Global Regulator & Central Bank News Roundup

The South Korea Financial Services Commission has published a revision proposal for the Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on the Prevention of Loss Caused by Telecommunications-based Financial Fraud and Refund for Loss, setting out how victims of telecommunications-based financial fraud involving virtual assets would receive relief. The proposal follows a March amendment to the Act that added virtual assets to the scope of eligible assets for loss refunds. It establishes refund rules for stolen virtual assets and creates a mechanism to convert refunded virtual assets into money for victims who do not use virtual asset services. Under the proposal, stolen money would be refunded in money, while stolen virtual assets would be refunded in the same type and quantity of virtual asset. If the asset originally stolen differs from the asset shown in the fraudulent account when the account freeze takes effect, the refund would be made in the form of the asset shown on that account at that time. Where recoverable assets are mixed, the money portion would be paid in monetary value and the virtual asset portion would be paid at market value at the time the freeze takes effect. The proposal also designates entities that may sell virtual assets subject to refund and convert them into money for victims with no virtual asset experience or no account with a virtual asset service provider. Those entities must meet organizational and human resource criteria linked to user protection and damage relief functions. The revised decree is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2026.

The New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has opened a consultation on modernising the Financial Markets Conduct regime to reduce regulatory costs and uncertainty without weakening investor protection or market integrity. Alongside targeted reforms, it seeks views on whether the regime requires a more fundamental review to respond to the growth of private capital, digital financial products, asset tokenisation and artificial intelligence. The proposals are framed around more proportionate regulation, a stronger equity ladder for businesses at different stages of development and more globally competitive capital markets. Detailed options include shortening product disclosure statements, potentially relying more heavily on the Key Information Summary or a term sheet, and redesigning disclosure for digital use. The document also considers moving away from strict issuer liability for continuous disclosure, narrowing or replacing deemed director liability, raising or removing Catalist’s NZD 60 million entry and NZD 100 million exit thresholds, and reducing audit requirements for some Catalist and Unlisted Securities Exchange issuers. Further proposals include increasing the current NZD 2 million crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending cap, potentially through graduated limits or a per-investor cap, strengthening eligible investor certification while extending or removing its two-year renewal period, restricting public promotion of wholesale offers, and limiting auditor liability through a statutory cap or contractual arrangements. It also seeks evidence on whether weak broker research and limited visibility for smaller issuers warrant policy intervention.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission published the key themes and areas of focus from its Financial Markets and Innovation roundtable, which considered how Australia can maintain efficient, resilient and globally competitive capital markets while supporting innovation with appropriate investor protections. Four interconnected themes emerged: preparing Australia for more global markets, strengthening the foundations for growth, prioritising innovation that addresses practical problems and maintaining trust and investor protection. Participants highlighted the need to keep Australia attractive for listings and capital formation as investors gain easier access to global markets. Many called for modern and resilient market infrastructure before more transformational reforms, including improvements to fixed-income markets, collateral and over-the-counter settlement, domestic and offshore clearing, and equities clearing, trading and settlement systems. Innovation in areas such as real-time infrastructure, continuous trading, artificial intelligence, digital assets and tokenisation was discussed primarily in terms of its capacity to reduce friction, improve productivity and support capital formation. Views differed on issues including competing clearing and settlement offerings and the benefits of tokenisation, but participants broadly emphasised the need for clear regulatory settings, market-wide infrastructure access and safeguards for new products and technologies. The roundtable also highlighted risks from retail investors bypassing Australian protections, the blurring of investment with speculation or gambling, and technology amplifying poor outcomes. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will hold targeted industry workshops, engage with regulatory peers and reconvene participants to assess progress and practical next steps.

