Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 12 2025

18 QUICK LINKS COSTS & CHARGES CRYPTOASSETS FINTECH FSB IOSCO OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE SAVINGS AND INVESTMENT UNION SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG T+1 ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 12 | 2025 The Commission said its digital package represents a comprehensive effort to modernise and simplify the EU’s digital regulatory landscape. By focusing on AI, cybersecurity, data, and digital identity, the initiative aims to boost innovation, enhance competitiveness, and reduce administrative burdens for businesses across the EU. In addition to the proposals the Commission announced a “Digital Fitness Check,” open until 11 March 2026, which will further evaluate the effectiveness and coherence of the EU’s digital rules. Link to Announcement here NORTH AMERICA SEC Chair Paul Atkins Delivers Speech on Revitalizing America’s Markets On 2 December 2025, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins delivered a speech at the New York Stock Exchange on revitalizing America’s financial system and markets. His address reflected on the historical foundations of American capital markets as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary. Atkins emphasized the critical need for comprehensive reform of the SEC’s disclosure rules to foster capital formation, protect investors, and ensure fair, orderly, and efficient markets. The core message underscored a commitment to restoring market vitality by aligning regulations with fundamental principles of financial materiality and proportionality to company size, thereby aiming to make IPOs more accessible and competitive. Chair Atkins highlighted a concerning trend of “regulatory creep” over recent decades, where rules have multiplied beyond their original intent, which has led to a significant decline (roughly 40%) in the number of companies listed on U.S. exchanges since the mid-1990s, increased cost and complexity of going public, making the path to public ownership narrower, erosion of American competitiveness, pushing entrepreneurs towards private markets or foreign shores, and weaponization of the disclosure regime by special interest groups and politicians, straying from the SEC’s core mission. Chair Atkins then outlined two primary goals for reforming the SEC’s disclosure rules: (1) Rooting Requirements in Financial Materiality, and (2) scaling requirements with company size andmaturity. Chair Atkins also provided a critique of the current disclosure regime, stating that accretive rulemakings have led to reams of paperwork, making lengthy annual reports and proxy statements costly and difficult for investors to understand. He added that the volume and density of information often intimidate investors, leading them to ignore it, noting that when disclosure rules become unmoored frommateriality, they cease to benefit investors. Chair Atkins then discussed the benefits of disclosure reforms, which will help capital flow faster and more freely to its highest and best use, supporting human initiative and ingenuity. He then highlighted other reforms that would also help restore market vitality, which included de-politicizing shareholder meetings and refocusing them on director elections and significant corporate matters and reforming the litigation landscape for securities lawsuits to eliminate frivolous claims while preserving avenues for meritorious claims. Chair Atkins concluded by stating that capital markets are more than just financial mechanisms; they embody America’s national character of risk-taking, innovation, and relentless striving for prosperity. Link to Speech here Acting Chairman PhamAnnounces CFTC Interpretation to Unlock Over USD 22 Billion of Collateral and Promote American Competitiveness On 25 November 2025, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham announced that the CFTC’s Market Participants Division (MPD) published an interpretation to clarify the circumstances under which a futures commission merchant (FCM) may post customer-owned securities and securities purchased with customer funds with foreign brokers and foreign clearing organizations tomargin customers’ foreign futures and foreign options positions in compliance with Part 30 of CFTC regulations.