OREANDA-NEWS. The Central Bank of Ireland today (26 February 2015) published its programme of themed-inspections in Markets Supervision, which reflect a number of supervisory priorities for this year.  This programme builds on the supervisory work of previous years and also anticipates areas of emerging risk.

The themed-inspections, which supplement day-to-day supervisory activities under the Central Bank’s risk-based supervisory framework (PRISM[1]), are:   

  • Cyber Security / Operational Risk - Inspection of controls and procedures around system security and access.
  • Integrity of Regulatory Returns - Review of firms’ regulatory reporting.
  • Treatment of pricing errors for the Calculation of Fund NAVs - Examination of the processes for the treatment of pricing errors and the payment of compensation.[2]
  • Depository Oversight - Review of depositary oversight of investment funds including the depositary’s annual report to investors.
  • Proprietary trading - Reviewing the governance and control environment for MiFID firms trading on their own account.[3]
  • Conduct of Business - Review of selected MiFID conduct of business requirements.
  • Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) - Follow-up on previous themed-inspection from 2013 related to market discipline in filing STRs.
  • Person Discharging Managerial Responsibilities (PDMRs) - Review of policies and practices in relation to notification of relevant trading activity by persons discharging managerial responsibility in listed firms.[4]
  • Risk management in UCITS - Examination of the on-going application of risk management processes employed by UCITS.[5]

Director of Markets Supervision, Gareth Murphy said: ‘Investor protection, market integrity and financial stability are at the core of the Central Bank's mandate.  By announcing these themed-inspections, we are highlighting areas where investment firms, funds and market participants may need to raise standards.  Following these inspections, we will communicate our assessment of regulatory standards in these areas and, where necessary, we will ensure that specific remedial actions are taken.’

[1] Probability Risk and Impact SysteM

[2] Net Asset Value

[3] Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (2004/39/EC)  

[4] As defined in Market Abuse Directive (2003/6/EC)  

[5] Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (2009/65/EC)