Global Regulator & Central Bank News Roundup

The Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre released the final findings from Project Acacia, concluding that tokenised assets, digital money and enhanced settlement infrastructure could improve the efficiency, functionality and resilience of Australia’s wholesale financial markets. The project tested 20 wholesale tokenised asset market use cases across asset classes including fixed income, managed funds, repos, structured products, private markets, carbon credits and trade payables, using settlement methods including exchange settlement account balances, a pilot wholesale central bank digital currency, tokenised commercial bank deposits and stablecoins. The findings point to potential benefits across issuance, servicing, trading and settlement, including shorter settlement cycles, lower counterparty risk, improved collateral and capital efficiency, broader access to liquidity and reduced operational errors through automation. The report also identifies barriers to scaling tokenised markets, including coordination challenges, legal and regulatory uncertainty, interoperability between new and existing infrastructure, settlement finality questions and the need for clearer pathways from experimentation to commercialisation. The Reserve Bank of Australia, the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre and Council of Financial Regulators agencies will develop a multi-stream program covering regulator, industry and Reserve Bank of Australia workstreams. The program includes exploring a digital financial market infrastructure sandbox to give firms a clearer path from experimentation to commercialisation, and assess the issuance, trading, settlement and lifecycle management of tokenised government bonds. It will also examine changes to the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System and Exchange Settlement Account access arrangements, continue work on interoperable commercial bank deposit tokens, and undertake further applied research on wholesale central bank digital currency and tokenised money for cross-border payments.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has published its latest System Risk Outlook, highlighting that Australia’s financial system remains resilient while the risk environment is becoming more complex. Banks and insurers remain well capitalised and liquid, and stress testing shows the system can withstand severe but plausible shocks, including a deep global recession, higher funding costs and operational disruptions. APRA has intensified oversight of regulated banks, insurers and superannuation trustees and is sharpening expectations for risk management as geopolitical tensions, artificial intelligence and global market complexity reshape potential stress channels. The report identifies cyber and technology risks as a key supervisory focus, with rapid AI adoption across regulated industries outpacing governance arrangements and cyber threats becoming more sophisticated, including through advanced AI models. APRA also points to tokenised finance as an expanding area that may bring efficiency benefits but create new operational, cyber and interconnectedness vulnerabilities. On private credit, domestic risks appear contained, with Australia’s private credit market estimated at around AUD 200 billion, or about 3 per cent of the banking system, but international vulnerabilities could spill over through superannuation funds’ offshore private market exposures and banks’ growing appetite for international funds finance products. APRA will continue close engagement with regulated entities while global conditions remain fluid, including through the Council of Financial Regulators’ Geopolitical Risk Program and targeted work on crisis preparedness, operational resilience, cyber resilience and private markets oversight. It plans to publish the final report from Phase 2 of its inaugural system risk stress test in mid-2026, and key insights from a 2026 stress test of the five largest banks, conducted jointly with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, will be made available later in 2026.

New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has opened a consultation on whether the country's rules for payment services remain clear and fit for purpose as digital wallets, payment apps and token-based services develop. The consultation does not propose a preferred reform path, but seeks evidence on whether current rules support competition and innovation, provide clear protections for consumers and businesses, and adequately cover newer models such as stablecoin and other digital token-based payment services. The discussion focuses on front-end payment services provided by banks and non-bank providers, including payment facilitation, money transfers, merchant acquiring, payment initiation, digital wallets and stored-value services. It identifies possible issues with New Zealand's current fragmented approach, including unclear or uneven protections for customer money and stored balances, uncertainty over responsibility when problems occur, access and commercial barriers for providers, and limited or fragmented rules for digital token payment services. Possible future approaches include clarifying existing rules, introducing baseline rules on safeguarding, disclosure, reliability and accountability, licensing higher-risk activities, or using industry standards or co-regulatory models. Responses will inform advice to Ministers on whether changes are needed, what outcomes should be prioritised, and how any future framework should fit with open banking, expanded ESAS access, payments modernisation and potential alignment with Australia.

