Global Regulator & Central Bank News Roundup

The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have completed the first phase of their review of wider distributed ledger technology use in Hong Kong's fixed income market. The review found that Hong Kong's legal and regulatory framework is already flexible enough to support tokenised bond issuance, based on the government's three tokenised bond deals and a growing number of corporate issuances, including by Asian and Middle Eastern issuers. To reduce legal uncertainty, the Companies Registry has also issued FAQs confirming that a register of debenture holders maintained using DLT can satisfy record keeping requirements under the Companies Ordinance. The first phase also identified legal issues that need further clarification or enhancement to support broader market adoption. The authorities highlighted the need to address how DLT fits into existing fixed income market processes and to give market participants greater certainty over operational and legal treatment. In the second half of 2026, the review will move to a legislative phase focused on the flexibilities and law changes needed for more extensive DLT use in fixed income and digital assets more broadly. Areas under examination include allowing electronic execution of issuance documents for tokenised bonds, including recognition of electronic signatures for trusts linked to tokenised bonds and funds, and clarifying how concepts such as possession and transfer should apply to tokenised fixed income instruments.

The Central Bank of the Philippines has published the Project Agila report, identifying tokenized financial securities settlement and large-value institutional cross-border payments as priority areas for further wholesale central bank digital currency exploration. The report concludes that distributed ledger technology and tokenization are technically feasible for issuing central bank money and enabling inter-institutional transfers beyond normal business hours, including when PhilPaSS Plus is unavailable. Project Agila tested a wholesale CBDC lifecycle using Oracle’s Hyperledger Fabric-based platform, covering creation, issuance, inter-institutional transfers, redemption and retirement. Testing showed potential benefits for liquidity management through real-time settlement, automation and programmability, and found that the system could process 105,000 transactions daily, with each transfer completing within 5,000 milliseconds. The report also identifies areas requiring further work, including transaction finality arrangements, notification mechanisms, integration with PhilPaSS Plus and other financial market infrastructures, scalability for higher-volume use cases, cybersecurity controls, access management, legal recognition and regulatory standards. Moving forward, the Central Bank will develop a CBDC strategic roadmap, define policy goals and success measures for prospective use cases, and continue engagement with payment system stakeholders, foreign central banks, multilateral organizations and central banks with advanced CBDC work. The next phase will focus on validating use cases, expanding testing, and assessing the policy, legal, supervisory, regulatory, cybersecurity and risk management implications of wholesale CBDC deployment.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and industry participants have published a white paper proposing Safeguards for Agentic Finance at Runtime, an industry-developed framework for governing AI agents that initiate financial actions autonomously. SAFR addresses the shift from AI as decision support to AI agents that can act in live financial systems, where traditional pre-deployment model validation, retrospective audit and ad hoc human review may not prevent problematic actions before execution. The framework operates as a runtime governance layer between an AI agent and the systems on which it acts. Before execution, each proposed action is packaged into a governance envelope containing the action, the agent’s action trace and relevant context metadata. SAFR then verifies agent identity, checks the proposed action against institution-configured controls, applies a disposition engine and records the outcome in a tamper-evident audit log. The disposition engine produces one of four outcomes: deny, escalate, auto-execute or observe, with calibration based on factors such as reversibility, financial materiality, customer impact, regulatory sensitivity and anomaly signals. SAFR is presented as an industry reference model rather than regulatory guidance or supervisory expectations. It is intended to work alongside existing compliance platforms, payment rails, settlement protocols and model-level safety tools, rather than replace them. The paper sets out native and gateway integration models and describes use cases across payments and treasury operations, wealth management and advisory workflows, client engagement, corporate banking and insurance. Industry partners are invited to join the BuildFin.ai work group, while the Future of Finance Institute will support pilots and sandbox experimentation for SAFR-aligned solutions.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has published the findings of its first System Risk Stress Test, the first APRA stress test to span multiple regulated industries. Covering the four major banks and six large superannuation funds, the exercise found that all participating entities were able to withstand a severe hypothetical market and liquidity shock. Resilience was supported by strong and usable bank liquidity buffers, banks’ access to central bank facilities and superannuation funds’ ability to access liquidity in deep international markets. The test also showed that superannuation funds could act as a stabilising force by providing new equity capital to banks during a severe downturn even while facing stress themselves. The exercise also identified vulnerabilities that could amplify stress across the financial system. These included concentration in some banks’ reliance on superannuation funding, differing assumptions across participants about how stable superannuation-provided deposits and wholesale funding would be in a crisis, and common dependence on material service providers that could hinder liquidity and risk-management actions if disrupted. Superannuation funds’ modeled responses to liquidity stress relied mainly on selling listed equities while avoiding unlisted asset sales, leaving some members, especially in MySuper options, more exposed to liquidity, valuation and sequencing risks linked to unlisted assets. Some funds also indicated they may reduce capital injections into existing investments or limit new commitments in some unlisted markets, while banks’ modeled responses included reduced credit availability in some segments and less market lending activity. APRA also highlighted that the continued growth and maturation of the superannuation sector could increase systemic vulnerabilities through larger retirement-phase liquidity demands and greater foreign exchange risk as offshore investment rises. The findings will inform APRA’s supervisory work and proposed amendments to bank liquidity rules that are due for consultation during 2026.

