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Financial Services UK

  • Featured

    Questions Linger After Early Win For New UK Dirty Money Law

    By Richard Crump

    A London court has dismissed the first challenge to new "dirty money" powers that allow British authorities to force wealthy people to explain how they obtained their riches if the wealth is suspected to be the proceeds of crime, but lawyers are unsure how effective the new enforcement tool will be.

  • December 19, 2018

    Santander Fined £33M For Failing To Pass On Inheritances

    Santander UK PLC has been slapped with a £32.8 million ($41.5 million) fine for failing to pass the money of customers who have died to their families, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Wednesday.

  • December 18, 2018

    Apple Settles Swiss Antitrust Case Over Payment App

    Switzerland’s competition authority has closed an investigation into the launch of Apple Pay in the country after the tech giant agreed to take steps to make sure its rollout of the program doesn’t interfere with a similar app used by Swiss banks at cash registers.

  • December 18, 2018

    NY Fines Barclays $15M Over CEO's Whistleblower Hunt

    New York’s top banking regulator has hit Barclays with a $15 million fine as part of a settlement announced Tuesday resolving claims stemming from the agency’s investigation into a push by the bank’s CEO to smoke out the source of two 2016 whistleblower letters that raised concerns about a recently hired executive.

  • December 18, 2018

    MP Says Lloyds Bank Must Explain Role In HBOS Fraud

    A Conservative Party lawmaker has called on Parliament to investigate how executives at Lloyds Banking Group PLC established a compensation scheme for victims of a massive fraud at HBOS PLC, claiming the scheme is a scam to prevent small businesses from being paid out. 

  • December 18, 2018

    PrivatBank’s Bid To Widen $2.6B Asset Freeze Dismissed

    A London appellate court on Tuesday dismissed a set of claims by Ukrainian PrivatBank and its former owners that a lower court judge was wrong when he ruled on whether several transactions were exempt from a $2.6 billion worldwide freezing order or not.

  • December 18, 2018

    Trust Denies Owing £1M Over Failed Caribbean Resort

    A Guernsey-based trust manager on Tuesday denied owing more than £1 million ($1.26 million) after investors lost money in a failed Caribbean resort, telling a London court that it held no duty of care to the savers.

  • December 18, 2018

    Court Of Appeals Won't Stay Russian Bank's $20M Loan Suit

    An appeals court in London on Tuesday refused to halt a Russian bank's $20 million lawsuit accusing International Bank of Azerbaijan of failing to repay a loan after the Azeri lender restructured amid financial woes, saying the bank can't permanently stop English creditors from pursuing their claims.

  • December 18, 2018

    FCA Clamps Down On Exorbitant Bank Overdraft Fees

    U.K. banks could be banned from charging higher fees to customers with unarranged overdrafts, the Financial Conduct Authority said Tuesday, in what the regulator called the biggest market shake-up “for a generation.”

  • December 18, 2018

    BoE Tells Banks To Publish Resolution Plans By 2021

    The Bank of England told the U.K.’s major banks on Tuesday that they must publicly disclose their plans for winding down without a taxpayer handout if they go bust, as it plans to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis.

  • December 18, 2018

    UK Gov't Report Calls For Audit Watchdog To Be Scrapped

    The accounting watchdog is a “hangover from a different era” and should be replaced with a new and more powerful independent statutory regulator, a U.K. government report published Tuesday recommends.

  • December 18, 2018

    EU Agrees On Plan To Cut Back On 'Bad' Bank Loans

    The European Council and Parliament said on Tuesday they have agreed on a proposed regulation that will force banks to set aside more funds to prevent new loans from turning bad, in a move aimed at reducing the banking sector’s near-$1 trillion mountain of debt.

  • December 18, 2018

    Big Four Face Major Audit Shake-Up In Watchdog's Reforms

    The U.K.’s antitrust enforcer proposed radical new laws on Tuesday to break auditing services away from consultancy work at the Big Four global accounting companies, in a drive to tackle "deep-seated problems" and concerns about conflicts of interest.

  • December 17, 2018

    Ex-SocGen Exec In Libor-Rigging Row Disputes Fugitive Label

    Attorneys for a former Société Générale SA executive accused of falsifying the Paris bank's submissions to the London Interbank Offered Rate argued Monday that living in France doesn't make their client a fugitive and urged a New York judge to consider the case's constitutionality.

  • December 17, 2018

    Bank Exec Seeks Time Served After FATCA Conviction

    The former CEO of the offshore Loyal Bank Ltd. asked a Brooklyn federal judge on Monday to let him avoid prison after he admitted helping a purported fraudster hide income from United States authorities in the first conviction under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2010.

  • December 17, 2018

    May Schedules New Vote On Brexit Deal For January

    U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday she will ask Parliament to vote on her Brexit plan early next month, just days after European negotiators said they won't rework the withdrawal agreement amid widespread opposition from British lawmakers. 