Further to its recommendations on managing emerging cybersecurity risks from frontier artificial intelligence systems released earlier in July, the Central Bank of the Philippines has issued Governance Principles for Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services for all financial institutions it supervises or registers. The non-binding principles set the central bank’s minimum supervisory expectations and recommend that institutions establish formal AI governance and risk management frameworks proportionate to the nature, scale, complexity and materiality of their AI systems, as well as their operational complexity and risk profile. The guidance also extends to outsourced service providers supporting AI activities under a shared responsibility model. The framework is organized around sustainability, transparency, accountability, responsibility and security, or STARS. Institutions are expected to maintain AI inventories and documentation, disclose relevant uses and limitations to users, preserve human oversight and clear ownership, protect against bias and unfair outcomes, respect data rights, and apply cybersecurity, data quality and incident response controls. The guidance maps these expectations across planning, development, validation, deployment and monitoring, including independent validation, production testing, business continuity arrangements and procedures to remediate or withdraw systems that do not perform as intended. Existing information technology risk management requirements continue to cover emerging technology risks, including information security, outsourcing and project management. A forthcoming model risk management framework will address algorithmic fairness and model risk across the model lifecycle, while the BSP will continue monitoring AI developments and may issue further regulations or policies when necessary.

The Astana Financial Services Authority has proposed a consolidated Shari’ah governance framework for entities providing or presenting financial services as Shari’ah-compliant in the Astana International Financial Centre. The framework would establish minimum requirements for Shari’ah Supervisory Boards, board secretariats, compliance functions, internal audits and external audits, while applying proportionality and aligning the regime with relevant Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions standards. The proposals would strengthen the independence, composition and oversight of Shari’ah Supervisory Boards, whose rulings would bind firms, and give the authority notification, objection and removal powers over appointments. Firms would need separate ex-ante Shari’ah compliance and ex-post internal audit functions, with the Shari’ah Compliance Officer designated as a Controlled Function and the Internal Shari’ah Auditor as a Designated Function. Internal audits would be required at least annually, external audit requirements would be phased in over up to five years, and Islamic windows would be subject to segregation, operational independence and ring-fencing requirements.

The European Central Bank has selected 36 payment service providers from across the euro area to join the digital euro pilot, a 12-month exercise due to start in the second half of 2027. The pilot will test the digital euro’s technical functionality, operational processes and user experience as part of the Eurosystem’s preparatory work for a potential issuance. It will use a beta version that is functionally and technically close to the digital euro envisaged in the draft legislation, but without legal tender status. The Eurosystem received more than 50 applications after its March 2026 call for expressions of interest. Selected participants include banks and non-bank providers and were chosen against pre-defined eligibility criteria, with the final group intended to provide a diverse mix of business models, sizes and geographic coverage. Some providers will act as distributing PSPs, giving ECB and national central bank staff access to beta digital euro services such as account set-up and payments, while others will act as acquiring PSPs serving selected merchants so they can receive beta digital euro payments. The pilot will run at the ECB and 19 euro-area national central banks, covering person-to-person and person-to-business payments online and offline, including physical point of sale, Software Point of Sale, e-commerce and mobile payments. Selected PSPs will now work with their respective national central banks and the ECB on preparations for the pilot.

The European Union's Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) has launched a consultation on draft regulatory technical standards that would give supervisors in every member state a common entity-level methodology for assessing and classifying the inherent and residual money laundering and terrorism financing risks of non-financial obliged entities. The framework would use sector-specific data points and a three-step process covering inherent risk, the quality of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism controls, and residual risk. Entities would be classified as low, medium, substantial or high risk to guide supervisory intensity and resource allocation. Reporting would be tailored by sector and reduced for small obliged entities, defined as having fewer than five full-time equivalent employees and annual turnover below EUR 600,000. These entities would provide a reduced set of inherent-risk information, while their controls score would default to their inherent-risk score unless supervisors hold information supporting an adjustment. Supervisors could require the full indicator set where a sector has elevated risk. Assessments would generally be annual, with reviews permitted at least every three years for entities already classified as low residual risk, while scores would have to be adjusted within six months of major operational changes or significant control weaknesses. The standards would apply from 31 December 2028 for most entities and from 31 December 2029 for professional football clubs and football agents. First assessments would be due by 31 December 2029 and 31 December 2030, respectively.