The Australian Department of the Treasury has published an options paper seeking feedback on reforms to the regulation of accounting, auditing and consulting firms, with the main focus on lifting audit quality, independence and accountability. Treasury says feedback from earlier consultation and more recent events points to regulatory gaps around auditor independence and ethics, firm culture, firm-wide monitoring and internal controls, and the prioritisation of audit quality. The paper sets out options for government consideration rather than settled policy. The proposals are grouped across six areas. On accountability, Treasury outlines options to require reporting entities to obtain audits only from firms licensed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, with ongoing quality management, ethical and governance obligations, to impose ongoing professional conduct obligations on registered company auditors, and to apply fit and proper requirements to all partners in multidisciplinary firms. On structural conflicts, options range from banning audit firms from providing non-audit services to audit clients, to operational separation of audit practices, to full structural separation of audit and non-audit businesses. The paper also proposes new governance requirements for large audit firms, possible limits on accounting partnerships or a requirement that audits be provided through authorised audit companies, more frequent ASIC audit reviews with published findings, civil penalties and stronger administrative and disciplinary powers, and measures to increase market dynamism through disclosure of auditor tenure, mandatory tendering every 10 years and possible audit firm rotation after 20 years.

The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs has released a broad suite of new and updated anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism guidance as it takes over as the country’s sole AML/CFT supervisor. The package comprises 22 guidance documents and supporting materials and is intended to give reporting entities clearer expectations on how to meet their obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. The release spans core compliance and onboarding topics, including a general compliance guide and a quick-start guide, as well as updated material on risk assessments, country risk, territorial scope and the meaning of acting in the ordinary course of business. It also refreshes customer due diligence guidance across beneficial ownership, companies, trusts, limited partnerships, acting on behalf arrangements, clubs and societies, co-operatives, sole traders and partnerships, outsourcing and reliance on another reporting entity. Other updates cover designated business groups, audit expectations, wire transfers and prescribed transaction reporting for designated non-financial businesses and professions and non-bank financial institutions, and a new class exemption guidance note for the New Zealand Financial Crime Prevention Network. The package follows updated AML/CFT compliance programme and enhanced customer due diligence guidance issued in June to support implementation of the AML/CFT Amendment Act 2026. Further guidance is due in the coming months, alongside webinars, industry outreach and targeted engagement to support implementation.

