Global Regulator & Central Bank News Roundup

Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) put interim governance arrangements in place and brought forward reforms on free float and shareholder disclosure after MSCI flagged concerns over stock ownership transparency and free-float management, which contributed to an estimated USD 80 billion equity market sell-off. The package centres on raising the minimum free float for listed companies to 15% and expanding the availability and granularity of share ownership information, including holdings below 5% and ultimate beneficial owner data, alongside governance and enforcement measures intended to restore market credibility and stability. The market backdrop was a sharp two-session sell-off that saw the Jakarta Composite Index fall more than 8% and triggered a trading halt on 29 January 2026 after an 8% intraday drop. Against that volatility, OJK announced the 15% free-float uplift and related transparency actions, then saw the resignations of its chair and senior capital markets officials alongside the resignation of the Indonesia Stock Exchange chief, with the government publicly backing a reform agenda that also included exchange demutualisation and steps to broaden institutional participation. Interim responsibilities were assigned to Friderica Widyasari Dewi as acting chair and vice-chair of OJK’s board and to Hasan Fawzi for capital markets, derivatives and carbon exchange oversight, followed by an eight-point reform plan covering free-float implementation, beneficial ownership and shareholder affiliation transparency, more granular investor-type ownership data for publication, stronger enforcement against market abuses, issuer governance measures, and coordinated market-deepening work with other authorities. Next steps are framed around MSCI’s timeline, with the index provider indicating it will reassess Indonesia’s status in May 2026 and OJK signalling it aims to have the issues resolved earlier, while continuing direct engagement with MSCI as market volatility persisted into early February.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) published its key issues outlook for 2026, with Chair Joe Longo setting out the set of system-wide risks expected to cut across all sectors ASIC regulates. The outlook points to cost-of-living strains for vulnerable Australians, rising debt and geopolitical tensions, rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and a surge in AI-powered cybercrime, as well as evolving market structure through the expansion of private markets and accelerated digitalisation, potential changes to Australian Securities Exchange governance requirements, and diverging global regulatory settings that increase compliance complexity and the risk of uneven consumer protections. Key issues include expanding retail access to private credit and other private market products, including via investment platforms and superannuation, with investment thresholds as low as around AUD 2,000, raising concerns about mis-selling, unsuitable product selection and decision-making without adequate disclosure given the relative opacity of private markets and limited regulatory reporting outside superannuation. Superannuation risks centre on operational failures by trustees or administrators—such as delays in processing claims, inadequate member support, weak IT infrastructure and cyber resilience, and escalating fraud and scam activity—with ASIC flagging potential member harm as nearly three million Australians become eligible to access superannuation over the next decade and more than AUD 750 billion is expected to move from accumulation into retirement. The paper also highlights consumers losing retirement savings through switches into complex, high-risk products driven by aggressive marketing and “cookie-cutter” advice models, noting 12 court cases underway relating to the Shield and First Guardian matters, and flags risks from automated decisions, AI-driven interactions and agentic AI alongside variable maturity in AI governance and heightened cyber and operational resilience risks linked to legacy systems and third-party dependencies; directors and financial services license holders are urged to test resilience and crisis responses and address third-party vulnerabilities. Other focus areas include perimeter gaps for emerging participants in digital assets, payments and users of AI, poor insurance claims handling following extreme weather events with court proceedings commenced over serious claims handling failures, operational stability risks from delays or failures in the CHESS replacement with the first phase due in 2026 and the December 2024 outage cited as a warning, weaknesses in financial reporting, sustainability reporting and audit quality, and increased banking-sector risk appetite in response to low net interest margins and competitive pressures that may incentivise relaxed credit assessments, unsuitable lending and aggressive marketing

The Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group, co-chaired by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission, set strategic priorities for 2026–2028 to strengthen Hong Kong’s sustainable finance ecosystem. The programme is structured around two pillars: consolidating Hong Kong’s position as a sustainable finance centre and developing strengths in emerging areas, including transition and adaptation finance. Disclosure work will include a Transition Plan Disclosure Pilot to promote industry-developed best practices and encourage volunteer HKEX-listed and A-H companies to produce investor-focused transition plans aligned with internationally recognised frameworks, alongside developing a sustainability assurance regime, monitoring implementation of the Hong Kong Sustainability Disclosure Standards, and enhancing digital disclosure tools, including the use of artificial intelligence. Market initiatives include facilitating sustainable capital flows through the Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme, development and promotion of the Hong Kong taxonomy, technology adoption including tokenisation, and strengthened cross-boundary collaboration with the Chinese Mainland and international carbon markets, supported by expanded global participation, co-hosting platforms such as Hong Kong Green Week, and deeper regional partnerships. Implementation over 2026–2028 is expected to include practical guidance, enabling tools and case studies to operationalise transition finance principles and encourage wider adoption of transition planning, and a dedicated adaptation finance and resilience work stream covering market readiness, capability gaps, governance and reporting practices, product innovation including catastrophe bonds, and enhanced physical-risk assessment supported by technology-enabled climate modelling and data analytics tools.

The Japan Financial Services Agency published minutes from the Financial Services Council’s Working Group on the Disclosure and Assurance of Sustainability Information, covering discussion of a draft report that sets out a proposed rollout of sustainability disclosure requirements for Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market issuers and a new framework for third-party assurance. On disclosure, the draft roadmap includes phasing based on Prime Market market-capitalisation thresholds, including companies between JPY 500 billion and JPY 1 trillion, and the working group revisited whether to extend the statutory deadline for submitting annual securities reports. The draft concludes it is appropriate to keep the current deadline of within three months after fiscal year-end, while using the existing extension approval mechanism flexibly to support implementation. On assurance, the draft frames a registration-based, profession-agnostic model for assurance service providers aligned with international standards, with the Corporate Accounting Council expected to deliberate assurance standards. It proposes registration requirements covering capability of engagement leaders, quality control arrangements and a minimum financial base, plus conduct rules such as rotation, restrictions on providing non-assurance services concurrently, and confidentiality obligations. Oversight would be conducted by the FSA for the time being, supported by administrative measures (including improvement and suspension orders and surcharges for false assurance), a civil liability approach including burden-of-proof provisions, and criminal penalties for confidentiality breaches, while also addressing how safe harbour treatment would affect assurance-provider liability and proposing disclosures such as appointment rationale and assurance fees.

South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance announced the launch of a Public-Private Joint K-GX Promotion Task Force, bringing together relevant ministries and major industry bodies to draft the K-GX (Green Transformation) Strategy and align delivery of the 2035 National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target with economic growth objectives. The task force is intended to incorporate industry proposals into policy tasks, with the K-GX Strategy due in the first half of 2026. The initial policy direction spans major sectoral measures including expanded renewable energy deployment, demonstration of hydrogen-based direct reduced iron steelmaking, wider diffusion of hydrogen and electric vehicles, electrification of thermal energy, conversion of livestock manure into energy, and revitalisation of the timber industry. The government also signalled package support measures covering technology development, certification and standards, financial and tax support, and regulatory easing, alongside measures to support a just transition; the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry cited survey results showing 72% of member companies recognise the need for Korean-style GX policies and called for conditions that sustain investment. A dedicated department is planned within the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment to support formulation and implementation of the strategy.