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority published a factsheet showing that EEA insurers and reinsurers held EUR 1.185 trillion in private credit and private equity at year-end 2025, equal to around 11% of total assets. Private equity accounted for EUR 661 billion, or 6.3% of total assets, while private credit represented EUR 523 billion, or 5.0%. Private credit exposures were concentrated in mortgages and loans, which made up 68.9% of the category, including direct mortgage holdings equal to 31.9%. Private equity was dominated by unlisted equity at 73.7%, with private equity funds accounting for 16.4% and unlisted equity held through funds for 9.9%. Life insurers had the highest private asset share at 23.1% of total investments and leaned toward private credit, while reinsurers, non-life insurers and composite insurers held more private equity. Unit-linked portfolios had limited exposure. EIOPA highlighted the need for supervisory attention to credit quality, liquidity risk, valuation uncertainty and concentration risk. It also cautioned that Solvency II data may not identify all private assets held through funds and may overstate some private equity exposures.

The European Banking Authority has launched a consultation on targeted amendments to the implementing technical standards for the 2027 market risk benchmarking exercise. The proposals would extend participation to institutions applying the CRR3 Alternative Standardised Approach (ASA), including institutions that do not use internal models, resume CRR2 Internal Model Approach (IMA) data collection after the 2026 pause and move the exercise to the second half of 2027. Mandatory CRR3 Alternative Internal Model Approach (AIMA) data collection would be deferred until further notice because initial adoption is expected to be limited. The expanded ASA scope is expected to increase participation from roughly 40 to about 100 institutions. The EBA proposes determining eligibility 12 months before the end of the exercise, which would bring into scope institutions applying the ASA at the end of October 2026 and meeting the relevant EUR 500 million market-risk business threshold. Institutions applying the ASA only to banking-book foreign exchange or commodity exposures under the Article 94 derogation would submit a limited set of validation portfolios for those asset classes. The package would also streamline the instrument portfolio, reorganize the reporting annexes and templates, and introduce simplified AIMA templates for potential future use.

HM Treasury has brought Buy-Now, Pay-Later products offered by third-party lenders into Financial Conduct Authority regulation, ending their previous exemption from consumer credit rules. The regime covers interest-free instalment credit generally repayable within 12 months and in no more than 12 instalments. Lenders must assess affordability before extending credit, while consumers gain enforceable refund rights for faulty goods and must be directed to debt advice and support when they enter financial difficulty rather than being moved immediately to debt collection. The wider framework gives borrowers access to the Financial Ombudsman Service and section 75 protections under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Firms are subject to FCA oversight, the Consumer Duty and conduct rules on arrears and forbearance. HM Treasury disapplied much of the Consumer Credit Act's prescriptive information regime, together with the automatic sanctions attached to those provisions, enabling the FCA to establish disclosure requirements tailored to a short-term, predominantly digital product. The framework also retains access to court-issued time orders and provides additional protections such as the Breathing Space debt respite scheme.

The Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has opened a consultation on a draft circular that would simplify requirements for collective investment schemes, their management companies and investment firms. The proposal would amend four existing circulars covering investor disclosures, internal controls, fee information and prospectus updates, while repealing nine circulars considered obsolete, redundant or no longer necessary. The draft would allow firms to evidence delivery of pre-subscription information according to their internal procedures and the delivery medium, and remove the CNMV investor position statement where MiFID II already provides equivalent quarterly reporting. For management companies, it would replace mandatory quarterly compliance and risk-management reports with periodic written reporting to all directors at least annually, while retaining immediate escalation of material issues. It would also clarify the reporting lines of control functions, establish governance requirements for related-party transaction controls and require internal audit reports to be available to the CNMV rather than routinely submitted. Further changes would remove national fee brochure provisions and clarify when certain broad or regulation-driven prospectus changes may be treated as non-essential, disclosed before taking effect and incorporated into the next prospectus update.

Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has issued initial guidance on implementing the Solvency II Review, with a primary focus on the new classification and approval framework for proportionality measures. In-scope insurers, reinsurers and groups may submit advance notifications or applications from Aug. 1, 2026, ahead of the revised rules taking effect on Jan. 30, 2027. Small and non-complex undertakings and groups may use up to 10 proportionality measures once classified through the notification process. Other insurers and groups may apply for up to seven measures, subject to prior BaFin approval. The measures include reduced review and reporting frequencies, governance simplifications, exemptions from short-term liquidity planning and selected simplified valuation and capital calculations. For advance classification notifications, BaFin will assess the 2024 and 2025 financial years and require confirmation that no planned strategic changes would cause the criteria to be breached in 2026 or the following three years. Applications filed early will become formal applications on Jan. 30, 2027 unless withdrawn by Jan. 29, and statutory decision periods will not begin before the revised rules take effect. Firms may use the measures only from Jan. 30 and after receiving BaFin's decision. BaFin also expects firms to incorporate sustainability risk plans into existing risk management policies and supervisory reporting rather than prepare a separate document for now. New requirements for deducting foreseeable dividends, distributions and charges from own funds will apply from Jan. 30, 2027, when BaFin will withdraw its 2017 interpretive decision. Existing quantitative reporting template exemptions are expected to continue in 2026, subject to firm-specific changes, and will be reviewed in 2027.