The New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has taken over from the Commerce Commission as the regulator for the consumer credit sector, making it the single conduct regulator for financial markets in New Zealand. The change was enabled by the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Amendment Act 2026 and centralises conduct oversight for credit, with the authority framing the shift as bringing clearer rules, enhanced regulatory tools and more streamlined regulation for lenders and consumers. In its initial phase, the Financial Markets Authority will build on the expectations previously set by the Commerce Commission and focus on three areas. These are lending practices, particularly suitability and affordability assessments, remuneration structures and the management of conflicts of interest, and complaints handling processes.

Indonesia's Ministry of Finance said the government and the House of Representatives have started discussing a draft law to create the Indonesia International Financial Center, or PFII. The proposal would establish a specially designated area within Indonesia for financial sector businesses, supporting financial services activities and other economic activity linked to an international financial center ecosystem. The ministry framed the bill as a way to attract investment, deepen the domestic financial sector, support financial innovation and strengthen Indonesia's position as an international financial hub. Under the draft law, PFII would remain part of Indonesia and subject to national sovereignty, but would receive special treatment intended to make the regime more competitive for global financial business. That includes facilitation in immigration, employment, residency, licensing and taxation. The government also proposes a dedicated PFII court with authority to hear, try and decide disputes related to business activity in PFII, as well as international commercial disputes connected to the area, to provide greater legal certainty for international market participants. The ministry also linked the bill to Article 248A of Law No. 4 of 2026, which amended Law No. 4 of 2023 on Development and Strengthening of the Financial Sector.

The Central Bank of the Solomon Islands has announced the start of development work on its Unified QR Code Standard Project, in partnership with the Australian Government, after Phase 2 of the initiative was endorsed. The project aims to create a single national QR code standard so consumers and businesses can make and receive payments through one interoperable format across the market. The measure is intended to support interoperable retail payments infrastructure in Solomon Islands and reduce frictions in day-to-day transactions. Phase 2 will involve co-developing technical standards and business rules with financial sector stakeholders, including banks and other payment providers. The central bank linked the project to broader digital payments adoption and financial inclusion goals. Next steps will focus on technical integration with financial sector participants that are ready, followed by pilot testing to validate functionality and interoperability. A gradual rollout to merchants and consumers is planned, alongside public awareness and education efforts on the system’s use and benefits.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched a Common Supervisory Action on the risk management function of UCITS management companies and Alternative Investment Fund Managers across the European Union. Running through 2026 and 2027 with National Competent Authorities, the exercise will assess compliance with key risk-related requirements under the UCITS and Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive frameworks, with particular attention to the effectiveness, independence and expertise of firms' risk management functions. Supervisory work will focus on three areas: the governance and organisation of the risk management function, the identification, measurement and monitoring of risks, and reporting to senior management and governing bodies. The review will use a common assessment framework developed by ESMA that sets the scope, methodology, supervisory expectations and timeline, with the aim of supporting a consistent supervisory approach across the EU. ESMA also said National Competent Authorities will share knowledge and supervisory experience through the exercise. ESMA plans to publish a final report on the results of the exercise in 2028.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final report on simplifying EU transaction reporting, recommending a staged move toward a report once model across MiFIR, EMIR and SFTR. The proposed framework would replace fragmented and duplicative reporting with a single modular structure that allows transaction data to be reported once and reused across authorities and supervisory mandates. The report identifies frequent and unsynchronised regulatory changes, duplicative reporting across frameworks and channels, and dual-sided reporting with reconciliation processes as key cost drivers. ESMA estimates that the report once scenario could generate annual net savings of EUR 250 million to EUR 1.0 billion, reduce recurring costs by about 22% to 24%, and deliver 10-year discounted cumulative net benefits of EUR 1.2 billion to EUR 4.9 billion. Implementation costs are expected to be recovered within three to four years. Alongside the long-term reform, ESMA proposes intermediate measures covering delegated reporting, intragroup exemption procedures and targeted reductions of low-value or duplicative requirements. ESMA will engage with EU institutions on the recommendations, with the integrated model requiring targeted legislative changes, phased implementation and further dialogue with industry technical experts.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published revised Guidelines on product oversight and governance for retail banking products, clarifying how existing product governance standards apply when products with environmental, social and governance features are offered or sold to consumers. The amendments are aimed at embedding ESG and greenwashing considerations into the product lifecycle, from design and approval to distribution and review, so that sustainability-related features are aligned with the interests, objectives and characteristics of the target market and do not mislead consumers. The revised Guidelines require manufacturers’ management bodies to establish processes to identify and prevent greenwashing practices and to manage and monitor risks arising from greenwashing or perceived greenwashing. They also make ESG features relevant to target market identification, product design, staff competence, distributor selection and the information manufacturers provide to distributors. For products with ESG features, sustainability-related communications must be fair, clear and not misleading, while sustainability claims must be accurate, substantiated, up to date, understandable and fairly represent either the institution’s overall profile or the relevant product profile. Distributors must take account of the manufacturer’s information, disclose the product’s main characteristics, risks and total price to consumers, and ensure sustainability communications and claims meet the same standards when offering or selling the product.

