Compliance & Ethics

ESMA has published Q&A 2919 asking whether MiFID II investor protection rules apply when EU-based, EU-authorized investment firms serve clients outside the EU. The entry is marked "Forwarded to EC/Public Consultation/Other," so no definitive ESMA answer has been issued. Compliance teams with cross-border client bases should treat the territorial scope of their conduct obligations as unresolved and monitor for further guidance.

ASIC's Form 361 is the mechanism by which registered agents notify ASIC that they have ceased to act for one or more companies. It is not a new rule: the document is a form and guide dated 2011 and 2015, though it is labeled as a 2026 press release. Compliance teams should treat it as a reminder to confirm that agent offboarding and corporate records processes are accurate and current.

ASIC's Form 410 (version dated 1 July 2022) is the prescribed application for reserving a company, foreign company, registrable Australian body, or Corporate Collective Investment Vehicle (CCIV) name under the Corporations Act 2001. It is an existing form and guide, not a new rule, and the document's 2026 date appears to reflect republication rather than substantive change. Compliance teams should still confirm that entity formation, renaming, and registration workflows follow its timing, declaration, and signature requirements.

The Bank of England is changing the criteria that determine which firms must submit Form BT monthly. Monthly submission will generally apply only to firms that also file specified monthly Money and Credit returns (Forms BE, BN, GT or ER), and some current monthly filers will move to quarterly. Compliance teams should confirm their status once the Bank contacts them, because the effective dates and notice periods have not yet been published.

The Norway Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet) has published a warning about corpagenesis-fr.net, a website that France's Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) placed on its crypto-currency blacklist. The notice signals that the site is likely an unauthorized or fraudulent crypto-asset offering. Compliance teams should treat it as a cross-border red flag for screening, monitoring, and customer protection.

ASIC's Form 370 gives resigning or retiring company officeholders an optional way to notify ASIC directly of their departure, provided they attach a copy of their resignation letter. The 28-day lodgement window determines which cessation date ASIC records for a director, so timing matters for governance and liability. Note that the document is dated February 2021 and is a form with its guide, not a new rule or amendment.

The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) released a new version of its consumer-facing tool for comparing the costs of supplementary pension products. The tool benchmarks a product's costs against the average for similar products, which increases fee transparency and the likelihood that outliers will draw scrutiny. Compliance teams at pension product providers and distributors should review their cost disclosures and pricing against these benchmarks.