The Brazil Securities Commission has created a Tokenization Working Group to study, test and develop regulatory proposals for securities activities carried out on distributed ledger technology infrastructures. The group will cover registration, deposit, custody, trading and settlement of securities, with an initial focus on producing a proposal for an experimental regulatory regime for tokenized securities. The working group has an initial term of 120 days, extendable by 30 days. Its mandate includes comparative studies of domestic and international experience, review of regulatory sandbox results, engagement with regulators and market participants, and assessment of how distributed ledger technologies affect the functioning and structure of the capital markets. It will also examine cybersecurity issues, identify gaps in the current framework, coordinate prototype assessments in experimental environments and lay the groundwork for future regulation of securities tokenization. The group brings together representatives from 14 organizational units within the regulator and may also involve government bodies, self-regulatory organizations, market associations and invited experts. Within 60 days of its installation, the group must submit its proposal for an experimental regulatory regime to the CVM board. At the end of its work, it will deliver a final report setting out the activities conducted and recommendations made.

The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force has launched a series examining the stages of asset recovery, beginning with an article on asset identification and case initiation. The first installment explains that authorities should identify criminal property and property of corresponding value as early as possible and initiate proactive financial investigations, including parallel investigations alongside the underlying criminal case, before assets are dissipated, transferred or concealed. Drawing on the Financial Action Task Force's 2025 non-binding asset recovery guidance and standards, the article identifies financial intelligence, regulatory and administrative information, open-source material, cross-border currency controls and incoming foreign requests as key sources of leads. It stresses timely, lawful access to financial, beneficial ownership, tax, customs and asset registry information, effective use of Financial Intelligence Unit analysis, and domestic and international coordination. It also notes that Recommendation 32 requires declaration or disclosure systems for cross-border currency and bearer negotiable instruments at a maximum threshold of USD/EUR 15,000, with information available to Financial Intelligence Units and powers to restrain and confiscate illicit funds. The next article will examine asset tracing and the tools and techniques used to follow criminal assets.

The Dubai International Financial Centre has announced the incorporation of The Middle East Stablecoin Association (MESA) in the centre as a Non-Profit Incorporated Organisation. The move formalises MESA’s shift from an industry-led initiative to a registered regional platform focused on responsible stablecoin adoption through policy dialogue, education, research, standards development and international knowledge exchange. MESA is intended to convene stablecoin issuers, exchanges, banks, legal advisers, fintech infrastructure providers, venture capital firms, corporate treasury leaders and other market participants, while also engaging policymakers and regulators. The platform is positioned as operating in the public interest rather than promoting any individual organisation, with a stated focus on safe, transparent and interoperable growth of digital money across the Middle East.

The Bank of Central African States has joined the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, supporting the connection of financial institutions in the six Central African Economic and Monetary Community countries to the system’s wider African payment network. The integration will allow participating financial institutions to process and settle payments in African currencies without relying on third-party currencies or external intermediaries. The membership extends PAPSS to 28 African countries and strengthens its connection to the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, a market of more than 72 million people. The system connects more than 190 commercial banks and fintechs through 16 payment switches, with its extended network reaching more than 250 additional financial institutions. PAPSS and the Bank of Central African States will work through the end of 2026 to operationalise the membership, integrate financial institutions across the region and roll out services to businesses and individuals.

