Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said more testing of AI models is needed both before and after deployment, ahead of any regulatory framework. Bailey’s remarks signal the central bank’s cautious stance on overseeing AI, with testing requirements positioned as a precondition for regulation rather than a parallel track. He did not specify a timeline or which models would be covered.

TREE NEWS update: The Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee said the likelihood of simultaneous financial risks has risen since July, citing longer-lasting supply shocks from higher oil and gas prices and vulnerabilities in frontier AI. The FPC plans to set out proposals for bank leverage ratio reform and gilt repo reform in early 2027, with market-based gilt repo reform intended to mitigate risks from leverage ratio changes. Financial markets have so far shown resilience to rising energy prices and bond yields.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Press and Publication Administration released its September 2026 approval list for domestic online games, clearing 206 titles. The batch is the latest monthly licensing round for the world’s largest gaming market, where publishers must secure a licence before a game can be commercially released. The regulator published the list covering domestic titles only.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Commerce extended its trade-barrier investigation into US practices and measures obstructing green product trade until December 27, 2026, citing the case’s complexity. The probe was opened on March 27, 2026 under Announcement No. 18, invoking the Foreign Trade Law and the ministry’s trade-barrier investigation rules.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Commerce said it will extend its trade barrier investigation into US measures it says disrupt global industrial and supply chains, pushing the deadline to December 27, 2026. The probe was opened on March 27, 2026 under Article 17 of the ministry’s 2026 announcement, citing the Foreign Trade Law and the Foreign Trade Barrier Investigation Rules. The ministry said the case is complex and invoked Article 32 of the rules to justify the extension.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Cyberspace Administration issued a notice launching a nationwide two-month campaign targeting fake personas in short videos, including people posing as members of vulnerable groups and fabricated professional credentials. The special action, named “Qinglang: Rectifying Fake Persona Chaos in Short Videos,” covers two listed problem categories. No end date or enforcement figures were given.

TREE NEWS update: The Shanghai Futures Exchange said its board has approved a revised management measure for accounts under actual control relationships, with the amendment reported to the China Securities Regulatory Commission and now published. The revised rules take effect on October 20, 2026. The measure governs how the exchange identifies and manages trading accounts linked by actual control.

TREE NEWS update: China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange has drafted revisions to the implementation rules for balance-of-payments statistical reporting through banks, originally issued under Huifa [2022] No. 22, and released the draft for public comment. The proposed amended rules cover how cross-border payment data is reported via banks. No deadline or detailed changes were disclosed in the notice.

TREE NEWS update: China’s national metrological technical specification for smart glasses acoustic performance testing will take effect on October 2, the State Administration for Market Regulation said. The standard sets a unified technical yardstick for testing the acoustic performance of smart glasses, the regulator said. It applies nationwide as a national metrological technical specification.

TREE NEWS update: European stablecoin issuer AllUnity is launching USDAU, its fourth fiat-backed stablecoin and its first pegged to the US dollar, expanding a lineup that already includes euro, Swiss franc and Swedish krona tokens. The new token will be backed 1:1 by segregated reserves and debuts on Ethereum, Solana, Base, Tempo, Arc and Polygon. AllUnity said the product is compliant with the EU’s MiCA rules.

TREE NEWS update: Six major Chinese banks — ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China — announced they will provide “apply-and-receive” interest subsidies on commercial individual housing loans, effective tomorrow. The move follows a notice on the mortgage interest subsidy policy issued by the Ministry of Finance, the People’s Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

TREE NEWS update: European stablecoin issuer AllUnity has launched USDAU, a fiat-backed US dollar stablecoin. It is the company’s fourth fiat-backed stablecoin, joining a MiCA-regulated lineup that already covers the euro, Swiss franc and Swedish krona. The launch expands AllUnity’s regulated stablecoin offering in Europe.

TREE NEWS update: The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance published a crypto FAQ on September 25, clarifying how staff applies the March framework to token buybacks, staking receipt tokens, post-launch development and secondary-market platforms. Staff said buybacks announced on a functional network do not constitute a promise of key managerial efforts, but buybacks framed as holder returns on a non-functional network may. The answers are staff opinion, not rules, and carry no legal force.

TREE NEWS update: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China published announcements on September 30 on implementing the residential housing loan interest subsidy policy, saying they are advancing subsidy work for commercial personal housing loans, streamlining procedures and offering the service to eligible customers. The six banks said they charge no fees for the business and warned consumers to guard against fraudsters citing the subsidy.

TREE NEWS update: Former CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz said the CLARITY Act is not the only path to crypto regulatory certainty, arguing the SEC and CFTC can use their exemptive authority to fill the gap. He made the remarks at Korea Blockchain Week 2026. Quintenz did not specify which exemptions or timelines would apply.

TREE NEWS update: Illinois’ draft rules spell out how its 0.2% digital asset transaction tax would apply to stablecoins, DeFi platforms, crypto bridges and self-custody transfers. The proposal marks one of the first US state-level attempts to define the tax treatment of decentralized finance activity and stablecoin transactions.

TREE NEWS update: President Trump hosted a White House lunch on September 29 with roughly 20 tech leaders and signed the ‘White House Superintelligence Agreement: Shared Commitment to Frontier Responsibility’ with Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI and xAI. Trump said he will not pursue new federal AI safety rules, favoring industry self-regulation. He later signed an executive order renaming federal ‘artificial intelligence’ as ‘Super Intelligence’ (SI).

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Development and Reform Commission has drafted the Measures for the Prevention and Control of Power Market Risks and released the exposure draft for public comment. The draft sets out risk-control rules for the country’s electricity market. The commission is soliciting feedback from the public on the text.

TREE NEWS update: The 2026 Financial Street Forum Annual Meeting will be held in Beijing’s Financial Street from October 19 to 22. The event is co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal Government together with the People’s Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Xinhua News Agency and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.