In recommendations submitted to the European Commission as part of its review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, ESMA called for tougher rules on crypto marketing, greater transparency over costs and new requirements for staking, lending and borrowing. It also wants stronger powers to confront unauthorized firms, fraudulent websites and services tied to stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA.
The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, or UOKiK, has imposed more than $3.5 million (PLN 13.5 million) in fines after finding that contractors coordinated their behavior in 11 tenders organized by electricity distributor PGE Dystrybucja. The contracts covered the construction and modernization of electricity grid infrastructure, including switching and disconnection points.
FINRA has ordered American Portfolios Financial Services to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution and fined the firm $400,000 over supervisory failures that left hundreds of investors paying unnecessary costs and fees on unit investment trusts.
Swiss financial regulator FINMA has found serious risk management and anti-money laundering failures at Julius Bär, concluding an enforcement proceeding that exposed weaknesses in more than $1.26 billion (CHF 1 billion) of private debt lending and in the bank’s handling of clients linked to two Russian politically exposed persons.
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has fined Zheng Da International Financial Holding approximately $899,000 (HK$7 million) and suspended one of its responsible officers after finding failures in the firm’s anti-money laundering controls, client monitoring and oversight of electronic trading systems.
EIOPA has cut quarterly reporting templates by 26% and annual templates by 30% for solo undertakings under the revised Solvency II Directive. For small and non-complex undertakings, the cuts run at 36% quarterly and 44% annually.
For more than a decade, companies controlling much of Poland’s wholesale medicines market exchanged sensitive commercial information that showed what individual pharmacies were buying from rival suppliers, how much they were paying and what terms they had been offered, according to Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, or UOKiK.