The Securities Commission Malaysia has revised its Guidelines on Recognized Markets to move regulated Digital Asset Exchange operators to a more operator-led listing framework while raising safeguards around governance, resilience and investor asset protection. The revised framework removes the need for the regulator’s concurrence before a digital asset can be offered for trading, shifting responsibility for listing assessments to DAX operators and requiring decisions to be documented and determined by the board or senior management.That shift is supported by tighter prudential, governance and conduct requirements. DAX operators must meet stronger standards on financial resources, shareholding structure, management proficiency and custody controls, including daily reconciliation of asset holdings. The revised framework also introduces requirements on disclosure, delisting, restricted digital assets, direct trade models and digital asset-to-digital asset trading pairs, while prohibiting privacy tokens. Moreover, DAX operators will become members of the Financial Markets Ombudsman Service in 2026, giving investors access to a formal dispute resolution channel. The Commission has also taken administrative action against four unregistered DAXs and worked with technology companies, including Google, to limit unregistered DAX promotion to Malaysians through social media platforms and channels from 14 April 2026.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has published early observations from a review of a subset of the first sustainability reports prepared under Chapter 2M of the Corporations Act 2001, highlighting improved quantity and quality of climate-related financial information while identifying areas where reporting entities should strengthen compliance with the Corporations Act and Australian Sustainability Reporting Standard AASB S2 Climate-related Disclosures. The observations cover reports from Group 1 entities with financial years ending 31 December 2025, with 259 sustainability reports lodged by 6 May 2026, including 34 from listed entities and 225 from unlisted entities. ASIC identified several practices requiring improvement: disclaimers telling users not to rely on sustainability reports or limiting responsibility for accuracy, failures to connect known extreme weather impacts with short-, medium- or long-term climate risks, and disclosure that left users to infer key judgements, assumptions or measurement uncertainty. It also found required material information blurred with voluntary climate disclosures, cross-references to websites or imprecise parts of other reports that did not meet AASB S2 requirements, and inconsistent treatment of legally mandated climate-related targets, including Safeguard Mechanism greenhouse gas emissions targets.

The Malaysia Securities Commission and Bursa Malaysia have proposed a LEAP Market 2.0 reform package that would broaden investor access and make the market a more effective fundraising and progression venue for micro, small and medium enterprises and mid-tier companies. The Leading Entrepreneur Accelerator Platform (LEAP) Market is Bursa Malaysia’s qualified market for emerging companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises, currently limited to sophisticated investors and operating under an adviser-driven, disclosure-based framework with lighter listing requirements than the Main Market and the Access, Certainty and Efficiency Market (ACE Market). The main investor change would allow retail investors to participate in the LEAP Market, subject to a total investment limit of MYR250,000 at any time, including caps of MYR100,000 per issuer in the primary market and MYR100,000 per broker in the secondary market. The proposed admission changes would create an alternative route for eligible equity crowdfunding issuers, introduce a simplified listing document, allow advisers to receive up to 50% of their advisory fees in ordinary shares subject to safeguards, and strengthen risk disclosures for investors. The transfer reforms would remove the mandatory withdrawal of listing and exit offer or exit mechanism for LEAP-to-ACE Market transfers, while adding a proposed delisting trigger for LEAP Market companies that do not apply for an ACE Market transfer within seven full financial years after admission or whose transfer application is rejected.

The Thailand Office of Insurance Commission announced the start of the third Responsible Voices for Finfluencer programme, a joint initiative with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bank of Thailand to improve how online creators communicate financial, investment and insurance information. From 60 applicants, 28 pages or channels representing 35 individuals were selected for the cohort. The programme is intended to help finfluencers provide accurate and appropriate information, understand the potential effects of online communication, and support higher standards for businesses that use finfluencers. Across the first two cohorts, 74 pages or channels completed the programme and reached more than 28 million follower accounts in total. The Office of Insurance Commission said many participants have since placed greater emphasis on clearly citing information sources and working with businesses licensed by regulators. The third cohort includes training and exchanges with peers, experts and the three regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission's office. Participants who meet the criteria will receive certificates, have their names published on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, and be invited to networking activities with earlier cohorts.

The Payment Systems Regulator is consulting on a targeted regulatory financial reporting remedy that would require Mastercard and Visa to report their UK financial performance annually. The measure is intended to give the regulator robust data to assess UK profitability in their card businesses, after its card scheme and processing fees review found ineffective competitive constraints, rising fees, insufficient clarity for businesses accepting card payments, and evidence consistent with margins above those expected in competitive markets. Under the draft direction, each scheme operator would have to provide regulatory financial statements covering UK card operations, an accounting methodology document and a reporting model, with revenue and cost information disaggregated by customer type, product and service. The reporting would cover the financial years ending in 2023 to 2026 as the initial reporting period and continue annually thereafter. The statements would need to be approved by the board or an approved executive manager, independently audited, reconciled to the ultimate parent’s Form 10-K or an approved alternative, and retained for six years.

The Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England have set out a joint vision for the adoption of tokenisation and distributed ledger technology in UK wholesale financial markets, alongside a call for input that will inform a fuller cross-authority roadmap. The paper focuses on tokenised securities, including bonds, cash equities and fund units, and seeks to give firms greater certainty on how issuance, trading, settlement and safekeeping can develop while preserving market integrity, financial stability, operational resilience and consumer protection. It also sets out regulatory principles for tokenised markets, including the need for an identifiable accountable person for regulated activities, clear settlement finality, robust know-your-client and anti-money laundering controls, continued issuer-investor information flows, interoperability between tokenised and non-tokenised infrastructure, and technology-neutral regulation. To translate that vision into market practice, the paper gives clearer direction on the regulatory and infrastructure conditions for tokenised securities to scale. The Digital Securities Sandbox remains the main route for testing live issuance, trading and settlement, with the authorities aiming to provide digital securities depositories with a path into permanent authorisation and to assess whether wider changes to the central securities depositories framework are needed. The Prudential Regulation Authority has furthermore confirmed that tokenised traditional assets should generally receive the same prudential treatment as non-tokenised equivalents for PRA-regulated banks, building societies and designated investment firms where legal rights are identical and risks are comparable. The Bank will consider tokenised assets, including the Digital Gilt Instrument pilot, for collateral eligibility in Sterling Monetary Framework operations, and will publish policy considerations on tokenised collateral for central counterparties. The Bank also plans to deliver a synchronisation service targeted for 2028 so digital asset ledgers can settle in sterling central bank money through real-time gross settlement, while work continues on extended RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours and on the potential benefits of tokenised central bank money. The paper also confirms that non-natively tokenised securities will generally be regulated according to their legal structure, such as contracts for difference, exchange-traded notes or depository receipts, and that the FCA will not proceed at this stage with applying CASS 17 to custody of specified investment cryptoassets. Instead, firms seeking to provide specified investment cryptoasset custody will be assessed against applicable CASS 6 requirements while the FCA considers whether a different longer-term safeguarding framework is needed.

The Prudential Regulation Authority announced that it will consult in summer 2026 on reforming rules that restrict how ring-fenced banks share operational services across the ring-fence, as part of HM Treasury’s wider Ring-Fencing Review package. The proposal would apply in the context of the UK ring-fencing regime for banking groups with more than GBP 35 billion of core deposits and material investment banking activity, which separates core retail banking from investment banking to protect depositors and support financial stability. The PRA consultation will consider allowing greater flexibility for group services such as data processing, information technology and back-office functions, with the stated aim of reducing compliance costs while relying on developments in the UK resolution framework and Operational Continuity in Resolution safeguards to maintain safety and resilience. HM Treasury’s report sets out a broader reform package that retains the foundations of ring-fencing while shifting the regime towards a more flexible and proportionate model. Through the upcoming Financial Services and Markets Bill, the government plans to reduce prescriptive rule-making requirements, allow the PRA to remove duplicative ring-fencing rules where prudential or resolution requirements already meet the regime’s objectives, and move detailed elements of the excluded activities and prohibitions framework into PRA rules. The framework will also be updated to reflect developments in the UK bank resolution regime. The report’s main substantive expansion is a proposed New Growth Allowance of up to 10% of a ring-fenced body’s Pillar 1 risk-weighted assets for credit risk, which HM Treasury says could unlock up to GBP 80 billion of financing for UK businesses and infrastructure. The allowance would permit some currently prohibited activities, supported by related reforms to risk management products, participation in schemes guaranteed or offered by UK Public Financial Institutions, and exposures to certain financial institutions where the underlying activity could already be undertaken directly by a ring-fenced body. The review also addresses prudential interactions and boundary issues within banking groups. The Financial Policy Committee will examine how ring-fencing interacts with the leverage ratio and the Basel 3.1 output floor, while the Bank of England will review the internal Minimum Requirement for own funds and Eligible Liabilities scalar for ring-fenced bodies, currently set at 75% to 90% of standalone external MREL. HM Treasury will not proceed with reforms allowing the sharing of financial resources across the ring-fence, citing risks to financial separation and the continuity of core services, but will consult on targeted flexibility for surpluses in closed ring-fenced body pension schemes.