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates published the outcomes of an International Monetary Fund staff visit held ahead of the 2026 Article IV Consultation Mission. IMF staff assessed the UAE economy as resilient amid geopolitical conflict in the Middle East, supported by sound fundamentals, ample policy buffers, institutional preparedness, a swift policy response and targeted support measures. The banking sector remains strongly capitalized and liquid, with credit and deposits continuing to grow. Staff highlighted the Central Bank's Proactive Financial Institution Resilience Package, launched in mid-March, as supporting financial stability, institutional preparedness and operational continuity. Economic activity was also sustained by resilient trade, aviation and logistics sectors and strong domestic demand, while the fiscal balance is expected to remain in surplus and low public debt provides fiscal space.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and HM Treasury jointly published 10 recommendations from the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future to deepen U.S.-UK financial integration across capital markets and digital assets. The package seeks to ease cross-border capital raising, strengthen supervisory cooperation and clarify the regulatory treatment of tokenized finance. A joint stablecoin statement also supports cross-border use under comparable, risk-based regulatory outcomes. On digital assets, the two countries intend to engage a private sector-led group for one year to test cross-border tokenized-asset use cases and share best practices. Relevant authorities will seek common approaches to issues including settlement finality and the potential use of stablecoins and tokenized money market funds as margin collateral at central counterparties, while supporting a targeted Basel Committee review of cryptoasset prudential standards. The stablecoin principles call for stablecoins held out as money to be backed at least one-to-one by high-quality liquid assets, with timely redemption, segregated reserves and protected claims for holders in an issuer failure. The two countries will also explore pathways for stablecoins issued in either jurisdiction to access the other market. On capital markets, the Financial Conduct Authority and Securities and Exchange Commission will examine ways to reduce cross-border fundraising frictions, including the treatment of UK foreign private issuers and cooperation on consolidated tapes. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Financial Conduct Authority will consider replacing temporary relief for UK swap execution facilities with a longer-term substituted compliance determination and updating supervisory cooperation arrangements. Progress will be reported through the U.S.-UK Financial Regulatory Working Group.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed a rules-based framework that would allow issuers, broker-dealers, investment advisers and other regulated entities to use electronic delivery as the default method for providing information required under the federal securities laws. Regulation E-Delivery would remove the general need to obtain a recipient’s affirmative consent before switching from paper to electronic communications, reversing the current default and generally replacing the SEC’s decades-old, guidance-based approach. The proposal would apply broadly across the securities markets and cover core investor communications, including issuer and fund prospectuses, fund shareholder reports, proxy materials, trade confirmations, Form CRS disclosures and Form ADV Part 2 brochures. Electronic delivery would remain subject to specified requirements and conditions, while recipients would retain the right to request paper documents. The SEC expects the framework to support more timely, accessible, interactive and retainable disclosures and to reduce paper, printing and postage costs for issuers, intermediaries and, ultimately, investors. For recipients who currently receive regulatory information on paper, the proposal provides a transition process rather than an immediate conversion. They would receive two paper notices explaining the planned move to electronic delivery and their ability to opt out and continue receiving documents in paper form.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has published for comment three proposed reporting forms for FDIC-supervised permitted payment stablecoin issuers: a confidential weekly report for larger or more active issuers, a reduced weekly report for smaller issuers and a quarterly financial condition report for all issuers. The forms support the FDIC’s proposed implementation of the GENIUS Act by providing information to monitor reserve backing and other supervisory metrics, while standardizing public disclosure of issuers’ financial condition. The full weekly report, Form PS-01, would apply to issuers with at least USD 1 billion in outstanding issuance value or at least USD 100 million in average daily transaction volume in the prior month. Issuers below both thresholds could use the abridged Form PS-01a, although the FDIC could require the full form based on supervisory need. A separate weekly report would be required for each payment stablecoin brand. The quarterly report, Form PS-02, would apply to all issuers and cover their income, balance sheet, off-balance-sheet exposures, capital, operational backstop resources and key operational metrics. Quarterly information would be made public. The FDIC is seeking views on the scope and level of information requested, the eligibility criteria for the reduced weekly report and the most effective structured data format for submissions.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and National Credit Union Administration (NAIC) issued joint guidance reminding supervised financial institutions that lending to individuals not legally authorized to work in the United States may create elevated credit risk and should be addressed through existing safe and sound underwriting and risk-management practices. Institutions should assess whether uncertainty over employment authorization could undermine income stability, repayment capacity, collateral recovery or other credit-risk factors, including under scenarios involving interruptions to employment or income. The guidance highlights the need to evaluate repayment sources, the reliability and sustainability of income, collateral enforceability and portfolio concentrations, particularly where exposures are clustered in geographic markets, employers or industries vulnerable to immigration enforcement or workforce disruption. It also advises institutions to review the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's June 8, 2026 statement on ability to repay and immigration status in light of obligations under the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B. Consistent with applicable law, creditors may consider immigration status and, in some circumstances, information affecting a borrower's continuing ability to earn US-based employment income, while reflecting relevant risks in underwriting, account management, loan classification and allowances for credit losses.

