The European Commission has reached agreement with legislators and financial trade groups on a digitized infrastructure to reshape the EU and, by extension, the global securities markets. The resolution affects all transactions involving EU securities, including securities loans, by (1) green-lighting the Distributed Ledger Pilot Regime, an effort to foster fintech innovation in the EU, and (2) delaying mandatory buy-ins, a highly contentious aspect of the ongoing sweeping reforms to the EU's securities settlement system. 

On November 18, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed broad disclosure rules intended to "provide transparency in the securities lending market." As directed by the Dodd-Frank Act, the Commission proposed these rules to (1) supplement publicly available information, (2) close data gaps in the securities lending market, (3) minimize information asymmetries between market participants, and (5) provide market participants with access to pricing and other material information.

Further, the data elements proposed to be collected are intended to provide regulators with the information necessary to perform effective market surveillance. "This proposal would bring securities lending out of the dark," according to SEC Chair Gary Gensler. 

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing has taken global financial markets by storm over the last few years. Post-pandemic, the demand for ESG investments has only intensified and has proven to be much more durable than a fad. However, lack of consistency and transparency threatens the trustworthiness of ESG as a category, and has led to accusations of 'greenwashing.'  As a result, US regulators and their counterparts in the EU and UK have begun building regulatory and enforcement momentum, focusing on the quality and accuracy of ESG disclosures by asset managers and investment funds. Accounting and other standard setters have joined their regulatory brethren in calling for consistency in financial and non-financial ESG reporting.