Update

Member Services

	Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery Seminar

Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Disaster Recovery (DR) planning continues to be a challenging area for firms both from a regulatory compliance and an actual planning/strategy standpoint. In an effort to help firms tackle both areas, the FOA will be holding a seminar for its members on Monday 2 December, 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm at the City Marketing Suite, corner of Basinghall Street/Guildhall Buildings, London EC2.

If you would like to attend please contact Florence Briggs at the FOA. Places are limited.

The agenda for the seminar will be as follows:

1. Overview of how the main financial authorities have been working together to coordinate contingency planning for the financial sector

- HMT, FSA and BoE's respective roles
- communication/information dissemination following an event
- who should firms contact
Speaker tba - Corporation of London
Alison Emblow - Market Infrastructure Division - Bank of England

2. Guidance on firms' regulatory obligations in the area of BCM

- Senior Management Arrangements/Systems and Controls
- Operational Risk (CP142)
Lydia Bailey - Senior Manager, Regulatory Services - KPMG

3. FSA's Risk-Focused Review of BCM

- objective
- key findings
- lessons for major financial firms
- lessons for small and medium sized firms
Syntegra

4. Disaster Recovery - use of third party sites

- particular challenges/risks when using third party sites
- potential areas of concern for the regulator
Syntegra

5. FOA/Syntegra BCM service

BCM Healthcheck
- Where is my company at the moment? (compliance and further)
- Checklist of key BCM areas as defined by BCI/FSA
- Detailed content for each area
DR site matching service
- What is it? Benefits to user
- How to use it?
Syntegra

	Documentation Libraries

The FOA's General FSMA documentation library was subject to a further update on 1 October. Amendments included, amongst others, changes driven by the European Directive on electronic commerce and the addition of securitised derivatives to the library's product scope.

Library members will have recently received an additional guidance note covering the issues raised by the E-commerce Directive including: an introduction to the legislation; amendments to the financial promotion regime; worked examples to assist firms in determining the jurisdictions which must be checked for applicable conduct of business rules; and suggested wording for web sites, confirmations and email correspondence with customers.

	PwC: Financial Services Regulatory Web Site

PricewaterhouseCoopers' financial services regulatory web site, Finreg, can be your guide to UK financial services regulation. It is designed for the professional user who needs to find answers to regulatory issues quickly. Because Finreg focuses exclusively on financial services regulation, it is not cluttered with irrelevant material. This makes for faster and more precise searching.

Finreg primarily covers UK regulation, but also includes developments at EU, US and global levels. Finreg includes the FSA Handbook and JMLSG guidelines online as well as news, rules guidance, articles, tools and training materials.

PwC is currently offering 30-day FREE trials of Finreg. For more information, please contact Paul Sanders on +44 (0)20 7212 5279.

** FOA members will receive a 20% discount on the
standard subscription price of Finreg **

	Automated Netting Module

Given the broad customer base of many FOA member firms (incorporating many different entity types and different jurisdictions) selecting the correct drafting options to ensure effective netting currently requires significant input from legal and documentation staff.

To reduce the amount of time spent in checking netting provisions, the FOA, in conjunction with Clifford Chance, have developed an Automated Netting Module that will assist firms in determining:

· whether the client or counterparty type is covered by an opinion
· which jurisdictions are relevant
· whether the transaction types are nettable
· whether automatic termination is required in a relevant jurisdiction
· whether a base currency restriction exists in that jurisdiction

The Automated Netting Module will prompt the user to consider the laws of the home state, any branches, exchanges and governing law of the agreement between the parties and will also suggest additional clauses where required (eg additional events of default or any additional warnings or language required by particular jurisdictions).

FOA member firms will enter the details as prompted by the module script. The Module then determines which jurisdictions are relevant, selects the appropriate drafting options, and assembles a schedule which can then accompany the Netting Module in the FOA standardised terms of business. The document can be used with the FOA Standardised Terms of Business as well as a stand-alone FOA Master Netting Agreement.

A briefing on the Automated Netting Module, incorporating a demonstration of the software, will take place on 25 November, 11 am - 12 noon at Clifford Chance, 200 Aldersgate Street, EC1. If you would like to attend, please contact Florence Briggs at the FOA.

	New Power Trading Forum

As you may be aware, the FOA has been active for some time in representing the interests of those of its members with an interest in the oil and energy markets, particularly in relation to some of the more adverse consequences flowing from the increasing scope of financial services regulation not just in the UK but in the wider context of EU legislation and regulatory standards. This has resulted in a growing number of specialist trading companies joining the association.

More recently, the Electricity Forward Agreement (EFA) Association have voted unanimously to join the FOA and to establish a new Power Trading Forum under the auspices of the FOA to represent their interests. This new Forum will be managed by a Power Trading Committee which will operate under agreed terms of reference. The Forum will focus on:

1. removing barriers to trading in the wholesale electricity market in Great Britain and, where appropriate, elsewhere;

2. developing, where appropriate by standardisation (including standardisation with documents used outside Great Britain), documents used in respect of trading in the wholesale electricity market in Great Britain; (e.g. GTMA revision);

3. liaising with international organisations, governments, regulatory authorities, trade bodies and others on issues relating to the wholesale electricity market in Great Britain (e.g. the proposal to include power derivatives within the ISD);

4. providing a forum for discussing issues relating to the wholesale electricity market in Great Britain;

5. disseminating and exchanging non-sensitive information or printing or publishing any written materials relating to the wholesale electricity market in Great Britain.

Participation in the new Forum is conditional on membership of the FOA which means that, as an existing member of the FOA, you may join the Forum at no extra cost.

There are two categories of membership to the Power Trading Forum (PTF):

Ordinary members - these members are eligible to vote at meetings and can stand for election to the Committee of the Forum. To qualify for Ordinary membership a firm must be an Ordinary member of the FOA and be a "Party" as defined in the Balancing and Settlement Code or take risks with his own funds in the wholesale electricity market in Great Britain, or part of it.

Associate members - these members are not eligible to vote at meetings and cannot stand for election to the Committee of the Forum.

The first annual meeting of the PTF will take place on 29 November. If you would like to attend, please contact Florence Briggs for an application form.