GRC Report Staff

The Deutsche Bundesbank hosted its 21st Central Bank Conference on the Microstructure of Financial Markets, covering FX volatility, central clearing and collateral, transparency, safe asset liquidity, and AI in securities markets. The event creates no binding obligations, but it signals supervisory research priorities that may shape future policy. Compliance teams should treat it as an early indicator of emerging regulatory focus areas.

The SEC's Division of Examinations published a Risk Alert detailing observations on how investment advisers conduct the annual compliance review required under the Advisers Act compliance rule (Rule 206(4)-7). The alert identifies areas advisers should consider and encourages them to strengthen their review processes. Compliance teams should treat it as a preview of examination priorities and benchmark their current review practices against it.

The FSA's September 14, 2026 weekly review lists a draft partial amendment to the Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision for Insurance Companies, new sustainability assurance and growth-funding council activity, and disaster-related measures for financial institutions. It also lists an unregistered money lending warning and draft EDINET Taxonomy updates for 2027. Compliance teams with Japanese operations should review the open consultation and the disaster reporting relief now, because several items carry action dates or likely downstream obligations.

The FCA has published forms, checklists, and practical guidance supporting the UK's new public offers and admissions to trading regime (POATR and the PRM sourcebook), which took effect on January 19, 2026. Compliance teams must use the correct forms for each submission type, particularly for prospectuses approved under the old UKPR that remain valid, and must update base prospectuses to meet the new single disclosure standard.

The OCC's 12 CFR Part 25 sets out the Community Reinvestment Act framework, including authority, scope, and an extensive definitions section that determines how banks are classified and evaluated. The excerpt covers only Subpart A (§§ 25.11 and part of 25.12) and is truncated mid-definition, so compliance teams should confirm the full text and current effective dates before acting.

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) projects that households and businesses will pay an average of 20 percent more for electricity and natural-gas transport in 2027. For an average household, that is roughly EUR $89 more per year for electricity and EUR $52 more for gas. The increase is the first under a new revenue methodology and is driven by system operators' investment needs of approximately EUR $235 Billion over 15 years. Compliance teams with Dutch exposure should reassess energy cost assumptions, pass-through arrangements, and customer communications.

BaFin has issued a warning against Zaif Co. Ltd., which recruits "office clerks working from home" through Telegram chats to receive third-party payments in their own bank accounts and forward them or convert them to cryptocurrency. The funds likely derive from fraud victims, so the scheme presents money laundering and mule account risks. Compliance teams should treat the warning as a typology and monitoring input for transaction surveillance and customer education.