The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) announced it will launch a data collection exercise in March to test and calibrate its risk assessment models for the financial sector. The models will inform the 2027 selection of up to 40 entities for AMLA’s direct supervision starting in 2028 and support consistent assessments of money laundering risks by supervisors across the EU. Run in close cooperation with national supervisors and the private sector, the exercise will cover two groups of financial institutions: those that may be eligible for AMLA’s direct supervision and a representative sample expected to remain under national supervision. National supervisors provided AMLA with lists for both groups and AMLA has notified them of the institutions selected to participate; participating institutions will be able to test and prepare their systems for future data collections, while AMLA will use the results to optimise the data collection planned for the selection process. Once the models have been fully tested and calibrated, AMLA will establish the final list of entities eligible for direct supervision. National supervisors will then collect data points from the eligible entities in early 2027, feeding into AMLA’s subsequent selection of up to 40 directly supervised entities.

The European Central Bank announced that the Eurosystem will accept marketable assets issued in central securities depositories using distributed ledger technology based services as eligible collateral for Eurosystem credit operations as of 30 March 2026. The assets will be treated like other marketable assets and must meet existing Eurosystem collateral eligibility criteria and collateral management requirements. Eligibility includes being available for settlement in eligible securities settlement systems that comply with the Central Securities Depositories Regulation and are reachable via TARGET2-Securities. Mobilisation will follow the Eurosystem’s existing collateral management practices. The Eurosystem also launched a work plan to assess whether, how and under what criteria assets issued using DLT and not represented in eligible securities settlement systems could become eligible and be mobilised as collateral in the future, using a staggered approach and taking into account market developments and relevant legal and regulatory changes including the CSD Regulation, the DLT Pilot Regime Regulation, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and euro area securities laws.

The European Central Bank has published amendments to the Eurosystem monetary policy implementation guidelines, updating counterparty access conditions and the collateral and risk control framework for Eurosystem credit operations. The changes are to be applied from 30 March 2026, with a separate implementation date for the new climate-related risk control. Access to monetary policy operations may be reinstated for counterparties subject to a resolution scheme based on an open bank resolution strategy, subject to conditions including supervisory confirmation of compliance with regulatory minimum own funds requirements, and the Eurosystem may apply additional risk mitigation measures after reinstatement. The amendments also further harmonise the collateral framework by integrating certain temporary asset types into the general framework and discontinuing others, including retail mortgage-backed debt instruments and non-marketable debt instruments backed by eligible credit claims, while expanding eligibility to fully dematerialised international debt instruments issued via international central securities depositories and tightening eligibility for asset-backed securities and credit claims, including excluding ABS issuers exposed to residual value risk and non-performing credit claims. Sanctions for operational non-compliance are revised, including a fixed EUR 500 component plus a variable amount per affected asset and updated suspension parameters. A climate factor will be introduced to adjust the collateral value of certain marketable debt instruments issued by non-financial corporations and their corporate issuer groups from 15 June 2026, and additional valuation markdowns will apply to marketable assets denominated in GBP or USD (16%) and JPY (26%).

