The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a further package of technical standards and guidelines under the Markets in Cryptoassets Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCAR), covering reporting, liquidity stress testing and supervisory colleges. This package completes the delivery of EBA technical standards under MiCAR.

A round-up of EU financial services developments.

Law360, Expert analysis: Against the backdrop of greater focus on European competitiveness and a changed geopolitical landscape following the US presidential election, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is consulting on draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) for open-ended loan-originating alternative investment funds, or AIFs, under the AIF Managers Directive (EU) 2024/927 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2024 (AIFMD II). Aaron Mulcahy, partner at Maples Group, highlights the growth in semi-liquid evergreen funds and sets out the key proposals of ESMA in the standards

A round-up of EU financial services developments.

The Law Society has published a technical note on physical climate risks, providing additional guidance for solicitors and their clients on how these risks may impact UK properties. The note covers risks such as coastal erosion, ground stability, heat stress and heat exposure, and wildfires, among other aspects. It supplements the Law Society’s climate change and property practice note, published on 12 May 2025.

The answer to this will depend on: • the type of absence, ie whether the absence is made up of one long period of absence, typically running into several months (or more than one long period, with any returns to work in between being brief), or is a series of short-term intermittent absences typically lasting a few days • what the contract of employment says (if anything) about termination rights for sickness absence—for an example see Precedent: Clauses—termination [Archived] (clause 2.2) • what the employer’s sickness policy (if it has one) says about sickness absence—for an example see Precedent: Policy—performance and capability • whether the employee is, or may be, disabled—see Practice Note: Disability There is no specific 'safe' date or formula which applies, as it will all depend on the circumstances of each individual case. Ultimately this is not as much about how long the absence is as it is about what steps the employer has taken to deal with the situation, that

This week's edition of Insurance weekly highlights includes: National House Building Council v Peabody Trust, and Bath Racecourse Company Ltd v Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Se; case analysis from 7 King’s Bench Walk on the Russian aircraft claims case (Aercap v AIG); UK landlords face group claim over 'hidden' insurance fees; Insurers keen on UK captive regime but fear gold-plating; PRA confirms May 2026 start for general insurance stress test; Retail insurance market: FCA publishes package of reports on cost pressures, claims handling failings and pricing reform impacts; What insurers can do to prepare for PRA 'solvent exit' rules; EIOPA consults on rules for resolution colleges and reporting requirements under IRRD; EIOPA publishes statement with findings on climate risk integration in insurers’ ORSAs; European Commission seeks views on Solvency II proposals, plus dates for your diary and key recent cases.

The Bank of England (BoE) has published a speech by Jonathan Hall, an external member of the Financial Policy Committee (FPC), in which he discussed how developments in artificial intelligence (AI) could affect financial stability, and said a new set of stress tests for UK financial services could be introduced to test the functioning of deep-learning models.

Introduction This Practice Note sets out the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s priority areas in relation to sustainable finance and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, including the FCA’s ESG strategy; its work in relation to climate-related disclosures, and sustainability disclosure requirements (SDR) and investment labels (intended, among other things, to increase trust and combat greenwashing). It also covers the FCA’s involvement in international reporting standards. For information on the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)’s focus areas, primarily in relation to prudential supervision of climate risk management and related stress tests, see Practice Notes: Prudential supervision of climate risk management in the UK and Climate scenario analysis, stress testing and capital requirements in the UK. For information on the UK green taxonomy, see Practice Note: Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and UK Green Taxonomy—government’s 2021 roadmap to sustainable investing. FCA’s priority areas as set out in its November 2021 ESG strategy On 3 November 2021, the FCA published its ESG strategy: A strategy for positive change: our ESG priorities, which

A round-up of EU financial services developments.

A round-up of EU financial services developments.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has responded to the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) consultation on updated guidance and public disclosures for central counterparties (CCPs), supporting the proposed measures to improve transparency and the responsiveness of initial margin practices while recommending stronger implementation requirements. ISDA called for CCPs to be required to take the final Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)-CPMI-IOSCO recommendations into account, supported by implementation monitoring, and urged retention of stronger requirements for margin simulation tools that replay historical stress events on a day-by-day basis to reflect the path-dependent nature of many margin models. It also recommended greater standardisation of simulator outputs, increased transparency around stress scenarios, and clarified that margin simulators should complement rather than replace disclosures needed to understand and replicate margin models. ISDA further welcomed the proposed quantitative disclosure requirements and backward-looking margin responsiveness measures but argued that the proposed one-year observation period would provide limited value, recommending that CCPs also disclose responsiveness during predefined historical stress periods to better support firms' liquidity planning.