AI Governance

In a keynote at PostTrade 360°, Klaus Löber, Chair of the ESMA CCP Supervisory Committee, set out ESMA's post-trade agenda: EMIR 3 active account implementation, margin and anti-procyclicality work, stress testing, CSD integration, DORA implementation, and simplification without deregulation. The speech is not binding, but it signals supervisory priorities that clearing members, CCPs, CSDs, and reporting entities should anticipate in their compliance and resilience planning.

The UK Serious Fraud Office secured a combined 15 years and nine months in prison for three former Ethical Forestry Limited directors who defrauded more than 3,000 investors, many of them pensioners, of GBP $70 million over seven years. The case shows continued enforcement focus on pension-linked investment fraud, deceptive cold-calling, and misleading "green" investment claims. Compliance teams should treat it as a reminder to strengthen fraud detection, due diligence on investment products, and customer protection controls.

The AEPD examined a claim that Octopus Energy España allowed a fraudulent online contract in a victim's name, followed by an erroneous delinquency listing of EUR $246. The document provided is a truncated resolution to close proceedings. It shows the regulator weighing identity verification controls, risk analysis, and data accuracy. It also shows the weight a controller's prompt remediation carries. Compliance teams should treat it as a practical benchmark for onboarding fraud controls and credit-reporting governance.

In an Irish Independent interview, EBA Chair François-Louis Michaud argued that well-capitalized European banks should be less cautious about lending. He ruled out framing the debate as one of lower capital requirements and pointed instead to a more coherent, simplified, and predictable rulebook. Compliance teams should treat this as a directional signal rather than binding guidance, since it previews supervisory priorities on simplification, climate risk, ICT resilience, and the Savings and Investments Union.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded its consultation and published final revised guidance on assessing rivalry-enhancing efficiencies in mergers, now incorporated into its updated Merger Assessment Guidelines. Compliance and legal teams advising on UK transactions should review the final text, because it changes how efficiency arguments are framed and evidenced in merger reviews.

In a keynote speech, a Bundesbank executive board member outlined Europe's need for greater financial and technological independence amid elevated geopolitical risk, and announced concrete supervisory and market-infrastructure steps. These include the end of dual large-loan reporting, the digital euro, and the first Wholesale CBDC availability through the Pontes Initial Launch this year. The speech is not binding, but it signals supervisory priorities on third-party dependency, payments resilience, and reporting simplification.

The Deutsche Bundesbank announced a 35-euro commemorative collector coin marking 125 years of the Wuppertal Suspension Railway, to be issued from September 17, 2026. The update is numismatic and not a regulatory change, so it creates no new compliance obligations. Compliance teams should treat it as a low-impact item, with attention only to cash handling, legal tender, and precious-metal product considerations.