• The main objective of this text is to transpose four community directives and make the necessary legislative adjustments for the incorporation of five regulations
  • These are directives whose transposition deadline is already expired and they are in different stages of sanctioning procedures
  • The Minister of Economy and Business, Nadia Calviño, has announced that the ministry, in the framework of the transposition of the Directive of basic payment accounts, is working on a Royal Decree, to guarantee free access to these basic payment accounts to all vulnerable people

The Congress of Deputies has approved the validation of the Royal Decree Law of November 23 on payment services and other urgent measures in financial matters.

As noted by the Minister of Economy and Business, Nadia Calviño, before the Plenary Session of Congress, the main objective of the text is to transpose four community directives into the Spanish legal system and incorporate five regulations that, although they are directly applicable, require adjustment Legislative to guarantee the legal security of all affected subjects.

In her speech, Minister Nadia Calviño has justified the urgency and need by pointing out that “all the directives to be transposed are already expired and in different phases of sanctioning procedures promoted by the community institutions”.

In this regard, he pointed out that 10 years after the start of the economic crisis “it is not justified that we have not yet reinforced our regulatory framework in key areas such as the protection of financial clients, the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism or the guarantee that workers can keep their pension rights even if they change jobs. ”

Nadia Calviño has taken advantage of her intervention to thank all the groups of the Chamber for their important work and dedication to carry out these initiatives.

Directives

The RDL includes the partial transposition of the Directive on payment services in the internal market, whose transposition period expired in January 2018.

The objective of this Directive is to create an integrated payment services framework at European level and to face the new challenges and changes in payment services, in particular those made with card, internet and mobile phones, to ensure the security of transactions

The transposition of this Directive into the Spanish legal system allows to improve the protection of the rights of users, encourages innovation and reinforces security requirements.

The Minister of Economy and Business has highlighted the relevance of these regulations because “it enhances the transnational provision of payment services by increasing competition, an issue that is particularly important for the ecosystem of companies in our country that increasingly export to the main markets from the rest of Europe ”

He also highlighted some positive effects of the new regulations in terms of reducing the irregular economy, lowering costs and inclusion: “the launch of these new payment services can have a beneficial impact on financial inclusion, especially for groups that are more vulnerable, to the extent that they will have greater facilities to access these types of services ”

The transposition of the Execution Directive on Market Abuse, with the establishment of a complaints channel for breaches of the Market Abuse Regulation.

The third directive that is transposed with this RDL is the Capital Requirements Directive, known as CRD IV, and whose deadline for transposition expired in 2013. Although part of this community regulation was already included in the Spanish legal system, two issues were pending: on the one hand, the inclusion of a whistleblowing channel in the Bank of Spain aimed at communicating non-compliances of credit institutions regarding solvency; and on the other, the incorporation of certain obligations of the CNMV and the Bank of Spain in the field of information exchange, improving cooperation and coordination between different competent authorities of the European Union.

Finally, some points of the Basic Payment Accounts Directive have been corrected, of which only a Ministerial Order and a Bank of Spain Circular are still pending for full incorporation into Spanish regulations.

Within the framework of this directive, Minister Nadia Calviño has announced that the Ministry of Economy and Business is working on a Royal Decree which has already been subject to public consultation and “which goes beyond what is required by the Directive, to ensure free access to these basic payment accounts for all vulnerable people, one more step in the guarantee of financial inclusion ”.

Regulations

Additionally, through this Royal Decree Law, the Spanish legal system is adapted to a series of community regulations that, by their very nature, are directly applicable since their entry into force, in order to improve the legal security of market operators and The efficiency of its operation.

The objective is to modify the Securities Market Law to give the necessary legal certainty to the actions that the CNMV had been carrying out in matters of supervision, inspection and sanction in relevant behaviors related to the protection of investors and consumers.

This was stated in her speech by Minister Nadia Calviño, emphasizing that the objectives are “to improve the protection tools of investors, as well as to establish objective measures so that they can compare the characteristics of similar products produced or marketed in different member states” .

In the RDL validated by the Plenary of Congresses, the competences of CNMV and Banco de España are required in relation to the supervision of the benchmark indices, with the objective that their elaboration follow quality methodologies and standards to avoid any type of manipulation and ensure that they faithfully reflect the reality of the market.

Finally, additional content necessary to clarify the Spanish regulations on financial matters is included in the approved text. There are three highlights that are included: on the one hand, the regime sanctioned by the Law of Ordination, supervision and solvency of credit institutions is adjusted with that of other payment entities. The objective is to have a more efficient and aligned regime with other European countries and the European Central Bank (ECB) itself.

Secondly, the Resolution Law is modified to allow the FROB to collect contributions from branches of non-EU entities located in Spain. In this way, an error is corrected by which these branches were left out, with the result of a more beneficial treatment of non-EU entities.

Finally, credit and financial institutions are excluded from the scope of the right of separation due to lack of distribution of dividends recognized by the Capital Companies Law.



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