The US Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have instituted a coordinated approach to handling highly sensitive information during examinations of supervised banks. Bank management may identify requested materials that warrant enhanced protection, allowing examiners to reduce agency collection and storage while retaining the access needed to conduct the examination. Potential safeguards include on-site review, direct digital review through a bank’s systems, redacted or summarized documents, and tighter controls over transmission and access. The approach may apply to materials such as network diagrams, detailed penetration test results, technical information on specific information technology control weaknesses and succession planning. Examiners may still obtain information for the supervisory record where necessary and approved through the supervisory chain, although redacted or summary versions may be accepted when legal requirements are met. The agencies will provide written guidance and training, notify banks at the start of examinations that they may flag highly sensitive information, and establish processes for escalating concerns about examiner determinations. They also committed to notify affected banks of a potential or confirmed material compromise of confidential supervisory information as soon as practicable and within 72 hours after the relevant agency has a reasonable basis to believe a compromise occurred and identifies the affected banks, subject to applicable legal constraints.

The Canadian Securities Administrators published findings from focused compliance examinations of 73 registered firms and updated guidance on cybersecurity practices. The review assessed firms against the control and supervision requirements in section 11.1 of National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations. Although a number of firms, particularly larger firms, had robust arrangements, the examinations found gaps across policies, employee training, risk assessments and controls, third-party oversight and incident response. Compliance feedback was provided to the firms concerned. The most common weaknesses were incomplete frameworks and inadequate documentation. Eight percent of firms had no written cybersecurity policies and 55% had policies requiring enhancement. Twenty-one percent provided no employee training, while 45% had risk assessments that could be more robust and 12% had no supporting risk assessment documentation. Third-party oversight was also deficient, with 41% needing stronger practices and 62% having no or limited documentation. Fifteen percent had no written incident response plan, 53% of existing plans could be strengthened and 63% should have been tested more regularly. The guidance expects firms to review and document cybersecurity policies at least annually, provide training at least annually and more frequently where risks warrant, and conduct documented risk assessments at least annually that identify vulnerabilities, controls and access rights. Firms should perform documented due diligence on service providers before onboarding and throughout the relationship while retaining responsibility for outsourced activities. They should also maintain and regularly test incident response plans, prepare for incidents at third parties, and test data backups and recovery. Expectations are proportionate to each firm's size and complexity.

The Canadian Securities Administrators has published a consultation on modernizing securities rules for non-investment fund reporting issuers, focusing on whether obligations should be more closely calibrated to issuer size and complexity and whether capital raising and disclosure requirements can be streamlined. It seeks views on retaining the exchange-based distinction between venture and non-venture issuers, making targeted adjustments, replacing it with metrics such as assets, revenue, market capitalization or public float, or requiring larger venture issuers to graduate to non-venture markets. Other areas include a modified application of certain IFRS Accounting Standards for a subset of venture issuers, a comprehensive review of the four-month hold period for prospectus-exempt securities, and a potential qualified institutional purchaser exemption. The proposed exemption would allow eligible Canadian-listed reporting issuers to distribute securities through registered dealers to qualifying Canadian institutional investors without a hold period, subject to issuer eligibility, purchaser intent, dealer recordkeeping, exempt distribution reporting and first-trade conditions. The CSA is also considering whether a designated news release containing all required information could replace a separate material change report, whether specified events should automatically trigger material change disclosure, and how U.S. proposals on semiannual reporting, offering reform and scaled disclosure should inform Canadian changes.