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Financial Services UK
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April 10, 2024
EY Law Helps Alisa Bank Merge With Fintech In €10.4M Deal
Finnish digital lender Alisa Bank PLC said it plans to merge with PURO Finance Ltd. in a deal that values the invoice financing company at €10.4 million ($11.3 million).
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April 10, 2024
FCA Records Decline In Households In Financial Difficulty
The number of households in financial difficulty tumbled by 38% in the 12 months to January, the finance watchdog said Wednesday, adding that more than seven million people were struggling to pay bills and credit repayments compared with almost 11 million a year earlier.
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April 10, 2024
Russian Tycoons Win Initial Fight Over EU Sanctions
Russian businessmen Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven have beaten the initial European sanctions imposed against them as a European Union court ruled Wednesday that they were unjustifiable, although their assets will continue to be restrained under newer measures.
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April 09, 2024
'You're Going To Lose These People,' Judge Tells Lynch Atty
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Tuesday chided a Steptoe partner representing former Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch in his criminal fraud jury trial, saying that his hourslong questioning of a Deloitte partner shouldn't go on much longer, or "you're going to lose these people."
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April 09, 2024
Pension Scheme End-Game Options Rising, Consultancy Says
A rise in funding means U.K pension schemes have more end-game options, consultancy Broadstone said Tuesday, as the aggregate surplus of thousands of defined benefit schemes increased to £455.5 billion ($578.4 billion) by the end of March.
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April 09, 2024
Labour Party Pledges £5.1B Tax Crackdown If Elected
Britain's opposition Labour Party pledged Tuesday to raise £5.1 billion ($6.5 billion) by closing tax loopholes and cracking down on tax avoidance schemes if it wins the next election, expected later this year.
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April 09, 2024
Gov't Urged To Ban Cash Incentives For Pension Switching
The government should ban pension providers from offering cash incentives for savers to switch plans because the practice encourages people to ignore the "fine print" and move over to a worse option, new research by a provider of retirement savings plans suggests.
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April 09, 2024
HSBC To Take $1B Hit From Sale Of Argentina Unit
HSBC said Tuesday that it will book a $1 billion loss on the sale of its business in Argentina to local lender Grupo Financiero Galicia, as the London-based bank continues to shift its focus to Asia.
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April 16, 2024
Charles Russell Speechlys Hires Banking And Finance Lawyer
Charles Russell Speechlys LLP has appointed Philip Withey, a lawyer from Womble Bond, as partner in its banking and finance practice in a move the firm believes will boost its business.
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April 08, 2024
Ex-Autonomy Exec Says Boss's Invoice Ask Caused Concern
A former Autonomy finance employee took the stand Monday in the criminal fraud trial of ex-CEO Michael Lynch and finance director Stephen Chamberlain, telling a California federal jury that he was "not comfortable" with one of Chamberlain's invoice requests and was sacked after raising concerns about accounting irregularities.
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April 08, 2024
Canada's High Court Enforces Award In Greek Defense Suit
The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed the enforcement of an arbitral award in a dispute over a contract between aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc. and Greece's Ministry of National Defence, saying a Canadian bank had to refuse payment to the beneficiary of a letter of credit because of fraud.
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April 08, 2024
£54M Claimed From Failed Financial Services Last Year
The U.K.'s lifeboat scheme said Monday it has recovered £54 million ($68 million) in the financial year ended March 31 from the estates of failed financial services companies.
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April 15, 2024
Kirkland Hires Leveraged Finance Pro From Allen & Overy
Kirkland & Ellis LLP has recruited a debt finance specialist from Allen & Overy LLP as it continues to rebuild in the United Kingdom after undergoing a string of departures to rival U.S. law firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP in late 2023.
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April 08, 2024
Attwells Denies Breaking Promise In £1.2M Loan Dispute
Attwells Solicitors LLP has denied promising that it was acting on behalf of a man who, the law firm says, was probably fraudulently posing as the owner of two properties in a move to borrow £775,000 ($980,000) from a finance company.
