GRC Report Staff

The Bank of England's September 2026 Agents' summary of business conditions describes an uneven UK economy. Output and confidence have improved in select sectors, but construction, property, and consumer spending remain weak. This is not a rule change, but it gives compliance and risk teams useful context for credit risk, conduct, and operational resilience planning, particularly given rising household strain, tighter lending competition, and persistent input cost pressures.

Former PWM director and financial adviser Donald Cuthbertson has pleaded not guilty to 24 offenses under the Corporations Act and Crimes Act, including false or misleading representations to investors and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The case shows ASIC's continued use of criminal referrals against misconduct by licensees and their controllers, and it is a useful reference point for firms reviewing investor communications, governance, and conduct controls.

The September 11, 2026 NYDFS Weekly Banking Bulletin records the receipt of applications for a merger of American Community Bank into Alma Bank, along with a series of mortgage, premium finance, sales finance, and budget planner licensing actions. The bulletin is the only written notice of these submissions, and the comment period on the merger applications closes October 12, 2026. Compliance teams should check the filings for relevance to their institutions and calendar the deadlines.

Finanstilsynet (Norway FSA) has published a warning about TradeWell, referencing a warning issued by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The notice signals that TradeWell may be offering financial services without proper authorization, so compliance teams should screen for exposure and update their watchlists.

A Deutsche Bundesbank discussion paper shows that changes in histogram bin widths in the US Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) created structural breaks in measured inflation and growth uncertainty, even where true uncertainty was largely unchanged. The paper is research, not binding regulation, but it matters for compliance and risk teams that rely on SPF-based uncertainty measures in stress testing, model validation, and scenario calibration.

On September 11, 2026, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published a monograph describing its role as resolution authority and its approach to resolving financial institutions under its purview. The document is explanatory guidance rather than a new rule, but it signals how MAS is likely to exercise its resolution powers. Compliance, recovery and resolution planning, and risk teams should review it to align their frameworks with MAS' expectations.

ASIC has released Consultation Paper 391 proposing tiered access settings for companies register data, expanding free access to core officeholder information while restricting sensitive personal details to verified users with a clear need. Compliance teams that rely on registry data for due diligence, KYC, and onboarding should assess the impact now and respond by 5:00 pm on 12 October 2026, because the proposed changes begin on 1 July 2027. ANALYSIC: