Each month our financial writers round up the top regulatory announcements and compliance changes to ensure our clients stay informed. We follow regulatory news and updates from ASIC, CySEC, MFSA, FCA, FSA, FRB, SEC, MiFID II to produce compliant content marketing for our clients. Here’s our financial regulations roundup for March 2026.
CLARITY Act Deadlock Continues
The deadlock of the closely-watched Market Structure Bill continued in the United States with a White House meeting between representatives from the banking and crypto industry failing to deliver a breakthrough. The bill, which is popularly known as CLARITY, was designed to separate regulatory duties between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with the latter getting more roles.
This bill failed in the Senate Banking Committee after Coinbase withdrew its support, citing the restrictions on stablecoin yield by crypto exchanges. The bill prevents crypto exchanges from offering stablecoin rewards because of urging from banks and credit unions, which argue that doing so will lead to cash outflows from their institutions.
Court Denies Petition to Pause Nevada Efforts
The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court denied a petition to pause Nevada’s top regulator efforts to block offering event contracts. As a result, the Nevada Gaming Control Board filed a lawsuit seeking to prohibit top prediction platforms from offering the services in the state.
At the same time, the CFTC filed an amicus brief arguing that it has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets. This happened as the prediction markets continued growing, with popular platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket handling billions of dollars in transactions a month. The question that could determine the future of prediction markets nationwide: Are sites like Kalshi and Polymarket federally regulated financial exchanges or unregulated sportsbooks operating outside of state gambling laws?
FCA Plans to Publish All Trading Data for London-Listed Shares
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is aiming to tackle a drastic under-reporting of market liquidity that has pushed more companies to move their primary listings to the United States. Some of the most notable companies that have moved their shares to the US are CRH, Flutter Entertainment, and Wise.
It now plans to collect and publish all share-trading data from different venues, including exchange and dark pools. FCA believes that most market share liquidity data is under-reported because it is based on the LSE central limit order book and excludes many trades. In a statement, a top FCA official said:
People in the market know this is a problem. But it does dog us because sometimes when an issuer has historically chosen to move from the UK to the US, one of the thoughts is that liquidity is lower in the UK and often it’s not true.
Federal Reserve Supports Banks Flexibility
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has expressed openness for banks to have more flexibility so they can compete with non-banking companies like those in the private credit industry.
In a statement, Michele Bowman, the Vice Chair for Supervision said:
Non-bank financial institutions continue to increase their share of the total lending market, creating strong competition for regulated banks without facing the same capital, liquidity, and other prudential standards.
The statement came as companies continue gaining market share in the lending industry, where they have accumulated over $1.8 trillion in assets under management. This growth has started showing strains, with stocks in the industry falling.
HKMA Starts Processing Applications for Stablecoin Issuer Licenses
Other major regulatory news came from Hong Kong, where the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will issue its first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses in March this year in a limited tranche. This rollout will be positioned to prioritize financial stability and user protection over speed.
The report came as stablecoins have become highly popular in the financial industry, with over $308 billion in assets today, with the most notable ones being Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). It also happened in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization industry that continued growing.
HKMA wants to ensure that exchanges and brokers will have more rules to onboard, screen, segregate, and disclosure verification. The new developments happened as a new cybersecurity law for critical infrastructure, including banking and financial services came into force.
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