The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) has finalized three sets of standards to harmonize how financial intelligence units exchange information across the EU and how information is reported to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). Two standards establish common formats for reporting to the EPPO, covering FIU analysis reports and AMLA joint analysis reports where there are reasonable grounds to suspect offences within the EPPO’s competence. The third standard sets common templates for FIU-to-FIU exchanges, including spontaneous exchanges, requests, responses, feedback, cross-border disseminations and cross-border reports. The EPPO reporting standards require structured templates with mandatory and discretionary fields, submission in a machine-readable format such as XML, and secure electronic communication channels that preserve confidentiality and integrity. The templates also require AMLA and FIUs to state any restrictions on use, including whether information may be used for judicial purposes, intelligence purposes, cooperation in criminal matters or is subject to other limits. The FIU-to-FIU standard embeds templates into FIU.net, keeps FIU.net as the channel for FIU cooperation, and simplifies consent by making broad consent the default unless the disclosing FIU applies restrictions. The standards have been submitted to the European Commission for adoption and publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. EPPO reporting rules apply from 10 July 2027, while machine-readable reporting requirements and full FIU.net integration follow by 10 July 2028.

Switzerland's Federal Department of Finance will submit a report to the Federal Council by the end of 2027 on how to optimise Swiss financial market regulation. The review will cover both financial market rules and the supervisory framework, with the stated aim of reducing administrative burden and removing duplications while maintaining stability, integrity, client protection, well-functioning markets and competitiveness. To support the work, the department has created an external working group led by Monica Mächler, a financial market law expert and former vice chair of FINMA. Other members are Rashid Bahar, Mirjam Eggen, Reto Föllmi and Hans Kuhn. The review is framed as part of broader international efforts to modernise financial market regulation, including discussions in bodies such as the Financial Stability Board. It does not cover banking stability measures currently being discussed in Parliament or planned by the Federal Council. After a preparatory phase, the working group will consult the relevant sectors and authorities and deliver its analysis and recommendations to the department. Those findings will feed into the department's report to the Federal Council, together with recommendations for follow-up work, by the end of 2027. In a separate statement, FINMA welcomed the initiative. It pointed out that it is already seeking to improve the efficiency of its supervisory work and simplify interactions with supervised institutions within the existing regulatory framework. As examples, it highlighted a fast-track process for traditional Swiss investment funds and said the average total time to authorise Swiss funds, including applicants' external processing time, is around 25 days, about one-third of the time customary in other major financial centres. It also said authorisation times for insurance intermediaries have been reduced significantly, partly through digital solutions.

