Articles by author
The EU’s emerging accountability regime: borrowing the SMCR without its foundations
This article examines the EU’s emerging individual accountability framework under CRD6 and the European Banking Authority’s (EBA’s) draft internal governance guidelines against the background of the UK’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime. While the EU adopts tools such as statements of responsibilities and responsibilities maps, it introduces a de facto reasonable steps test only at Level 3 (EBA guidelines), raising concerns about mandate and legal certainty. The analysis shows that divergent national corporate law standards, particularly the varying expressions of the business judgment rule, make a uniform EU‑wide standard of managerial reasonableness difficult to sustain. Without careful calibration, the proposed framework risks inconsistency, over‑deterrence and adverse competitiveness effects.
12 APR 2026Paying for investment research: welcome rule relaxations for EU and UK firms
As part of wider moves to enhance overall competitiveness, the EU and the UK are both making changes to legislation and regulation to boost their jurisdiction’s attractiveness for listing and capital-raising. This includes proposals to loosen the existing research unbundling rules in an effort to increase the amount and quality of available research on companies, along with other measures to ensure visibility of that research so that potential investors have access to a wider range of investment opportunities. The research-related proposals aim ultimately to improve liquidity and growth prospects for small and medium sized (SME) companies.
13 JAN 2025