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April 08, 2024
Gowling, Osborne Clarke Steer £60M Tech Co. Pension Deal
Insurer Just Group said Monday it has completed a £60 million ($75.7 million) buy-in of a pension scheme sponsored by technology companies Epson (UK) Ltd. and Epson Europe BV, in a deal guided by Gowling WLG and Osborne Clarke.
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April 08, 2024
Pension Schemes Considering Alternatives For End Goal
Pension plans need to carefully weigh a range of options for their end game strategies, a professional services firm said, as retirement savings scheme funding continues to hover around near record levels.
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April 08, 2024
Grant Thornton Fined For Audit Compliance Breaches
The Financial Reporting Council said Monday it has fined accounting firm Grant Thornton £40,000 ($50,500) for failing to comply with audit regulations in its work on a local authority's pension fund.
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April 15, 2024
Hill Dickinson Hires 2 Teams From Irwin Mitchell
Hill Dickinson LLP has recruited two groups of real estate specialists from Irwin Mitchell LLP for its new office in Birmingham after a corporate team made a similar move earlier in the year.
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April 05, 2024
High Court Limits Use Of Confidential Info In $3.7B Asset Fight
Relatives of a dead Russian oligarch and an investment company accused of international fraud on Friday partially succeeded in obtaining an order to prevent the alleged misuse of their confidential information.
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April 05, 2024
UK Urges Delay In Claiming Pensions Until Rules Change
The U.K. tax authority has warned people to delay claiming their pensions until after Saturday, when the lifetime allowance is abolished, while the government clarifies technical changes to the legislation.
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April 05, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen the BBC sued by former Georgian defense minister David Kezerashvili, Russian businessman Ildar Sharipov file a defamation claim against the publisher of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, MEX Group Worldwide sue Barclays and NatWest, and a climbing gear company hit retailer Next with a claim of copyright infringement. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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April 05, 2024
6 Questions For Paul Hastings' Stuart Alford KC
Paul Hastings LLP's new partner, Stuart Alford KC, is a former senior official at the Serious Fraud Office and has worked at two heavyweight U.S. firms, Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins. Here, he talks to Law360 about his career and about white-collar crime.
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April 05, 2024
18 Crime Gangs Specialize In VAT Fraud, Europol Says
Eighteen major criminal gangs in the European Union specialize in value-added tax fraud, having end-to-end control over the entire criminal process, the EU's law enforcement agency said Friday.
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April 05, 2024
Allens-Guided Experian To Acquire Peer Illion For $540M
Experian PLC has agreed to buy Australasian rival credit analyst illion for up to $820 million Australian dollars ($540 million), as the Ireland-based global financial data specialist moves to bolster its presence in the region's growing credit reporting market.
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April 05, 2024
Retired Rabbi To Return £2.3M To Charities After NCA Probe
A retired rabbi will return £2.35 million ($3 million) to two charities after he kept the money rather than distribute it for its intended legitimate causes, the National Crime Agency said on Friday.
Expert Analysis
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Economic Crime Act Exposure: What Companies Can Expect
The intention of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act is to make it easier to attribute criminal liability to companies if a senior manager has committed an offense, but the impact on corporate criminal convictions depends on who qualifies as a senior manager and the evidential challenges in showing it, say Hayley Ichilcik and Julius Handler at MoFo.
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FCA Promotions Review Sends A Strong Message To Firms
The recent FCA review into firms' compliance with the rules on promoting high-risk investments to retail clients clarifies that it expects the letter and the spirit of the rules to be followed, and given the interplay with the consumer duty, there are wider implications at stake, say Marina Reason and Chris Hurn at Herbert Smith.
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When Can Bonuses Be Clawed Back?
The High Court's recent decision in Steel v. Spencer should remind employees that the contractual conditions surrounding bonuses and the timing of any resignation must be carefully considered, as in certain circumstances, bonuses can and are being successfully clawed back by employers, say Merrill April and Rachael Parker at CM Murray.