  • December 17, 2018

    UBS Fined $15M For Weak Money Laundering Detection

    Three U.S. regulatory bodies hit two American units of Swiss banking giant UBS Group AG with $15 million in fines Monday for not investing in resources necessary to combat money laundering since at least 2004, the agencies said in coordinated announcements.

  • December 17, 2018

    TP ICAP Sues Former Deal Partner Over Disclosure Failures

    Interdealer broker giant TP ICAP has sued Nex Group Ltd. in London, claiming the trading company failed to disclose risks of litigation linked to its employee income insurance plan when negotiating the £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) deal for Nex's voice broker group. 

  • December 17, 2018

    Threats Prompt Deutsche Bank To Take Swaps Fight To UK

    Deutsche Bank AG has hit back against legal demands in Italy over two interest rate swaps it set up for a municipal office in the lead-up to the financial crisis by suing the state-run body in the English courts instead.

  • December 17, 2018

    FCA Floats New No-Deal Brexit Rules For Firms

    The Financial Conduct Authority ratcheted up preparations for a no-deal Brexit on Monday by releasing proposed rules for European Union financial services firms whose temporary work wraps up after March so they might see out their contracts "in an orderly fashion." 

  • December 17, 2018

    EBA Criticizes Banks For Failing To Explain Brexit Risks

    The European Banking Authority warned lenders on Monday to explain the risks of Brexit to customers as quickly as possible, as the U.K. Parliament geared up for a key vote on leaving the European Union as soon as Jan. 14.

Expert Analysis

  • Last-Minute Brexit Preparations For EU Financial Firms

    Gilles Kolifrath

    As the deadline for a hard Brexit draws ever closer, financial firms operating in the United Kingdom or European Union must consider how possible outcomes will impact transactions and contractual relationships, and take steps to mitigate business interruptions, say Gilles Kolifrath and Linda Sharkey of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.

  • UK Financial Services Industry Faces 'Cliff Edge' Scenario

    Chris Bryant

    Though the United Kingdom has reached an agreement with the European Union regarding its withdrawal, the U.K. Parliament is unlikely to approve it. Much of the U.K.'s financial industry is still preparing for a "no deal" outcome, says Chris Bryant of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.

  • Opinion

    Why We Need Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Awards

    Eric Havian

    The recent Mossack Fonseca indictments and Deutsche Bank raid would not have been possible without the whistleblower behind the Panama Papers leak. But there is no incentive for rooting out the type of criminal money laundering revealed here, creating a large enforcement gap, say Eric Havian and Michael Ronickher of Constantine Cannon LLP.

  • What To Expect From Serious Fraud Office In 2019

    Anna Gaudoin

    The coming year looks to be an interesting one for the U.K. Serious Fraud Office. With new Director Lisa Osofsky firmly in post, expectations are high that she will shake things up in the next few months, say Anna Gaudoin and Alison Geary of WilmerHale.

  • A Closer Look At New Calif. Pension Fund Climate Law

    Kristie Blase

    Landmark California legislation going into effect in January requires the two largest pension funds in the U.S. to publicly report on their climate-related financial risks, which should result in more widespread adoption of financial disclosure recommendations from the Financial Stability Board, say attorneys with CKR Law LLP.

  • A Long Accountability Journey For Financial Cos. Post-GDPR

    James Drury-Smith

    The EU General Data Protection Regulation's accountability principle obligates organizations to provide evidence of compliance — one of the biggest changes brought about by the GDPR. Though the concept is simple, embedding accountability into financial services firms' operations and culture will not be achieved overnight, say experts at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

  • Société Générale: Sanctions Enforcement Is Alive And Well

    Ama Adams

    The recent settlement between Société Générale and U.S. regulators illustrates that U.S. sanctions enforcement authorities may be shifting their attention back to large financial institutions after several years of relatively quiet enforcement across the financial services industry, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.

  • Why English Courts Are Prepared To Assist Cyber Victims

    Fiona Cain

    This year, a number of cases have illustrated how English courts are dealing with legal hurdles for cybercrime victims and making it easier to obtain a freezing order or injunction under such circumstances, says Fiona Cain of Haynes and Boone LLP.

  • Illegality Defense Developments In UK And Cayman Islands

    James Elliott

    Recent cases in the United Kingdom and Cayman Islands show that the broader test for application of the illegality defense endorsed in Patel v. Mirza appears to be more suitable than the previous Tinsley test, but it is now harder to predict the outcome of individual cases, say James Elliott and William Peake of Harney Westwood & Riegels LLP.

  • UK Privacy Rules That Can Catch You Off Guard

    Alexander Edwards

    The recent data breach scandal involving the Leave.EU campaign shows that the U.K. Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations is often overlooked by businesses, says Alexander Edwards of Rosling King LLP.