European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published updated risk dashboards for the EU insurance sector and for European Economic Area institutions for occupational retirement provision, IORPs. The indicators point to broadly medium risk levels across most categories, with insurers’ market risks still elevated and liquidity and funding pressures trending up, while defined benefit IORPs saw reserve and funding risks improve to low. Persistent geopolitical tensions led to an upward revision of the macro-risk outlook in both dashboards. For insurers, macro and credit risks remained stable at a medium level, supported by slightly stronger GDP growth projections of 1.3% for the next four quarters and inflation forecasts around 2%, while the weighted average 10-year swap rate rose to 3.1% in Q4 2025. Investment credit quality stayed high, with a median credit quality step around 2 and low-rated holdings around 1.3% of assets, and portfolio exposures were broadly steady. Market risks remained elevated amid modestly higher financial volatility and continued increases in residential property prices, alongside valuation indicators suggesting detachment from fundamentals and a potential for higher volatility linked to an AI-related bubble. Liquidity and funding risks stayed at medium but moved to an increasing trend, with median cash holdings at 0.8% of assets and liquid assets at 46%, alongside higher bond issuance and a slight pickup in catastrophe bond market activity. Profitability and solvency risks were assessed at medium, with median solvency ratios edging up for groups to 202.6% and the non-life combined ratio broadly unchanged at about 94.8%. Insurance risks showed a decreasing trend on strong premium growth in Q3 2025, with life premiums up 6.2% year on year and non-life up 5.4%, while uncertainty persisted around potential claims linked to war and trade coverages. Market perceptions remained at medium, with insurance stocks underperforming broader markets over the past three months and credit market indicators broadly stable. ESG-related risks also eased within a medium level as insurers’ participation in green bonds increased and climate-relevant assets edged down, and digitalisation and cyber risks stayed at medium with supervisors continuing to rate their materiality as high. For IORPs, macro, credit, market and liquidity risks were assessed at medium, with GDP growth projections revised up to 1.6% for the next four quarters and inflation around 2.2% in Q4 2025. Credit default swap spreads for government and corporate bonds tightened by end-December and the median average credit quality step was 1.6, while median exposures to sovereigns and corporate bonds remained around 14.0% and 1.7% of assets respectively in Q3 2025. Market and asset return risks sat at medium as equity volatility receded but remained elevated, valuations stayed high, and median exposures were 54.3% to bonds and 26.0% to equities in the third quarter of 2025. Liquidity risks reflected a slightly more negative median net market value of derivatives at -0.6% of assets and a largely unchanged liquid assets ratio of 51.2%. Reserve and funding risks for defined benefit schemes dropped to low after a stronger funding position in Q3 2025, with the median excess of assets over liabilities rising to 25.3% and the median funding ratio to 126.4%, helped by investment gains and higher long-term rates that reduced liabilities. Concentration and ESG risks remained at medium, with the median green-bond share in corporate bond portfolios increasing to 9.6% and taxonomy-eligible investments falling to 13.6%. Digitalisation and cyber risks were also at medium, with supervisors continuing to rate their materiality as high amid geopolitical tensions.

The European Banking Authority announced the go-live of its Pillar 3 data hub, a harmonised digital platform that makes prudential information from all European Economic Area institutions publicly accessible in one place. The hub publishes data submitted by large and other institutions from 26 January and is intended to improve the availability, usability and comparability of Pillar 3 information across the European Union. With the first wave of institutions onboarded, Pillar 3 reports can now be submitted to the EBA platform for publication, and users can explore the official submissions via a visualisation tool that supports comparisons across institutions, reference dates and other dimensions. Bulk downloads are available for deeper analysis, and the full dataset for the June, September and December 2025 reference dates is expected to be available by June 2026. A comprehensive user guide covering the hub’s features was published on 23 January 2026. Under transitional arrangements linked to the final draft implementing technical standards (ITS), institutions are expected to submit via the platform the Pillar 3 reports they have already published on their own websites for 2025 reference dates, with the transition period ending after submission for the December 2025 reference date. The hub is mandated by the Banking Package under the Capital Requirements Regulation and Capital Requirements Directive (CRR3/CRD6), is positioned as a data source for EU strategic projects including the European Single Access Point, and is expected to be extended with a dynamic dashboard of key indicators in the visualisation tool that will evolve over time based on industry feedback and emerging needs.

The European Banking Authority has launched a public consultation on draft amendments to its guidelines on which subsets of sectoral exposures competent or designated authorities may subject to a systemic risk buffer, with the aim of enabling a more effective use of the buffer to address systemic risks stemming from climate change. The revisions would support more risk-sensitive calibration for both climate transition and physical risks, while also incorporating lessons from Member States’ application of existing systemic risk buffer measures to improve design, monitoring and reciprocation. For transition risk, the draft introduces greater granularity in identifying relevant exposures by relying on more detailed economic activity classifications, including NACE level 2 and, where necessary, more granular codes to identify exposures to fossil fuel sector entities. For physical risk, it expands geographic granularity beyond NUTS level 3 to include local administrative units, and clarifies how geographic area can be applied in relation to the debtor’s residence and the location of collateral, including in combination with other dimensions such as counterparty sector. The amendments also add a subdimension reflecting the approach used to calculate credit risk risk-weighted exposure amounts (Standardised Approach and Internal Ratings Based Approach), clarify that a single systemic risk buffer measure may cover more than one subset of exposures, and strengthen expectations around information sharing and the use of harmonised data sources to facilitate reciprocity across Member States.

