Welcome to the latest edition of KPMG Regulatory Horizons from KPMG's EMA Financial Services Regulatory Insight Centre (RIC) – your ‘go to’ read for insights on financial services regulation from the perspective of the EMA region.

In this issue we focus on:

• Regulators set out their agendas – It’s “full speed ahead” as regulators remain focused on the resilience of financial services firms and recovery mechanisms but are also pushing forward on many other issues.
• New EU digital finance package – The European Commission has issued a large and wide-ranging package of measures, intended further to enable and support the potential of digital finance in innovation and competition, while mitigating the risks.
• Retail payments: four pillars – The Commission reveals its vision for retail payments, to address market fragmentation issues and to recognise new means of initiating payments.
• CMU version 2 – The European Commission has adopted a new Capital Markets Union (CMU) action plan. It sets out many measures to deliver three main objectives: green, digital, inclusive and resilient economic recovery; individuals save and invest long-term; and a genuine single market.
• MiFID II review takes shape – The review will now be done in two stages. The first stage is a package that aims to help financial markets support Europe’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Stage two will include a comprehensive review proposal, at the earliest in Q3 2021.
• Financial and operational resilience for banks – Swift central bank and regulatory responses have been instrumental in supporting banks and their customers through the pandemic. Regulators now face difficult decisions about the extent to which their actions can support or impede the recovery, while the prudential agenda continues to expand into areas such as climate risk and digital resilience.
• Growing focus on product governance – Regulators and supervisors alike are looking to re-assert the importance of robust product governance arrangements, with the focus shifting to upstream control, the impact of the pandemic and sustainable finance.

Previous editions:

July 2020 (PDF 448.5 KB)
May 2020 (PDF 1.2 MB)
January 2020 (PDF 963 KB)
November 2019 (PDF 584KB)
July 2019 (PDF 2.9 MB)
May 2019 (PDF 504 KB)
January 2019 (PDF 1.1 MB)
October 2018 (PDF 705 KB)