The UK Pensions Regulator has published an AI plan clarifying how trustees, administrators and scheme managers should govern the use of artificial intelligence in workplace pensions. The central expectation is that trustees and scheme managers remain accountable for decisions and member outcomes even where AI-supported activities are delegated to administrators, service providers or advisers. Trustees and scheme managers are expected to understand where and how AI is used by or on behalf of their schemes, establish clear governance and accountability arrangements, assure themselves that third-party providers have robust controls, and carry out testing, assurance and ongoing monitoring at implementation and thereafter. They should identify AI-related risks, maintain and adapt controls, and respond to evolving fraud threats, including AI-enabled scams. TPR also expects schemes to maintain a clear data strategy, improve scheme and member data quality, comply with data protection requirements for automated decision-making and AI systems, and understand how AI models use and process data. The plan also links responsible AI adoption to innovation governance. Trustees, scheme managers and administrators are expected to seek proportionate professional advice when considering AI-enabled innovations, while firms pursuing new pensions business models or commercial opportunities should discuss them with TPR. TPR plans to publish guidance in 2026 on responsible AI adoption for pension schemes after industry engagement, work with the Financial Conduct Authority on regulatory alignment across the pensions sector and supply chain, and report annually on progress, barriers and future metrics for safe AI adoption.

Brazil's National Superintendence for Complementary Pensions has reviewed the development of a new artificial intelligence-based monitoring system designed to support analysis of the solvency and balance of closed complementary pension plans. The system is intended to accelerate supervisory monitoring by automating risk calculations for individual plans and supporting earlier identification of risks. The platform, developed by startup Murabei in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro's Institute of Mathematics, uses PREVIC databases to calculate plan-level risks and applies artificial intelligence to read complex documents, including actuarial valuations, explanatory notes and investment policies. It will assess assumptions used in liability pricing, produce technical critiques and project plan results over a three-year horizon. Official operations are expected to begin in September. PREVIC also plans a technical visit on June 11 to review development of an artificial intelligence system for analysing atypical investments at startup Finor in Porto Alegre, with auditors from the Federal Court of Accounts participating.

Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority has launched a consultation on draft amendments to securities business rules that would ease selected licensing and business commencement requirements, recalibrate minimum capital requirements, and update technology, Know Your Client and fit and proper obligations for capital market institutions. Notably, the draft would reduce the minimum capital requirement for custody activity to SAR 20 million from SAR 50 million, set a SAR 2 million minimum for arranging activities that involve holding client funds in securities-based crowdfunding, and introduce sub-activities under dealing with risk-based capital requirements. Dealing as principal, underwriting and executing transactions on a margin basis would require SAR 20 million, while dealing as agent would require SAR 10 million. The amendments would also remove some documents from licensing and commencement submissions, expand Information Technology Officer registration to institutions using technology platforms, require annual testing of arrangements for technology platform, technology system and information security risks, link KYC requirements to money laundering and terrorism financing risk classifications, and allow advising-only institutions to conduct other licensed professions or businesses subject to controls.

The Seychelles Financial Services Authority issued a public statement clarifying that stablecoins, in their current form and usage in the domestic market, are not classified as “virtual assets” under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act. As a result, stablecoins do not currently fall within the Act’s VASP licensing or regulatory requirements. The clarification is based on the Act’s definition of virtual assets, which excludes digital representations of fiat currencies, securities and other financial assets. The Authority said most stablecoins it currently observes are pegged to reference assets, are used mainly for value preservation, operate as digital representations of fiat value and are redeemable for equivalent underlying assets, rather than showing the price volatility or speculative trading features of open-market virtual assets. The statement separately notes that exchange, broking or dealing, custody and investment advice involving stablecoins may require a licence under the VASP Act depending on the scope of activities undertaken. It also highlights counterparty, reserve transparency, redemption, foreign regulatory, cybersecurity and operational risks, and encourages persons unsure of their regulatory position to seek guidance or a formal classification from the Authority.

The Ghana Ministry of Finance has inaugurated an inter-agency Technical Working Group to develop a comprehensive framework for the management of unclaimed funds, aiming to address fragmented arrangements for dormant and unclaimed financial assets. The work is intended to establish a single national pathway for citizens to trace and reclaim assets and to align standards across banking, pensions, insurance, securities and e-money services. Current arrangements differ across sectors in dormancy definitions, reporting standards and tracing mechanisms, with particular coordination gaps identified in insurance and pensions. Initial indications suggest the amounts involved run into billions of GHS. The group’s first task is to replace existing estimates with verified sector-by-sector data to create a national baseline. Its membership includes the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Ghana, National Pensions Regulatory Authority, Securities and Exchange Commission, SSNIT, National Communications Authority, National Identification Authority, the Attorney-General’s Department and other institutions. The mandate has also been expanded beyond regulated financial sectors to cover other unclaimed assets, including lottery and gaming winnings, court-awarded funds, intestacy-related property, public sector salary arrears and real estate. The Technical Working Group is expected to submit its framework within three months.

