IRELAND: Central Bank Publishes Programme of Themed Inspections in Markets Supervision

Monday December 14 2015

The Markets Supervision Directorate of the Central Bank of Ireland has published its programme of themed-inspections for 2016.  These inspections reflect a number of supervisory priorities for 2016 and anticipate areas of emerging risk.

The planned themed-inspections, which supplement day-to-day supervisory activities, for 2016 are:

Outsourcing Arrangements – Inspection of service level agreements and operational arrangements with outsourcing providers for Investment Firms, Fund Managers and Fund Service Providers.

AIFM Programme of Activities – Review of AIFMs adherence to their programme of activity.

Risk Function – Focus on the risk culture within firms including governance arrangements, risk ownership and responsibility.

Investment Funds – Analysis of the production costs of investment funds.

Financial Indices – Review of the use of financial indices as eligible investments for UCITS investment funds.

Director Time Commitments – Continued focus on various issues with director time commitments.

Client Assets – Focused review of Client Asset Management Plans for Investment Firms.

Information Technology Risk – Focus on resilience of firms’ IT systems.

Suitability – Review of the suitability assessment of clients.

Conduct – Examination of the information provided to clients on an on-going basis.

Hedging Arrangements – Review of hedging arrangements at share class level for investment funds.

Market Integrity – Review of the practices of firms when dealing with insider information and their compliance with Market Abuse Regulations.

Click on the link above for further details.