Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 1 2025

20 QUICK LINKS AIFMD CRYPTOASSETS EMIR FINTECH MIFID II/MIFIR MMF NBFI OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG ASIA IRELAND LUXEMBOURG NETHERLANDS NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 1 | 2025 PISCES follows the FCA’s wide-ranging reforms to the UK’s world-leading markets to boost competitiveness by: • Reforming the prospectus regime, to make it cheaper and easier for companies to raise money in the UK; • Giving asset managers greater freedom in how they pay for investment research and setting out proposals to extend that flexibility; • Opening the Digital Securities Sandbox which allows firms to test innovative new technologies for trading and settling assets; and • Setting out a roadmap to regulating crypto. The FCA will work with market participants, industry leaders, trade bodies and platform operators to develop a proportionate regulatory framework that can support growth and enable innovation. Link to Consultation here FCA Publishes Four Portfolio Letters The FCA published four portfolio letters on 13 December 2024, covering: • Data reporting services providers (DRSPs); • Custody and fund services supervision strategy; • Contracts for difference (CFDs); and • Trading venues. The letters outline the FCA’s supervisory priorities, key risks of harm, and expectations for firms in these portfolios to manage these risks effectively. Firms are expected to discuss the contents, consider the risks, and take necessary actions to mitigate them. Link to Letter on Data Reporting Services Providers here Link to Letter on Custody and Fund Services Supervision Strategy here Link to Letter on Contracts for Difference Strategy here Link to Letter on Trading Venues here Complaints and Root Cause Analysis: Good Practice and Areas for Improvement On 11 December 2024, the FCA published its findings of its review into firms’ approaches to complaints and root cause analysis, based on a targeted and thematic review that it carried out on complaints and root cause analysis, based on a review of practices in 40 firms across a range of sectors. For firms sampled, the FCA identified one key area of good practice: • Good management information and clear governance structures: – Firms have established processes for carrying out root cause analysis of complaints management information (MI) – that is, identifying the trends and themes of complaints. Most firms could evidence clear escalation routes and accountability, meaning everyone across the business knew where to send MI and other information. The FCA also identifies three key areas for improvement: • Analysing data for different customer types: – Though complaints MI was captured, this was not always granular enough to tell the firm about the outcomes for different groups of customers, including those with characteristics of vulnerability. This means some issues are not being properly identified, especially where firms have diverse target markets for their products.