the interest rate environment was low.

DORA will have a significant effect on enhancing the operational resilience of digital systems. By soliciting public input through this consultation process, the European Supervisory Authorities aim to ensure that the resulting technical standards align with industry best practices promote digital resilience and facilitate a robust and secure digital environment across the EU.

Complaints and Remediation in Financial Services

Money laundering is on the rise globally. Between 2016 and 2021, the yearly number of cases brought to the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation doubled, bringing the total number of registered cases for that period to 3,000. In Ireland alone, the number of recorded money laundering crimes increased significantly from 86 in 2018 to 701 in 2021.

Creating and implementing watertight Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures can be problematic for many organisations since the process remains a people-driven, manual operation.

European Banking Authority Updates on the Management of Interest Rate Risk and Credit Spread Risk in the Banking Book.