<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

Alongside a raft of other recent proposals, the UK Government is consulting on plans to introduce tougher competition oversight over major players in the digital technology sector. 

In this session from the PLSA's inaugural ESG Conference (July 2021), Pensions Partner Andy Lewis, Partner and Head of Financial Services and Markets Tim Lewis and Senior Consultant Simon Witney discuss key questions that can arise for pension schemes looking develop their ESG policies and beliefs and translate these into practical action. How can schemes fit these specific regulations into the bigger picture of their overall duties and operations without getting lost in the detail?

This consultation is on the second "tax measure" announced by the Treasury ("HMT") in the March Budget – a new Gateway 2 Levy on high rise residential developments during the pre-construction stage. This is part of a package of measures intended to help pay for the remediation of certain buildings impacted by the cladding crisis, following the Grenfell Tower tragedy (the "Building Safety Levy").

Hot on the heels of HM Treasury's consultation on the prospectus regime, on 5 July the FCA published a consultation on the effectiveness of the primary markets. The consultation firstly looks at ways of improving the efficiency of the listing regime and secondly proposes targeted changes to remove barriers to listing.  The FCA seeks to address, and build upon, the proposals of the Kalifa Review of UK FinTech  and Lord Hill's UK Listing Review.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has hinted that new sustainability reporting requirements are on the horizon for pension schemes, financial services firms and their investment products.

On 16 June, the UK Government announced that the existing moratorium on landlords exercising forfeiture for non-payment of rents would be extended to March 2022. At the same time, they announced an extension to the end of September 2021 of the current restriction against the use of statutory demands and/or winding up petitions in respect of arrears of rent, unless those arrears were not as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Among a number of tech sector related proposals announced in the recent Queen's Speech, were the Government's plans, 'as soon as parliamentary time would allow' to legislate to create a legal obligation of 'security by design' in respect of consumer Internet of Things connected devices ("Consumer Connected Devices"). In this briefing we take a look at what sort of devices and who the proposed legislation will apply to, and what will be required to comply.

In February, the Government announced a package of measures intended to resolve the problem of unsafe cladding on high-rise residential buildings.  

The TCFD Roadmap unfolds

It is no longer news by now that after 35 years as a mainstay of the financial markets, LIBOR is to be discontinued, with the majority of tenors and currencies scheduled to be published for the last time on 31 December 2021.

The government is consulting on the design of a new tax, on residential property developers to help fund the removal of unsafe cladding following the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. The idea is to raise at least £2bn over a decade.

UK counterparties to derivatives transactions should note that there is an upcoming filing deadline under UK EMIR.

The European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) sets out the requirements for the central clearing of standardised OTC derivatives, the exchange of collateral, post-trade reporting to trade repositories and risk mitigation procedures for non-cleared derivatives. The requirements apply to many stakeholders in the OTC derivatives market in the EU and, prior to Brexit and the expiry of the Brexit transition period, applied to stakeholders in the UK.

Here you will find our series of bite-size guides to derivatives, directed at trustees alone.

Trustees are generally given wide powers of investment in the scheme rules, often expressed to afford trustees the same powers to invest scheme assets as though such assets were owned by the trustees themselves (with certain restrictions, either in the scheme rules or in legislation).

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc is the global trade association for OTC derivatives and maintains the industry standard documents for such transactions, namely the 2002 or 1992 Master Agreement, Schedule and credit support documents (the ISDA).