Corporate Legal Update for the Month of September 2023

On the 1^st of September 2023, Legal Notice 208 of 2023 was published in the Supplement to the Government Gazette by the title of the Financial Collateral Arrangements (Amendment) Regulations (hereinafter referred to as the “Amendment Regulations”). The scope of these Amendment Regulations is to transpose the contents of article 89 of EU Regulation 2021/23 on a framework for the recovery and resolution of central counterparties, which provision amended  Directive 2002/47/EC on financial arrangements. The Amendment Regulations amend the principal regulations, the Financial Collateral Arrangements Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 459.01. Among the amendments introduced by the Amendment Regulations are the introduction of new definitions and of a new sub-regulation 3(2) of the principal regulations.

On the 5^th of September 2023, the MFSA published a Circular by way of an update on the Benchmarking exercise on Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on Digital Operational Resilience (hereinafter referred to as the “Update Circular”). The Update Circular provides an update to a previous MFSA Circular published in January 2023 titled ‘Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 and Amending Directive (EU) 2022/2556 on Digital Operational Resilience for the Financial Sector published on the EU Official Journal’. The MFSA expressed its expectation that financial entities falling within the scope of the EU Regulation make the necessary preparations to ensure compliance therewith by the date of the EU Regulation’s applicability, being the 17^th of January 2025.

The MFSA published a Circular on the 20^th of September 2023, bringing to the market’s attention the European Commission’s launch of a targeted consultation and a public consultation on the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. The Authority highlighted that both consultation processes commenced on the 14^th of September and would run until the 15^th of December 2023. Interested parties were encouraged to participate in the consultation process.

For a full list of MFSA Circulars, click here.