The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority and Danmarks Nationalbank published the results of a sector-level operational resilience stress test conducted with 11 financial sector firms in 2025. The test focused on the securities area and examined how the sector could collectively manage an extreme but plausible IT incident affecting critical societal functions, with emphasis on continuity, recovery and coordinated crisis response. The scenario involved a prolonged attack in which trading data was gradually manipulated over several weeks before detection, creating potential uncertainty over backups and complicating recovery. The exercise combined tabletop work, live scenario management and structured questionnaires, and tested how firms’ local contingency arrangements interacted with the sector’s shared crisis response. Key lessons included the need for clearer roles, responsibilities and decision-making powers when local and sector-level crisis arrangements run in parallel, stronger coordination of external crisis communications, and more developed joint processes for maintaining, restoring and reopening critical business processes when data, infrastructure and dependencies cut across multiple actors. Three follow-up initiatives have been launched: a shared playbook for a securities-area disruption scenario, stronger coordinated external crisis communication across the sector and authorities, and reinforcement of collective preparedness across relevant scenarios. The initiatives are intended to support, rather than replace, the operational resilience and contingency responsibilities of individual system actors.

The Bank of France announced that it, the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems and the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority have signed an agreement to strengthen information sharing and cooperation on information systems security in the financial sector. The arrangement is designed to support the three authorities’ complementary mandates as cyber risk to the financial system intensifies, and to reinforce coordination under the Digital Operational Resilience Act and the Network and Information Security 2 Directive. The agreement covers exchanges and cooperation on cyber incidents and threats, supervisory checks and mutual assistance, cyber crisis management, and threat-led penetration testing. Under the framework, the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems will oversee application of NIS 2 and, through CERT-FR, handle the technical response to cybersecurity incidents affecting the financial sector. The Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority is responsible for compliance with DORA by supervised firms, while the Bank of France is responsible in particular for the resilience of financial infrastructures. NIS 2 entered into force in January 2023 and is to be transposed nationally through a future Resilience Law, while DORA has applied since January 2025 as the sector-specific framework for financial entities.

The Spanish Securities Commission (CNMV) has opened a simplification mailbox to collect proposals on circulars, guidance and supervisory practices that may create unnecessary burdens or go beyond legal requirements, as well as comments on measures already implemented. The channel is one of 31 initiatives in the supervisory simplification plan presented in December 2025, which is intended to improve the efficiency of the regulatory and supervisory framework, reduce administrative burdens and strengthen proportionality in supervision. A first-half 2026 review shows that 58 percent of the plan has been implemented, with 19 percent in progress and 23 percent still dependent on regulatory changes. Progress has focused on faster procedures, lower documentation requirements and better information management. Measures cited include a significant reduction in documentation requested from the central securities depository, a cut in conduct rules reporting from quarterly to semiannual, the removal or simplification of recurring reports such as inspection follow-up reports, and an extension from two to four years for updating recovery plans of investment firms. The review also notes some improvement in processing times in specific cases, including registration of sustainability annexes to collective investment institution prospectuses through a self-declaration process, although it says the time elapsed since implementation is too short to draw representative conclusions. The review also identifies practical challenges. In some cases, the proposed simplification measures did not work and previous procedures were retained, while in others firms continued submitting information that was no longer required. The Commission indicates that some initiatives still hinge on regulatory changes and that more time is needed to fully assess the effect on processing times.

The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) has launched a national cash access map showing every ATM and cash service point in the country and has opened a new process for the public to report suspected local deficiencies in access to cash. The measures form part of the implementation of the Finance (Provision of Access to Cash Infrastructure) Act 2025. Under the framework, the Central Bank will assess each notification, consider local circumstances and the proportionality of remediation, and, where it finds that additional infrastructure is needed, notify the designated entities responsible for addressing the issue. The Central Bank said data for March 2026 show overall cash infrastructure is broadly aligned with the criteria set by the Minister for Finance, with around 4,000 ATMs and about 1,200 cash service points nationwide. It added that local access problems can still arise, which the new framework is designed to address. The designated entities currently responsible for remediation are AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB.