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The State Of UK Litigation Funding After Therium Ruling
The recent English High Court decision in Therium v. Bugsby Property has provided a glimmer of hope for litigation funders about how courts will interpret this summer's U.K. Supreme Court ruling that called funding agreements impermissible, suggesting that its adverse effects may be mitigated, says Daniel Williams at DWF Law.
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UK Shareholding Report A Missed Opportunity For New Tech
The recommendations in the U.K. Digitization Taskforce's recent report on digitizing and improving the U.K. shareholding framework are moderate but not revolutionary, and its failure to recommend digital ledger technology will impede a full transformation of the system, say Tom Bacon and Andrew Tsang at BCLP.
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Tools M&A Deal Makers Can Use To Bridge Valuation Gaps
As macroeconomic headwinds reset valuation expectations, parties to merger and acquisition are increasingly looking to methods such as earnouts, vendor financing and minority transactions to bridge the valuation gap and get deals done, says Philip Herbst at Cleary.
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Navigating The Novel Challenges Facing The Legal Profession
The increasing prominence of ESG and AI have transformed the legal landscape and represent new opportunities for lawyers, but with evolving regulations and the ever-expanding reach of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, law firms should ensure that they have appropriate policies in place to adapt to these challenges, say Scott Ashby and Aimee Talbot at RPC.
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Deal Over Jets Stranded In Russia May Serve As Blueprint
In the face of a pending "mega-trial" over leased airplanes held in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, a settlement between leading aviation lessor AerCap Holdings NV and NSK, the Russian state-controlled insurance company, could pave the way for similar deals, say Samantha Zaozirny and Timeyin Pinnick at Browne Jacobson.
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Economic Crime Act Brings Changes For Limited Partnerships
The recently passed Economic Crime Act introduces significant financial transparency obligations for new and existing U.K. limited partnerships, and with criminal consequences for noncompliance, a degree of advance consideration is strongly advised, say Amelia Stawpert and Alex Jones at Hogan Lovells.
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ESMA Report Offers A Glimpse At EU's Securitization Future
The European Securities and Markets Authority’s recent overview of the EU securitization sector suggests a growing market for both investors and businesses and offers useful insight into future regulatory priorities, says Alan Bunbury at Matheson.
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What The Auto-Enrollment Law Means For UK Workforce
In a welcome step to enhance retirement savings, the U.K. government is set to extend the automatic enrollment regime by lowering the eligibility age and reducing the lower qualifying earnings limit, but addressing workers' immediate financial needs remains a challenge, says Beth Brown at Arc Pensions.
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UAE Bank Case Offers Lessons On Enforcing Foreign Rulings
The High Court recently clarified in Invest Bank v. El-Husseini that foreign judgment debts may be enforceable in England, despite being unenforceable in their jurisdiction of origin, which should remind practitioners that foreign judgments will be recognized in England if they are final and conclusive in their court of origin, say lawyers at Macfarlanes.
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Revised OECD Guidelines Key In Shaping Business Standards
The OECD’s recent revised guidelines on responsible business conduct, supported by a domestic government agencies’ grievance referral mechanism, have already influenced EU due diligence standards, and enterprises engaging in the unique procedure will benefit from case-specific nuances, parallel proceedings and the availability of confidentiality protections, say lawyers at Debevoise.
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Libor Fallback To Prime May Increase Corporate Loan Costs
Despite preparations and legislative actions related to the transition away from Libor earlier this year, there remains a contingent of corporate borrowers that have fallen through the cracks and could face increased costs if their loans default to prime rates, say Nathan Moore and Dana Bradley at WilmerHale.
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Report Can Aid With Sustainable Finance Disclosure Filings
The European Supervisory Authorities recently issued a report on companies' consideration of the principal adverse impacts of their investment decisions on sustainability factors, providing examples of good and bad disclosure practices under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which firms should note in their future reporting, say lawyers at Debevoise.