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Brussels Weekly News Prepared for SwissBanking

12 – 16 November 2018

SWISS-EU RELATIONS

On 14 and 15 November, the Code of Conduct Group on Business Taxation held two meetings where they

discussed the situation with regard to the progress and timeline of the Swiss corporate tax reform. In order to

defuse the situation, the Swiss Federal Department of Finance had announced that it will no longer apply the

federal practices concerning principal companies and Swiss finance branches to new companies from 2019.

This was well received by the Code of Conduct Group.

BREXIT

The Cabinet of the UK approved the draft Brexit agreement and the outline of the Political Declaration setting

out the framework for the future EU-UK relationship, thus triggering a political crisis in the UK.

The President of the European Council Donald Tusk announced that the European Council will hold a

meeting on 25 November to finalize and formalize the Brexit agreement.

ELECTIONS/APPOINTMENTS

The European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) nominated the Czech Member of the European

Parliament Jan Zahradil as their “Spitzenkandidat” to become the successor of Jean-Claude Juncker as

Commission President.

FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATION

The Parliament’s ECON Committee published its report on proposed changes of MiFID II with regard to

crowdfunding and virtual currencies.

The Vice-President of the Commission Valdis Dombrovskis stated that the “legal twilight zone” of crypto-

assets and ICOs is not good for the Single Market and that the Commission, together with the European

Supervisory Authorities, will assess the possible way forward.

ESMA updated its Q&As regarding the implementation of the Market Abuse Regulation, which deals with

topics such as insider dealing, unlawful disclosure of inside information and market manipulation.

ESMA updated its Q&As concerning the implementation of the Central Securities Depository Regulation,

covering topics such as the provision of services in another Member State and settlement discipline.

ESMA updated its Q&As on market structures and its Q&As on transparency issues under MiFID II and

MiFIR, providing clarification on the obligation to make data available free of charge 15 minutes after

publication, obligations applicable to systematic internalisers in non-TOTV instruments, the definition of RFQ

systems, pre-trade transparency in RFQ systems as well as the concept of comparable size in market

making agreements and voluntary provision of liquidity.

The ECB published its guides for banks on their capital and liquidity assessment process. The new

guidelines become applicable on 1 January 2019.

ESMA published an updated new version of its supervisory briefing on MiFID II suitability requirements.

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING

In an in-depth analysis requested by the Parliament’s ECON committee, the external author Prof Harry

Huizinga concludes that while more adequate cooperation and information sharing among national AML/CFT

authorities as well as increased powers for the EBA on AML/CFT could have a positive effect, the best

approach would be the establishment of a new EU body charged with AML/CFT supervision. Moreover, he

suggests to turn the 5th AML Directive into a Regulation.

DATA PROTECTION

In an answer to a parliamentary question, Commissioner Věra Jourovà wrote that the Commission noted that

several national data protection authorities have reported an increase in the number of complaints received

after the entry into force of the GDPR but that it is still too early to have a preliminary assessment of the

GDPR application at European level. The Commission will report on the application of the GDPR in 2020.