Sweden's Riksbank has expanded the availability of offline card payments in stores from 1 July 2026, allowing more consumers to pay for essential goods even when data communications are unavailable. The change is intended to strengthen payment system resilience and follows an agreement between the Riksbank and market participants covering card issuers, card networks, acquirers and parts of the retail sector. The expanded functionality covers the vast majority of Visa and Mastercard cards issued to people aged 18 or over by issuers that have joined the agreement. It applies to purchases of essential goods such as food, medicines and fuel at manned petrol stations, including during serious disruptions, cyberattacks, peacetime crises or a state of heightened alert. The function works only with physical cards and a PIN. The agreement was reached in October 2025, and the parties have since implemented the technical and regulatory changes needed to support the rollout. The arrangement currently includes seven issuing banks, Visa, Mastercard, four card acquirers and major retail and fuel sector participants, while the Riksbank is encouraging additional issuers to join. As a next step, the Riksbank has started a project with Getswish and relevant companies to examine during the year whether offline functionality can also be introduced for the Swish payment service.

Norway's Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) has launched Tilsynsportalen, a new digital entry point for supervisory reports published from 2025 onward. The portal is designed to make those reports easier to use by allowing users to search, filter and compare them across areas such as supervisory fields, firms, themes, legal references, sanctions and fees, while also surfacing assessments and findings from the reports. The content is structured using artificial intelligence and quality assured by the authority. Tilsynsportalen has been released as a beta version and will be updated on an ongoing basis. It is intended as a navigation tool only, and the original supervisory report remains authoritative.

The Central Bank of Chile has issued rules that allow credit, debit and prepaid cards to be used in mass public transport through offline validation at the point of entry. The framework is designed to let existing pilot programs continue while setting minimum nationwide conditions on security, risk management and user information. It allows passengers to pay when boarding a bus, metro, train or other mass transit service even if balance verification, authorization and final settlement occur later. The change aligns prudential rules for payment cards with the operational needs of public transport systems, where rapid validation is needed to avoid delays at access points. Required safeguards include same-day checks on card status to identify blocked cards or cards without sufficient funds, and denial lists that temporarily prevent further transactions on problematic cards. Under the Central Bank of Chile's four-party card model, the mass public transport system, acting as an affiliated entity, must also make repeated collection attempts on cards used without sufficient funds. The rules do not prescribe technical specifications, leaving those to each transport system's operational design and to the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications within its legal remit. They also allow issuers to seek full or partial exclusion of their cards from the offline validation scheme if it is not compatible with their business model.

Bolivia's Financial System Supervisory Authority has deployed nationwide controls on exchange houses focused on the purchase and sale of U.S. dollars, with inspections aimed at enforcing official exchange rate requirements and preventing speculative practices in foreign exchange transactions. Supervisors are checking that authorized exchange houses display dollar purchase and sale rates on public information boards. Some establishments with blank exterior boards were instructed to post prices immediately. The controls also verify compliance with the required margin of 10 boliviano cents between buy and sell prices relative to the official exchange rate published by the Central Bank of Bolivia. The authority also identified establishments conducting foreign-exchange activities without the required operating license. Those businesses were closed immediately, with legal action to follow in cases of recurrence.

South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) published its Three-Year Regulation Plan for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029. The roadmap sets the next phase of South Africa’s market conduct regulatory reform agenda, while carrying forward the main priorities from the 2025 plan. Revisions include updated timelines, the removal of completed projects and new deliverables for 2028 to 2029. A central priority is the transition to a harmonised, outcomes- and principles-based framework under the Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill. Across the conduct framework, the work programme prioritizes support for the COFI Bill and the Financial Markets Act review. Cross-sector standards will address licensing, governance, outsourcing, beneficial ownership, operational resilience, cloud computing and data offshoring. Sector-specific work will continue for payment services, collective investment schemes, alternative investment funds and retirement funds. In financial markets, the FSCA will advance reforms covering central clearing eligibility, non-bank over-the-counter derivatives provider capital and risk requirements, market infrastructure standards, benchmark regulation, short sale reporting, securities financing transactions, credit rating agencies and trade repository reporting obligations. Strategic focus areas may lead to further regulatory interventions as policy work develops. These include sustainable finance, open finance, artificial intelligence, data risk, the JIBAR to ZARONIA transition and the transfer of prudential responsibilities for retirement funds, collective investment schemes and friendly societies to the Prudential Authority.

