Banking and financial market infrastructure sector meaning

In this issue: Commercial Competition and state aid Data protection and cybersecurity Financial services Energy Environment IP Life sciences TMT International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers and horizon scanners Commercial European Parliament IMCO invites Temu to discuss unsafe and illegal product sales The European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) has asked a Temu delegate to join a discussion on 16 April 2026, reflecting intensified scrutiny of leading online marketplaces over the presence of unsafe or illegal goods in the EU. This follows earlier appearances by Shein and AliExpress before IMCO. The committee is also reviewing how the European Commission applies and enforces rules on product safety, consumer protection and digital platforms across the single market. Members have urged more robust action to prevent illegal and unsafe products reaching the EU, including those offered via large online platforms, alongside better co-operation among...

In March 2025, HM Treasury revealed plans to scrap the PSR, the watchdog for key payment rails including Faster Payments, BACS and Link, as well as the Visa and Mastercard card schemes. The PSR had earned prominence through headline-making actions, from pushing banks and payment providers to refund victims of authorised push-payment fraud, to probing the charges levied by Visa and Mastercard. The UK remains the sole nation with a standalone payments regulator, and the decision to dissolve it was framed as cutting compliance burdens for firms while simplifying reporting duties and sector oversight across the ecosystem. Ministers pledged to consult on proposals for reallocating payments responsibilities over summer 2025. Yet by July 2025, they quietly signalled—buried within a 76-page financial services growth strategy document—that the timetable had shifted to September 2025. That does not mean the market is clueless about the likely direction, though. The March 2025 statement indicated the PSR would ‘mainly’ be folded into the FCA, hinting that some roles were destined for other bodies. In essence,...

In this issue: Competition and state aid Data protection and cybersecurity Free movement, immigration and employment Financial services Energy Environment IP Life sciences International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers Competition and state aid Antitrust—General Court largely dismisses actions against the Commission’s decision concerning cartel in the European Government’s Bond sector; moderately reduces fines imposed on Nomura and UniCredit The General Court delivered its rulings in Cases T-441/21 UBS Group and UBS v Commission, T-449/21 Natixis v Commission, T-453/21 UniCredit and UniCredit Bank v Commission, T-455/21 Nomura International and Nomura Holdings v Commission, T-456/21 Bank of America and Bank of America Corporation v Commission, and T-462/21 Portigon v Commission. These proceedings challenged the Commission’s infringement decision of 21 May 2021 regarding a cartel where seven banks exchanged commercially sensitive information (AT.40324). The Court broadly confirmed the Commission’s conclusions. See News Analysis: EU Competition law—daily round-up (26/03/2025)....

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. A package of legislation designed to reduce risks in the EU banking sector, the ‘banking package’, was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 7 June 2019. It sets out updated rules on capital requirements and resolution through: Directive (EU) 2019/878 (CRD V), amending the fourth Capital Requirements Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD IV); Regulation (EU) 2019/876 (EU CRR II), amending the Capital Requirements Regulation (EU) 575/2013 (EU CRR); Directive (EU) 2019/879 (EU BRRD II), amending the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD); Regulation (EU) 2019/877 (EU SRMR II), amending the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation (EU) 806/2014 (EU SRMR). This Practice Note reviews each of these instruments in turn, outlines the background to the banking package, and indicates when the provisions began to apply. Background to the banking package In November 2016, the European Commission issued a set of legislative proposals to amend CRD IV, EU...

This Practice Note reviews a range of Islamic or Shari’ah‑compliant structures commonly used in project financings and the documentation associated with them. It proceeds on the basis that readers have a working grasp of the key principles of Islamic finance; for detail, see Practice Notes: Key principles of Islamic finance and Sources of Shari’ah. It likewise assumes familiarity with standard conventional project finance frameworks and participants; for these, see Practice Notes: Introduction to project finance, Project finance—key project parties, Project finance—key finance parties, Types of projects and Project finance—meaning of completion and its effect. The structures outlined are typically more intricate, involve additional moving parts and require parties to enter into a greater number of documents than their conventional counterparts. Even so, they are established financing forms, well recognised by most financial institutions and law firms in the market. Greenfield projects—Istisna’a-Ijarah Typically, greenfield projects—i.e. schemes on unused land where there is no need to alter or demolish existing structures—that feature an extended construction or development period followed by...

Islamic real estate finance Islamic real estate finance is gaining increasing traction and has become firmly embedded in the UK and global property arenas. Worldwide Islamic finance assets are assessed at over US$4.5tn, with the sector forecast to keep expanding to US$6.7trn by 2027. This growth has been, and is expected to remain, driven by worldwide economic developments, evolving demographic trends, higher income levels and rising investment from the Gulf Co-operation Council, itself spurred by strong returns across the Halal, infrastructure and Sukuk segments. Consequently, the UK is well positioned to continue capturing the advantages of this consistently expanding market. At the same time, conventional financial institutions are increasingly turning to Islamic finance to complement traditional equity and debt solutions. The purpose of this Practice Note is to consider in detail the principal Islamic real estate finance structures set out below: Ijarah Diminishing Musharaka Commodity Murabaha Wakala A review of the documentation required for each of these structures will be...