The rapporteur for the review of MiFID, Markus Ferber, has published this report, which includes marked-up suggested amendments to the proposal and an explanatory report summarising his proposed changes.

FOS has published the text of a provisional decision to partially uphold a consumer's complaint about pet insurance. The firm had decided to withdraw Halifax Pet Insurance from the market and the impact of the decision was in relation to costs the complainant would potentially incur as new insurance offered did not cover pre-existing conditions. The provisional decision concludes that the firm acted unfairly and should offer the complainant compensation for the problems and distress it has caused and pay to “top up” any alternative insurance cover she now purchases for her pet.

This press release reports on feedback received in respect of the FOS plans and budget consultation, noting that FOS has set its operational budget for 2012/2013 of £191.1m. It has introduced a new supplementary case fee of £350 for PPI misselling complaints. This will be payable when FOS formally takes on (“converts”) a complaint involving PPI mis-selling, but it 14 will be charged only when businesses have more than 25 of these cases a year.

This BoE paper explains which criteria are important when determining the eligibility for central clearing of OTC derivatives/products, noting that suitability for mandatory central clearing is likely to depend on product and process standardisation, but also on market liquidity and that systemic risk reduction benefits associated with central clearing can only be achieved when CCPs have robust risk management processes.

This consultation covers risks related to legal, financial and operational arrangements, as well as issues related to access, governance and efficiency. Responses are required by 18 May 2012.

ESMA has published a new version of this document, which is aimed at competent authorities under MiFID to ensure that in their supervisory activities their actions are converging in accordance with the opinions provided by ESMA. New items are shown in red text.

These Regulations make amendments to the Capital Requirements Regulations 2006/3221) (the “principal Regulations”) for the purposes of implementing (in part) Omnibus I and CRD 3. Regulation 3 amends the definitions in regulation 1(2) of the principal Regulations for the purposes of both Omnibus 1 and CRD3. Regulations 4 to 12 relate to Omnibus 1. Regulations 4 to 7 and 10 insert provisions into the principal Regulations enabling EBA to settle disagreements between competent authorities in relation to various joint decisions required to be made under Directive 2006/48/EC. Regulations 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12 replace references to CEBS with references to EBA and include references to the EBA and ESRB in relation to various co-operation and notification obligations required. Regulations 13 and 14 relate to CRD3. Regulation 13 amends the principal Regulations to impose new duties on FSA to benchmark remuneration trends and practices in credit institutions and investment firms, collect information about employee remuneration and notify that information to EBA. Regulation 14 amends the list of relevant measures in regulation 26 of the principal Regulations, in relation to which certain provisions on disclosure of information in FSMA apply. (Date in force: 16/04/12)

Further to CP11/17, FSA sets out the final rules requiring certain firms to maintain and be able to retrieve a CASS Resolution Pack. The CASS RP contains documents and records that would help an insolvency practitioner return client assets more quickly following an investment firm failure. FSA summarises the feedback received and explains the changes have made as a result. It is noted that FSA will set out its response to other matters covered in CP11/16 in due course.

EBA and ECB have published a second version of the classification system between their respective reporting frameworks. This includes further enhancements and updates a series of reconciliation proposals which are in the process of being implemented.

This EC press release argues that, if adopted as a new own resource of the EU budget the financial transaction tax will significantly reduce the contributions of member states to the EU budget. According to estimates presented yesterday by the EC, Member States' contributions would be cut by €54bn in 2020 (a table within the press release estimates how each inpidual member state would be affected). . The EC proposes that two thirds of the revenues of the tax go to the EU budget, with the remaining one third being retained by Member States. It notes comments by Financial Programming and Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski: “taxing the transactions of all financial institutions at rates as low as 0.01% is only fair. The financial sector does not pay VAT and has received massive support by taxpayer's money”.