Compliance & Ethics

The AMF's 2025 annual data collection from 6,713 Financial Investment Advisors (CIFs) reveals growing market polarization, with the top 50 firms now capturing 52% of sector revenue, up from 49% in 2024. Compliance teams at affected firms and their professional associations should note the shifting revenue concentration, persistent fee-based compensation structures, and the continued marginal role of crypto-assets in CIF advisory activity.

The FCA has added "Hope Fund Bank" (hopefundbank.com) to its Warning List for providing or promoting financial services in the UK without authorization. Compliance teams should note this entity for screening purposes, as consumers dealing with it have no access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or FSCS protection.

De Nederlandsche Bank has released the AnaCredit reporting submission calendar for 2026, setting out monthly reporting periods and corresponding delivery deadlines for credit institutions. Compliance and regulatory reporting teams must align internal data production cycles with these fixed dates to avoid late or non-submission breaches.

ASIC is consulting on a 10-year extension (to 2037) of its CFD product intervention order, with amendments to modernize the definition of CFDs to capture digital asset-settled products and clarify margin requirements. CFD issuers and industry stakeholders have a short four-week window to respond, making prompt internal review essential for affected firms.

DNB is hosting an in-person information session on November 5, 2026, to explain its personal background assessment process for individuals subject to fit-and-proper reviews at financial institutions. Compliance and HR teams involved in candidate nominations or assessments should register by November 2 to secure attendance and submit questions in advance.

Following around sixty joint audits conducted between 2020 and 2024, the AMF and ACPR have published a report identifying recurring weaknesses in product governance and client advisory practices among financial and life insurance distributors in France. While the findings are not a comprehensive market assessment, they highlight significant compliance gaps—particularly around target market definition, client information collection, and advice documentation—that firms should address ahead of the EU Retail Investment Strategy directive expected by end-2026.

The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) issued a legal opinion clarifying that bar associations and legal aid commissions may process family unit members' personal data based on legal obligation or public interest grounds under GDPR Article 6.1(c)/(e), rather than requiring individual consent from each family member. The opinion also invalidates opt-out consent mechanisms (unchecked boxes) used in Valencia's legal aid application forms, finding them non-compliant with GDPR's active consent requirements, which has direct implications for public bodies and professional associations administering benefits requiring family-based means testing.