Please find attached the monitoring report for the period 1 November to 30 November 2023. This report aims to provide you with a summary analysis of the potential impact of new developments on your business. We are limiting the monthly report to developments that we have identified as having a potentially medium or high risk impact (with all lower risk developments intentionally omitted). Should you wish a full report please do not hesitate to contact us.
What are the important tendencies?
What is the origin of the documents reviewed?
|
Date |
What is this about? |
⠀ |
What is the title of the document? |
What do you need to know? |
Risk |
|
|
30/11/2023 |
Consumer protection |
BE |
Wetsvoorstel: tot wijziging van het Wetboek |
The aim of this bill is to combat eco-washing or greenwashing,
where companies falsely use claims of good environmental and
climate protection practices as part of their marketing and
communication operations. § greenwashing is automatically considered to be a misleading commercial practice; it is therefore easier to apply the penalties provided for; § strengthening of penalties; § the use of the term "carbon neutral"
claim § |
Medium |
|
|
29/11/2023 |
Payments |
BE |
Wetsvoorstel tot wijziging van het Wetboek van economisch recht, met het oog op de invoering van een systeem om de overdracht van het internationaal bankrekeningnummer (IBAN) daadwerkelijk mogelijk te maken. |
This draft law contains amendments to facilitate consumers to switch banks by removing three perceived obstacles currently causing most bank customers do not take that step and improving the technical feasability of bank switching. The obstacles are: § the international bank account number (IBAN) not being transferrable unlike phone numbers when changing telecom operator; § the current bank switching service not applying to savings deposits, § meaning only a few banks offer such service for savings products on a voluntary basis; § the information on past transactions on a bank account is not transferred. This bill aims to remove these bottlenecks by give consumers such rights and by putting in place the necessary rules to ensure the technical feasibility of such. |
Medium |
|
|
29/11/2023 |
Sustainability |
BE |
Uitgebreidere duurzaamheidsrapporteringsvereisten voor |
The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) published a communication aimed at the companies listed on the regulated market Euronext and whose periodic information the FSMA monitors in application of the CSRD, with the exception of micro-enterprises. This target group is narrower than the companies covered by the CSRD Directive. In this communication, the FSMA discusses a number of steps that these companies can take to prepare for the new reporting requirements. While it focuses primarily on those listed companies that are not subject to the NFRD. The remaining companies have indeed already taken initiatives, encouraged to do so by the NFRD. |
High |
|
|
29/11/2023 |
Tax |
BE |
Ontwerp van programmawet – 55K3697 |
This draft law contains, among other things, provisions regarding the tax on credit institutions, collective investment vehicles and insurance undertaking, the fine for recovering that tax from customers and the deductability of the tax, the increase of the registration fee for the establishment and transfer of leasholds to 5%, a cap on the tax exemption of remuneration from a flexi-job, amendments to the WIB92 tax code to bring it in line with the SIAT-ruling of the ECJ, amendments to the specialised REIT tax regime, the increase of the minimum income, the changing of the rules on Controlled Foreign Companies (CFC) persuant to article 7 of the ATAD Directive from model B to model A, amendments to the Cayman-tax, amendments to the excise taxes on oil and tobacco, amendments to certain VAT regimes, the introduction of a register of working partners and their helpers active in undertakings, amendments to the percentage and minimum amount of VAT set for the alternative financing of the workers' social security system. |
Mediium |
|
|
22/11/2023 |
Credits |
BE |
Koninklijk besluit tot wijziging van het koninklijk besluit van 23 maart 2017 tot regeling van de Centrale voor Kredieten aan Particulieren. |
"The Royal Decree reviews the Royal Decree of 23 March 2017 regulating the Central Individual Credit Register. In addition to integrating the information from the ENR file, the list of data collected was revised to align the modalities of collection and consultation with the amendments to the Economic Code due to the Law of 31 July 2023 and with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), on the one hand, and to have a more accurate picture of borrowers' debt situation on the other. |
Medium |
|
|
22/11/2023 |
IFRS |
EU |
Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1803 of 13 August 2023 adopting certain international accounting standards in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council |
The Commission Regulation has adopted certain international accounting standards in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The Regulation sets out the international accouts standards in the Annex in compliance with IFRS 17 as issued by the IASB. Notwithstanding the definition of group of insurance contracts set out in Appendix A of IFRS 17 in the Annex to the Regulation, Union companies should have the option to exempt intergenerationally mutualised and cash flow matched contracts from the annual cohort requirement of IFRS 17. |
Medium |
|
|
22/11/2023 |
IFRS |
Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2579 of 20 November 2023 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1803 as regards International Financial Reporting Standard 16. |
The Commission Regulation amends the International Financial Reporting Standard 16 Leases as set out in the Annex. Each company shall apply the amendments referred to in Article 1, at the latest, as from the commencement date of its first financial year starting on or after 1 January 2024. |
Medium |
||
|
14/11/2023 |
SFDR |
BE |
Bijgewerkte Q&A's over de inwerkingtreding van de gedelegeerde verordening tot aanvulling van de SFDR-verordening. |
The FSMA has published an update of its Communication on the entry into force of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 of 6 April 2022 supplementing the SFDR with regulatory technical standards. The Communication takes the form of FAQs and covers, for example, the content and presentation of the information relating to the promotion of environmental or social characteristics and objectives for sustainable investments in precontractual documents, on websites and in periodic reports. These FAQs bring together the clarifications published by the European Commission and the European Supervisory Authorities on the subject and sets out the FSMA's expectations in this regard. A new question has also been added in this updated version. |
High |
|
|
10/11/2023 |
Deposit protection schemes |
BE |
Wetsontwerp betreffende het garantiefonds voor financiële diensten. |
This draft bill aims to lift the royal decree of 14 november 2008 implementing the crisis measures provided for in the Act of 22 February 1998 establishing the organic statute of the National Bank of Belgium. It adapts, modernises and simplifies the legislation on the Guarantee Fund for Financial Services in several areas. The main changes compared to the existing legislation relate mainly to the deposit guarantee scheme where, in line with international recommendations and the urgent requirements of the European Commission, the draft provides for the creation of a segregated fund. Finally, the draft contains several adjustments mainly related to definitions, cooperation between the various authorities involved, privileges of the Guarantee Fund, compliance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, recognition of the compensatory nature of refunds by the Guarantee Fund under the deposit guarantee scheme and the cash component of the investor protection scheme. |
Medium |
|
|
10/11/2023 |
Financial Supervision |
BE |
Wetsontwerp houdende diverse financiële bepalingen. - November 2023. |
The Chamber has adopted some articles of the legislative proposal that aims to amend multiple matters falling within the competences of National Bank of Belgium, the FSMA, the SFPI and the FPS Finance. These matters include: § the members of the audit committee of the board of directors of the FPIM having to number a minimum of four members from now on; § clarifying the obligation of the receiver or liquidator to pay on behalf of all account holders/clients to exercise their claim for restitution in case of bankruptcy or concurrence on behalf of an institution maintaining the accounts ensuring more effective protection of investors in financial instruments. In addition, a number of amendments are made to financial legislation to give effect to: § 1° Regulation (EU) 2021/23 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on a framework for the recovery and resolution of central counterparties; § 2° Regulation (EU) 2022/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2022 on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based of distributed ledger technology; and § 3° Regulation (EU) 2019/1238 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on a pan-European personal pension product (hereinafter referred to as the 'PEPP Regulation'). It also provides that the Sanctions Committee of the NBB in its internal rules of procedure further procedural and deontological rules that shall applicable to the handling of files of administrative sanctions submitted to it. The legislation applicable to dormant assets is amended to allow the competent federal government department to allow the national register number of the tenants of dormant safes to register and process to be used in the context of the legal procedure applicable to dormant safes the amount of the realised property attributable to a national register number and thus smoothen the procedure flow. The amendments also provide for compliance of the applicable legislation on the protection of personal data. To the General Administration of Customs and Excise will be granted a secure electronic access right granted to the data of the register maintained by the Deposit and Consignment Office and to do so in the same manner as other administrations of the FPS Finance. Finally, various amendments will be made to the financial legislation in order to implement the provisions of the coalition agreement regarding the so-called banking oath. |
Medium |
|
|
09/11/2023 |
MiCa |
EU |
Reporting for crypto-asset service providers – instructions. |
The Annex IV contains instruction for the reporting of the templates for crypto-asset service providers. Crypto-asset service providers shall provide to the issuers the information specified in this annex, in accordance with Articles 1(2) and 3(2) of the MiCa Regulation. They shall share the information with the issuers of the asset referenced tokens. |
Medim |
|
|
09/11/2023 |
MiCa |
EU |
Reporting for issuers of asset-referenced token and of e money tokens denominated in a currency that is not an official currency of a member state of the european union – instructions. |
The Annex II contains the instructions for the reporting of the templates for issuers. Those issuers in scope for the reporting obligations based on Article 2 of this Regulation or following the relevant competent authority`s decision pursuant to Article 22(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 shall report all templates presented in Annex II. |
Medium |
|
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
