The Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Bill 2022 - Update

• Law Firm: Dillon Eustace
• Subject Matter: Finance and Banking, Financial Services
• Author: Mr John O'Riordan, Peter Bredin and Rachel Turner
• Published date: 06 January 2023

As readers will be aware from our previous briefing, the Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Bill (the "Bill") was published in July 2022.

The Bill proposes to:

• introduce a new "Senior Executive Accountability Regime" for those discharging senior executive functions in the financial services industry;
• enhance the existing fitness and probity regime operated by the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank");
• extend and clarify the powers of the Central Bank under its administrative sanctions procedure; and
• introduce new conduct standards for all financial services service providers.

Last month, the Bill completed the "Committee Stage" during which provisions of the Bill were debated and considered by the D'il Finance Committee (the "Committee").All of the proposed amendments to the Bill put forward by the Minister for Finance were approved by the Committee without objection.

The Bill is now currently awaiting "Report Stage". It is expected to move to the Seanad for consideration early this year.

Key Amendments

While many of the amendments proposed by the Minister and approved by the Committee were technical in nature, some of the key amendments are considered below.

In the main, the amendments relate to Part 3 and Part 4 of the Bill, regarding the Central Bank's powers in relation to officers etc. of financial service providers and the structures and procedures of the Administrative Sanctions Procedure of the Central Bank.

• Procedures for issuing suspension notices: The Bill includes provisions introducing the ability of the Central Bank to issue a suspension notice to a person who has already been subject to a prohibition notice by the Central Bank (whether or not there has been any investigation into that person's fitness and probity to carry out the controlled function assigned to them).

The amendments made to the Bill also provide greater clarity on the nature of the submissions a suspended person or entity may make in respect of a suspension notice and the timeframe within which such submissions must be made.

• The definition of "authorised officer" for the purposes of the Administrative Sanctions Regime: This definition has been extended to include any person appointed by the Central Bank as an "authorised officer" under any designated enactment or statutory instrument. This is to support new sections inserted into the Bill to provide for fairness of procedures in the Central Bank's investigation processes following the Supreme...