The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has opened an inquiry into the growth of stablecoins and the proposed approach to regulating them in the United Kingdom, inviting written submissions as part of a public call for evidence. The work will explore how stablecoins are developing in the UK, including sterling-denominated issuance, and what this could mean for the UK economy, financial services sector and retail customers. Specifically, the Committee is seeking evidence on market development since 2014 and how the UK compares with the United States and the European Union, as well as the expected trajectory of the UK’s sterling-denominated stablecoin market, including who uses stablecoins and for what purposes and whether existing rules affect their growth. It also asks about opportunities and risks from both sterling and USD stablecoins, including potential disruption to monetary policy and traditional intermediaries and any additional financial crime considerations, and how stablecoin growth could impact the statutory objectives of the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority, including price stability, financial stability, market integrity, consumer protection, competition and international competitiveness and growth. The inquiry further requests views on the implications of the Bank of England and FCA’s proposed regimes for systemic and non-systemic stablecoins in the UK and internationally, including aspects that may require further consideration, and what lessons can be drawn from approaches in other jurisdictions. Written evidence is due by 11 March 2026.

The Financial Conduct Authority has published an engagement paper launching the Mills Review, led by Sheldon Mills, to assess how advances in artificial intelligence could reshape UK retail financial services for consumers, firms, markets and regulators by 2030 and beyond. The review frames AI adoption as moving rapidly and asks how the FCA should stay prepared and adaptive while maintaining effective consumer protection and well-functioning markets, with a stated intention to rely on existing, outcomes-focused and principles-based regulatory frameworks rather than introduce additional AI-specific rules. The paper structures its call for input around four themes. It explores how AI technology could evolve toward more autonomous, multimodal and agentic systems, alongside developments in compute and architecture, and how these changes may intersect with digital finance developments such as blockchain, smart contracts, tokenisation and digital assets, as well as the broader shift toward Open Finance. It then considers potential effects on firms, market structure and competition, including efficiency gains and hyper-personalised propositions, possible disintermediation of existing business models, and the risk that market power could shift toward technology and AI providers that control consumer interfaces and data, potentially moving activity and value outside the regulatory perimeter. On the consumer side, the review focuses on a potential shift from AI as an assistive tool toward AI systems acting as consumer “proxies”, with increasing delegation of decision-making in payments, lending, investments and insurance, and highlights risks such as algorithmic bias, opaque decision-making where multiple models interact, misleading or hallucinatory outputs, reduced consumer agency and understanding, and expanded exposure to cyber and financial crime threats including deepfakes and synthetic identities. Finally, it asks how the FCA’s regulatory model may need to evolve to supervise AI-enabled firms and markets at pace, including whether existing frameworks such as the Consumer Duty, the Senior Managers & Certification Regime, Operational Resilience requirements and the Critical Third Parties regime remain sufficiently flexible for an AI-enabled retail market, and notes the importance of domestic and international coordination with relevant regulatory and standard-setting counterparts.

Open Banking Limited (OBL) published a proposal asking UK open banking ecosystem participants to support OBL acting as the independent facilitator of an industry-led process to design the Future Entity (FE), following the Financial Conduct Authority’s request that trade associations and firms agree who should facilitate the FE’s design. The proposal is positioned as the next step for an ecosystem OBL says now exceeds 16 million user connections, 2 billion monthly API calls and 34 million monthly payments. OBL’s proposed process is intended to give different parts of the ecosystem a proportionate voice, ensure neutrality and transparency, and produce a majority-supported FE blueprint aligned with the FCA’s direction, while leaving decision-making authority solely with industry. Governance would include an FE Design Working Group made up of funders that feeds into an independently chaired FE Steering Group, with working group members able to nominate and vote for steering group representatives. Funding would be tiered, starting at GBP 750 for small TPPs and GBP 1,500 for small ASPSPs, with OBL stating the programme is already fully funded and additional participants would reduce contributions for all; organisations can also support without funding and receive programme updates. Participants are asked to confirm support to the FCA by 30 January.

Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has released its Risks in Focus 2026 assessment, warning that elevated market valuations and a fragile backdrop increase the likelihood that financial stability will face a severe stress test, with a high potential for abrupt market and price corrections. The report sets out six key risks for financial firms, analyses three sector-shaping trends, and for the first time adds three top risks affecting consumers directly. BaFin points to stabilising factors such as generally profitable, well-capitalised banks and insurers and a more benign inflation outlook for the euro area, but highlights destabilising pressures including trade and military conflicts, high sovereign debt among major economies, uncertainty over whether artificial-intelligence-driven optimism is supported by fundamentals, and political pressure on institutions that could weaken crisis response. Supervisory priorities for 2026 include intensified monitoring of credit risk as corporate insolvencies rise and non-performing loans increase, and closer scrutiny of banks’ and insurers’ linkages with non-bank financial intermediaries via private-debt funds, which BaFin views as a potential contagion channel. On consumer risks, BaFin highlights over-indebtedness including from buy now, pay later and other small loans under EUR 200 that are often granted without creditworthiness checks, social-media-fuelled retail investing particularly in crypto-assets, and capital-building life insurance policies with excessive costs; it plans stricter oversight of compliance in consumer lending and expanded consumer information. The report also flags stablecoin depegging and investor runs as a potential shock that could spill into traditional markets, alongside financial-crime and cyber risks, with BaFin responding through enhanced supervision of crypto providers, warnings about dubious firms, and consumer education.

France’s Autorité des marchés financiers has published a study by a working group drawn from its advisory committees setting out good practices to improve the readability and understanding of structured products distributed to retail investors in France, focusing in particular on structured EMTNs marketed outside life insurance. The work assesses the quality of information provided to savers in the current regulatory framework, noting that even products with at least 90% capital protection that fall outside AMF Position 2010-05 remain subject to MiFID II requirements and must be presented in a clear, accurate and non-misleading way. The study concentrates on promotional communications and highlights recurring frictions, including difficulty accessing Key Information Documents and inconsistencies between performance scenarios shown in marketing materials and those in the KID. It recommends front-loading a synoptic box that groups the product’s key features in plain language and structures disclosure around seven questions retail clients typically ask, including a clear digital access route to the KID, an explicit explanation of capital protection and loss scenarios, how remuneration works at early redemption and at maturity, issuer credit risk, liquidity conditions and the main performance drivers of the reference. Further proposals target common sources of misunderstanding: using “reference” or “indexation” alongside the term “underlying”, relabelling “historical simulations” as simulations based on past performance and making clear the chart reflects the reference rather than the investment value, and providing a dedicated, unambiguous explanation of “decrements”, including whether the decrement is calculated in points or percentage terms and how point-based decrements can amplify effects in rising or falling markets. On fees, it calls for clearer disclosure where distribution fees are effectively taken upfront and calculated on the product’s maximum term, with prominent wording that such fees are definitively retained by distributors regardless of the actual holding period. The paper also points to the need for robust product governance and suitability checks, particularly for decrement-based products, and proposes practical follow-ons such as an industry-developed glossary of technical terms and enhanced adviser training, including consideration of adding more structured EMTN content to the AMF certification framework and periodic refreshers for advisers distributing these products."

