Ireland: Corporate Governance Requirements for Investment Firms and Market Operators

The Central Bank has published its Corporate Governance Requirements for Investment Firms and Market Operators: see here (pdf). The Requirements are intended to supplement and support the MiFID regime, and take effect from 1 July 2019.

Ireland: Central Bank guidance - cyber risk in financial firms

The Central Bank has stated that the risks associated with information technology and cyber security are a key concern and has called on firms to increase their resilience to IT failures and cyber security incidents: see here. Guidance for firms has been published - see here (pdf) - and this makes clear that IT risk should be considered as part of the board's responsibility for setting and overseeing strategy and risk appetite. Moreover, the Central Bank expects, to quote directly from its guidance document, that firms "... develop and document a Board approved comprehensive IT strategy that is aligned with the overall business strategy. IT strategy objectives should include maintaining the capacity to effectively anticipate, detect and recover from cybersecurity attacks on the firm so as to ensure overall IT resilience".

Ireland: Central Bank - new corporate governance 'requirements' published

The Central Bank of Ireland has, in the past few months, published new corporate governance requirements (formerly known as codes) for: captive insurance and captive reinsurance undertakings; insurance undertakings; and credit institutions. The new requirements documents can be found here.

Ireland: Central Bank consults on governance requirements for investment firms

The Central Bank of Ireland has published a consultation paper setting our proposals for the governance requirements of investment firms: see here (pdf).

Ireland: Central Bank consults on new macro-prudential measures

The Central Bank has published a consultation paper in which it sets out proposals to introduce new macro-prudential measures, including placing restrictions on the loan to value and loan to income ratios that lenders can apply when lending for house purchases: here (pdf).

Ireland: revised governance code for credit institutions and insurance undertakings

The Central Bank yesterday published a revised edition of its corporate governance code for credit institutions and insurance undertakings: see here (pdf). A summary of the main changes made in the new edition is available here.

Ireland: Corporate law - reviews and recommendations

The Committee of Public Accounts, in its interim report on the stabilisation measures adopted in respect of the banking crisis, has called for a review of of the framework governing the investigation of directors suspected of wrong-doing, arguing that streamlining is required. The Committee has also called for a review, to be undertaken (it is suggested) by the Law Reform Commission, of the enforcement mechanisms available against individuals.

It is worth noting that the Law Reform Commission, in its recently published law reform programme, has included a project titled 'Corporate offences and regulatory enforcement', the purpose of which will be to consider whether the range of existing corporate offences are sufficient, including whether an offence of reckless trading should be enacted. The regulatory and enforcement powers of the Central Bank of Ireland will also be considered.