Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 9 2025

9 QUICK LINKS CRYPTOASSETS CYBERSECURITY EMIR (UK) FINTECH MIFID/MIFIR (UK) SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG T+1 ASIA PACIFIC AUSTRALIA EUROPE LUXEMBOURG NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 9 | 2025 Other topics included: • How automation is important for an efficient settlement process and market participants’ plans support this. • While the FCA is playing a supportive role to the market, it will act if firms are not prepared for the October 2027 deadline. The FCA states that its work should be seen as part of a broader market initiative to communicate about T+1, including by firms through their client engagement. Link to FCA Update here Link to FCA ‘About T+1 Settlement’ Webpage here ASIA PACIFIC SFC Publishes its Latest Quarterly Report On 27 August 2025, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published its Quarterly Report for April-June 2025. The SFC says that Hong Kong’s flourishing initial public offering (IPO) activities and securities market performance showcased its competitive edges as a top international financial centre. During the first seven months of 2025, Hong Kong solidified its global leadership in IPOs, with 51 IPOs and total funds raised surging over 610% year-on-year to HKD128 billion. The SFC says that Hong Kong’s securities market also showed hallmark resilience against extreme volatility in early April as the market maintained orderly and normal operations. Also, in another sign of a thriving market, the SFC says that the number of licence applications that it had received had increased 16% year-on-year for the second quarter. The asset and wealth management sector also saw robust growth, with Hong Kong-domiciled funds notching solid year-on-year growth of 39% in assets under management. The number of open-ended fund companies climbed 56% from a year ago, while the average daily turnover of SFC-authorised exchange-traded funds surged 135.5% in the quarter. In parallel with facilitating development, the SFC says that it continues to prioritise investor protection. Through a joint statement with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in August, the SFC cautioned the public against market speculation related to the stablecoin concept (see earlier item above under Cryptoassets). Link to Latest SFC Quarterly Report here AUSTRALIA ASIC Publishes Report on Regulatory Simplification On 3 September 2025, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) published a new report which it says reveals the agency has culled more than 9,240 pages of regulation since the beginning of the year as it calls for further ideas for regulatory simplification. ASIC says that the report marks the first milestone in its simplification work and seeks input on a range of initiatives aimed at making regulation clearer, more accessible and easier to navigate— while maintaining strong consumer protections. The report outlines ASIC’s initiatives in the following key areas: • Improving access to regulatory information, including a redesigned ASIC website that cuts more than 9,000 pages of content, and regulatory roadmap pilots for small-company directors and providers of financial advice, designed to help these groups understand and navigate their regulatory obligations.