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission has issued a policy statement on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), setting out an explicitly supportive stance and confirming that firms can implement AI within the Bailiwick’s principles-based regulatory regime without seeking specific approval or prior discussion with the Commission. Firms are expected to approach AI adoption as they would any other technical or strategic project, applying the Finance Sector Code of Corporate Governance (notably accountability and risk management) and the Minimum Criteria for Licensing under the relevant regulatory laws. The statement also notes that AI use must comply with existing laws, rules and codes, including requirements in the Commission’s Handbook on Countering Financial Crime relating to the use of technology. While the Commission is not proposing AI-specific rules or guidance and is not prescribing accreditation or certification standards, it points firms with implementation uncertainty to existing frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, ISO/IEC 42001 and the National Cyber Security Centre guidelines. Where firms believe specific rules hinder technology trials, the Commission invites discussion of potential options, including use of the Innovation Sandbox, pilot variations or waivers, or redrafting rules that have become outdated due to technological change.

The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission’s Economic Analysis, Risk Management and Integrity Office (ASA) has published an exploratory study on the potential adoption of the Twin Peaks regulatory model in Brazil, aimed at informing debate on the requirements and practical challenges of shifting from a sector-based architecture to an objectives-based split between prudential supervision and conduct supervision. The paper reviews Brazil’s current regulatory landscape alongside international experience and highlights conduct regulation, which is primarily exercised by CVM in Brazil’s securities market, as a function typically reinforced in jurisdictions that have adopted Twin Peaks. Developed over 2025 with input from EVOLUA, a CVM study group coordinated by ASA in partnership with the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV-RJ) and supported by ANBIMA, the study notes that its conclusions reflect technical staff views rather than institutional positions. It describes Twin Peaks as a semi-integrated framework that allocates regulatory powers by objective rather than by sector or by the nature of the regulated entity, requiring clear delineation of remits without one peak prevailing over the other and robust governance and coordination given overlapping perimeters. International case studies include Australia’s split between the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the United Kingdom’s allocation between the Prudential Regulation Authority within the Bank of England and an independent Financial Conduct Authority with formal precedence given to macroprudential policy at the Bank of England, and South Africa’s phased approach centred on the Prudential Authority and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority alongside other authorities. For Brazil, the study identifies 16 relevant challenges and classifies them by effort required as ‘normal’, ‘additional’ or ‘extra’. The ‘normal’ set covers foundational design and implementation questions such as defining objectives and scopes, strengthening coordination and cooperation mechanisms, deciding the institutional location of prudential supervision, adapting to objectives-based regulation and ensuring a legislative process that enables structural change, while the higher-effort items focus on current constraints that could undermine a transition if not addressed, including federal fiscal limits to absorb restructuring and ongoing costs, gaps in a robust macroprudential framework, difficulties in ensuring regulators’ operational independence and resourcing, legislative backlogs in 2025 and the challenge of advancing structural reforms in years with federal elections; the paper therefore points to a phased adoption pathway as a potential way to sequence remediation of existing weaknesses, improve migration planning and broaden participation in the debate.

Mozambique's Ministry of Finance announced that President Daniel Francisco Chapo has promulgated a law establishing the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervision Authority of Mozambique. The legislation creates a new supervisor with legal personality and administrative, financial, asset and technical autonomy. The authority is empowered to license insurance market operators, oversee insurance intermediation, authorise or refuse qualified shareholdings, and conduct prudential supervision of pension fund management entities and pension funds. Its intervention toolkit includes opening sanctioning proceedings and adopting corrective measures, such as suspending or removing office-holders, appointing provisional administrators, setting up inspection commissions and revoking authorisations to operate.

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has introduced the region’s first biometric payment solution using facial and palm recognition through its Sandbox Programme and Innovation Hub at the Emirates Institute of Finance (EIF), in collaboration with Network International. The solution is in a proof-of-concept phase and is designed to enable payments by authenticating identity via biometrics rather than using physical cards or mobile devices. The initiative is being demonstrated at the Dubai Land Department, a Dubai Government entity, allowing customers to make payments using face or palm recognition.