The New York State Department of Financial Services issued guidance identifying cybersecurity measures that regulated entities should consider when they become aware of a heightened threat environment, including risks arising from geopolitical events or technological developments such as the release of frontier AI models. The guidance does not establish new legal requirements and is intended to support risk management and compliance under 23 NYCRR Part 500. The guidance sets out non-exhaustive best practices across three areas: reducing the attack surface, improving threat detection and readiness, and strengthening resilience and response. Measures include reducing the attack surface by remediating known exploited vulnerabilities, restricting changes to multi-factor authentication enrollment, using phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication, and reviewing cloud configurations and privileged access. To improve detection and readiness, the guidance also points to validating secure programming practices, confirming that detection tools and logging are effective, and engaging critical third-party service providers. It further addresses resilience and response by covering the testing of backups and operational resilience procedures, as well as monitoring financial transactions, including virtual currency business activity, for compliance with sanctions and anti-money laundering requirements.

U.S. President Trump has signed an Executive Order requiring federal financial regulators to review existing rules, guidance, supervisory practices and application processes that may impede fintech innovation and competition. The review must identify changes that could support fintech partnerships with federally regulated institutions and streamline applications by eligible fintech firms for bank or credit union charters, deposit or share insurance, and other federal licenses, registrations and authorizations. The order applies to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Credit Union Administration, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Each regulator must complete its review within 90 days and take steps within 180 days, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, to encourage innovation while balancing safety and soundness, consumer and investor protection, market integrity, financial stability and oversight. The Federal Reserve is requested to conduct the same regulatory review and to evaluate access to Reserve Bank payment accounts and payment services by uninsured depository institutions and non-bank financial companies, including firms engaged in digital assets or other novel financial activities. Within 120 days, it is requested to report on its legal authority, options for expanded access subject to risk management requirements, legal impediments, and the respective roles of the Reserve Banks and the Federal Reserve Board. If existing law permits direct access for covered firms, the Federal Reserve is requested to establish transparent application procedures and decide complete applications within 90 days.

The Federal Reserve Board announced that Kevin Warsh has taken the oath of office as chairman and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, completing the leadership transition that followed his Senate confirmation. The Federal Open Market Committee also unanimously selected Warsh as its chairman. Warsh’s four-year term as Federal Reserve Board chairman ends on May 21, 2030, while his term as a Board member runs until January 31, 2040. His background spans central banking, economic policy, academia and finance. He previously served as a Federal Reserve Governor from 2006 to 2011, held White House economic policy roles from 2002 to 2006, and later worked at Stanford University and Duquesne Family Office."

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has released a package of prudential policy updates for federally regulated deposit-taking institutions, centred on liquidity preparedness, crypto-asset exposures, single-name concentration risk, interest rate risk in the banking book, and supervisory intervention. The package includes consultations on draft liquidity adequacy requirements, a new Internal Liquidity Adequacy Assessment Process guideline, targeted crypto-asset capital and liquidity treatment changes, revised large exposure limits for small and medium-sized banks, and Pillar 3 interest rate risk disclosures, alongside an updated Guide to Intervention for federally regulated deposit-taking institutions. The draft Liquidity Adequacy Requirements Guideline proposes targeted changes to high-quality liquid asset classifications, selected net stable funding ratio treatments, and related structural updates. The draft Internal Liquidity Adequacy Assessment Process Guideline would set expectations for institutions to assess, manage and report liquidity risk beyond minimum requirements, with proportionate expectations and a proposed three-year phased implementation. The crypto-asset proposal would recognize cross-exchange hedging for Group 2a crypto-assets traded on regulated exchanges of traditional financial assets when calculating capital requirements, while leaving the Group 2a risk weight and collateral eligibility unchanged. The revised large exposure guideline would apply to Category 1 and Category 2 small and medium-sized banks, set a 25% of Tier 1 capital limit for single counterparties or connected groups, and remove Category 3 small and medium-sized banks and foreign bank branches from the guideline. OSFI is also consulting on Pillar 3 amendments to incorporate the Basel Committee’s interest rate risk in the banking book disclosure standard for domestic systemically important banks and small and medium-sized banks, with enhanced disclosures limited to Category 1 small and medium-sized banks under a proportional approach. The updated intervention guide clarifies how OSFI and the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation coordinate across intervention stages 0 to 4 and reflects OSFI’s expanded integrity and security mandate, risk appetite and Supervisory Framework.