Custody – Charting a new course

Banks internationally face increasing expectations to ensure that their services do not facilitate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and that they understand whether their customers may be involved in military-related activities.

As we enter 2025, the adoption of generative artificial intelligence ("Gen AI") in the financial sector has reached a pivotal moment, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Given the relatively novel nature of Gen AI, how can financial institutions effectively harness its benefits while complying with regulatory requirements?

China’s key financial regulator, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (“NFRA”), has published its highly-anticipated uncleared margin rules. The NFRA’s uncleared margin rules impose initial margin (“IM”) and variation margin (“VM”) requirements on non-centrally cleared derivatives transactions entered into by Chinese banking and insurance sector financial institutions regulated by the NFRA. The new rules are broadly consistent with the global regulatory margin standards published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (“Basel Margin Standards”).