The Bank of Ghana launched a Sustainable Finance Roadmap that creates a common framework for Ghana’s financial regulators to coordinate their approach to sustainable finance across banking, insurance, securities and pensions. The roadmap moves existing sustainability initiatives into a systemwide structure focused on embedding sustainability in financial sector operations, managing climate-related risks and mobilising capital for sustainable investment. The framework is anchored on three pillars: Environmental, Social and Governance Integration, Climate-Related Risk Management, and Financing Sustainability. It sets out practical actions for the relevant regulators and links implementation to Ghana’s broader objective of strengthening financial resilience, accessing climate and development finance, supporting the energy transition, deepening financial markets and positioning the country as a regional hub for sustainable finance. The roadmap builds on the Bank of Ghana’s earlier work, including the 2019 Sustainable Banking Principles and Sector Guidance Notes, a compliance measurement framework developed in 2021, the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan on Sustainability and Climate-Related Risks, and the Climate-Related Financial Risk Directive. Compliance with the Sustainable Banking Principles reached an industry average of 73 percent as of September 2025.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) published its first Conduct Supervisory Pulse, setting out findings from Q1 2026 deep-dive supervisory engagements on personal account dealing arrangements across brokerage firms in the Dubai International Financial Centre. The review found stronger frameworks where firms used tailored policies, centralised pre-trade approvals, periodic compliance monitoring, clear escalation of breaches and management information for senior management and Board oversight. It also identified areas requiring enhancement, including narrow or outdated policies, over-reliance on employee declarations, limited post-trade monitoring and weak record keeping. The review comes amid rapid growth in the DIFC brokerage sector, with authorised brokerage firms increasing from 49 in 2022 to 72 in March 2026, DIFC-located headcount nearly doubling, and combined profitability rising from USD 80 million in 2023 to USD 301 million in 2025. The DFSA said personal account dealing frameworks should remain proportionate to firms’ business activities, products, employee roles and risk profiles, and should support broader trading oversight and market conduct risk management. The remaining phases of the DFSA’s brokerage thematic review will focus on best execution, and communication channels and record keeping. Firms may be asked in future supervisory engagements to show how they have considered the findings and whether they have implemented appropriate enhancements.

The Bank of Israel Banking Supervision Department published a new Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive establishing a proportional supervisory framework for small and new banks. The directive moves the supervisory regime toward a graduated model that calibrates regulatory requirements to a bank’s size, activities and systemic importance, creating a broader framework for reducing entry barriers while maintaining banking system stability, customer fairness and adequate service. The framework replaces the 2020 directive for new banks and banks in formation, expands the adjustments previously available and extends proportional treatment to existing banks according to their characteristics. It establishes three permanent tiers based on total assets: up to NIS 15 billion, above NIS 15 billion and below NIS 50 billion, and above NIS 50 billion. Banks crossing the NIS 15 billion or NIS 50 billion thresholds may receive transition periods of up to two years before moving to the next tier. Newly licensed banks may also use preparatory phases of up to three years, with possible extensions of up to two additional years, subject to the relevant asset and deposit limits. The directive provides relief and adjustments across capital, leverage and liquidity requirements, concentration and borrower limits, board composition, organizational structure, outsourcing, risk management tools and flexible business models for small and digital banks. It sits within broader Bank of Israel measures to support competition and reduce switching barriers, including account portability, open banking, support for new banks, the credit data registry and comparative interest-rate disclosures.

Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority (CMA) has issued a board decision allowing listed joint-stock companies on the Saudi Exchange to early adopt IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements during 2026. Mandatory application will still begin for financial reporting periods starting on or after 1 January 2027. The move gives issuers a transition window for the new presentation and disclosure standard, which covers the statement of financial performance, aggregation and disaggregation principles, and management-defined performance measures. During 2026, companies that choose early adoption may announce financial statements prepared under IFRS 18 and disclose the effect of that adoption on the Saudi Exchange website. However, they must continue to prepare their approved financial statements under IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and publish those through Tadawul's designated electronic systems to meet statutory disclosure requirements. In addition, listed companies must disclose a preliminary assessment of the expected impact of first-time application of IFRS 18 in their approved interim and annual financial statements for financial periods beginning on or after 1 April 2026.

The Bank of Cape Verde has opened a public consultation on a preliminary set of technical criteria to make Cabo Verde’s sustainability taxonomy operational. The proposal, presented as version 1 of the national taxonomy, covers eligible activities in the energy and water and wastewater sectors and is designed to determine when an entity or investment can be classified as sustainable under the legal regime approved in May 2026. That regime established a taxonomy with six environmental objectives and one social objective, but requires technical criteria before it can be applied in practice. The draft adopts a phased approach and starts with climate mitigation and climate adaptation criteria for sectors identified as strategic, investment-intensive and ready for objective assessment. It uses a binary classification model, under which an activity is either taxonomy-aligned or not, and requires five conditions for alignment: substantial contribution to at least one environmental objective, no significant harm to the others, compliance with minimum social safeguards, satisfaction of the relevant technical screening criteria and supporting documentation. In energy, the proposal covers renewable electricity generation, electricity and thermal storage, transmission and distribution, efficient cooling and hot water systems, and demand-side efficiency measures. In water and wastewater, it covers water abstraction, treatment and supply systems, leak reduction and efficiency upgrades, rainwater harvesting, desalination, recycled water, wastewater collection and treatment, and strategic storage and resilience infrastructure. The criteria include measurable thresholds in some areas, including life-cycle emissions below 100 gCO2e/kWh for certain electricity activities, minimum 20% energy savings for many efficiency upgrades, minimum 30% savings for lighting upgrades, minimum 20% reductions in water losses or system energy use for water network renovations, a desalination emissions cap of 1080 gCO2e per cubic meter of freshwater produced, and a wastewater treatment benchmark of no more than 45 kWh per population equivalent per year. The taxonomy is intended to be updated periodically and expanded over time to additional sectors, with the draft identifying areas such as transport, buildings, tourism, fisheries and the blue economy, waste management and agriculture for future development.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requested public comment on how exchange-traded funds should be regulated when they seek exposure to newer or more complex assets and strategies. These products include ETFs linked to areas such as crypto assets, commodities, single stocks, higher leverage, blockchain-related opportunities, private assets and event contracts. The SEC is asking whether the existing framework gives enough clarity to fund sponsors, investors and exchanges as the ETF market expands into products that may not fit neatly within traditional fund regulation. The request focuses on three practical questions. First, the SEC asks when a novel ETF should be treated as an investment company, meaning a fund subject to the core federal rules that apply to registered funds, even if the ETF mainly invests in assets that may not be securities. Second, it asks whether the main ETF operating rule should be changed. That rule currently lets qualifying ETFs operate without obtaining an individual SEC exemption and supports the process that helps keep ETF trading prices close to the value of their underlying portfolios. Third, it asks whether the ETF registration process gives SEC staff enough time and authority to review novel products before they launch, since some filings can become effective automatically after set waiting periods. The SEC also asks whether investors need clearer disclosures about how novel ETFs differ from more conventional ETFs, whether exchange-traded products that are not registered investment companies should use the ETF label, and whether the rules should address rapid copycat filings, unused fund series, unresolved staff comments and material changes to an ETF’s strategy during review or shortly before launch.