The White House announced that President Donald J. Trump has nominated Kevin Warsh to serve as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, initiating a Senate confirmation process for the leadership of the US central bank. Warsh’s background includes degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Law School, experience as a Morgan Stanley executive and as a top economic adviser in the Bush administration, and service as the youngest-ever Federal Reserve Governor, including during the 2008 financial crisis. Supportive reactions came from senior Republicans on the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott saying he would lead a timely confirmation process and stressing the importance of Federal Reserve independence. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Senate Banking Committee’s ranking member, criticised the nomination and argued that no Republican should proceed until the administration ends what she described as “witch hunts” involving investigations into Fed Governor Lisa Cook and sitting Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Next steps centre on the Senate Banking Committee’s confirmation process, which Scott said will examine Warsh’s vision for focusing the Federal Reserve on its core mission.

Staff in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Divisions of Corporation Finance, Investment Management, and Trading and Markets published a statement describing how they analyze common “tokenized security” structures under the federal securities laws. The statement emphasizes that formatting a security as a crypto asset and using onchain records for ownership or transfer mechanics does not change the application of core securities law requirements, including Securities Act registration for offers and sales absent an available exemption. A tokenized security is described as a security represented by a crypto asset where the record of ownership is maintained in whole or in part on one or more crypto networks, with models grouped into issuer-sponsored and third party-sponsored structures. Issuer-sponsored models include securities issued directly in tokenized form with distributed ledger technology integrated into the issuer’s master securityholder file, as well as structures where the security is issued offchain and a crypto asset is used to effect or signal transfers that are then recorded on the offchain master file; the statement also addresses when tokenized and traditional formats may be treated as the same class if substantially similar in character, rights, and privileges. For third party-sponsored tokenization, the staff highlights custodial models that create tokenized security entitlements backed by underlying securities held in custody and synthetic models where the third party issues its own instrument providing exposure to a referenced security, including linked securities and security-based swaps; it notes that holders may not receive rights in the underlying security and may face additional third-party risks. For tokenized security-based swaps, the statement flags that offers and sales to persons who are not eligible contract participants would generally require an effective Securities Act registration statement and that such transactions must be effected on a national securities exchange, and it discusses how the “security-based swap” analysis turns on the Exchange Act definition, Commodity Exchange Act swap definition and exclusions, and the instrument’s economic reality. The staff frames the statement as intended to help market participants prepare any needed registrations, proposals, or requests for staff action and indicates it is available to engage on questions.

Canada's Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) published its first Quarterly Release of 2026, finalizing refinements to its Liquidity Adequacy Requirements Guideline for 2026 and launching consultations to consolidate credit risk management expectations and strengthen accountability for boards and senior leaders. The proposed Credit Risk Management Guideline would consolidate existing guidance for mortgage lending, commercial real estate and corporate lending into a single principles-based framework covering all credit risk exposures at federally regulated financial institutions. OSFI plans to publish draft chapters for input in areas including overarching principles, wholesale credit, non-bank financial intermediation and real estate secured lending, with the principles reflecting the Canadian application of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s revised Principles for the Management of Credit Risk and incorporating expectations related to securities lending and derivatives sound practices. Separately, a proposed senior leader regime would require institutions to develop and maintain an Accountability Framework setting out suitability criteria, mapped individual responsibilities and governance arrangements, senior leader attestations, compensation practices that embed accountability, and approaches to monitoring and addressing lapses or breaches, with board approval and annual submission to OSFI. The board chair may also be required to attest annually, and OSFI is considering requiring some public availability of the framework while not adopting a regulator approval process for senior leader appointments. The Quarterly Release also flagged development of a new guide to administrative monetary penalties and, following its pilot, confirmed that loan-to-income limits will remain in place alongside existing debt service expectations in Guideline B-20.