Financial Services UK

  • May 15, 2024

    Swiss Seek Feedback On Crypto Information Exchange

    Switzerland's executive body, the Federal Council, is seeking feedback from the public on its plan to adopt two Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development standards that will update the country's automatic exchanges of information to account for crypto-assets, it said Wednesday.

  • May 15, 2024

    Crypto 'Academy' Closed After Probe Into False Assurances

    A cryptocurrency firm that "recklessly" persuaded customers to put money into investment plans has been wound up after the government's insolvency agency found that the company had given false assurances and traded without regulatory approval.

  • May 15, 2024

    Watchdog Warns Bank CEOs Of Inadequate Recovery Plans

    The Prudential Regulation Authority told the chief executives of smaller U.K. banks and building societies in a letter on Wednesday that their companies should improve recovery plans, saying that they use insufficiently severe scenarios in testing.

  • May 15, 2024

    FCA Charges 3 For Alleged £8M Pension Fraud

    The Financial Conduct Authority said Wednesday it has charged three consultants over an alleged fraudulent investment scheme in which victims lost £8 million ($10.1 million) of their pension savings.

  • May 15, 2024

    Experts See Risks In FCA's Soft-Touch Response To AI

    The Financial Conduct Authority has so far failed to detail its rules on artificial intelligence and is moving toward a reliance on companies to self-report, putting it at risk of deferring excessively to the sector it regulates, legal experts say.

  • May 14, 2024

    Autonomy Overstated Revenue Before HP Sale, Jury Hears

    Autonomy's reported revenue was overstated by a combined $300 million in the two-and-a-half years before HP acquired it, an accounting expert testified Tuesday in a California criminal trial over claims that Autonomy founder Michael Lynch duped HP into buying his software company for an inflated $11.7 billion price.

  • May 14, 2024

    Christian Org. Staves Off Same-Sex Bias Trial With $120K Deal

    A Christian nonprofit has agreed to pay a Washington job candidate $120,000 to avoid a damages trial on claims it refused to hire her because she was in a same-sex marriage, though it said it would appeal the liability finding against it.

  • May 14, 2024

    Billionaire's Pilot Cops To Tax Count, Avoids Insider Trial

    A pilot from Virginia accused of profiting from stock tips fed to him by British billionaire Joe Lewis on Tuesday copped to dodging taxes on $500,000 of income from Lewis' company, in a plea deal that avoids an insider trading trial.

  • May 14, 2024

    UK Gov't Rules Out NDA Ban In Harassment Cases

    HM Treasury said Tuesday that the U.K. government will not commit to a legislative ban on nondisclosure agreements in harassment cases, rejecting a call from MPs to bring an end to the "abusive use" of NDAs to silence victims.

  • May 14, 2024

    UniCredit Bids To Toss $69M Plane Payment Sanctions Ruling

    UniCredit urged an appeals court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that it was not reasonable for its London branch to believe it was prohibited from making $69.3 million in payments to three Irish lessors tied to aircraft held in Russia because of Western sanctions.

  • May 14, 2024

    EU Watchdog Sets Anti-Greenwashing Guidelines For Funds

    The European Union's markets regulator on Tuesday published its final guidelines for firms using ESG terms in fund names, requiring 80% of the fund's investments to match the claimed criteria to combat greenwashing risk.

  • May 14, 2024

    Gov't To Add Legal Powers, Staff To Stop Benefits Fraud

    The Department for Work and Pensions said Tuesday it will support new legislation to expand its powers to make arrests and conduct searches in its crackdown on benefits fraud.

  • May 14, 2024

    EU Finance Ministers Strike Deal On Withholding Tax Refunds

    European Union finance ministers agreed Tuesday to a withholding tax refund law, as previous holdouts Poland and the Czech Republic withdrew their objections.

  • May 14, 2024

    UK Pension Scheme Funding Edges Up £2.8B

    The overall funding level of U.K. pension schemes edged up £2.8 billion ($3.5 billion) last month, according to official figures Tuesday, but experts warned that there was potential "volatility" on the horizon amid uncertainty over whether interest rates will change this year.

  • May 14, 2024

    Repository Denies Withholding Investment Data From Fund

    A securitization repository has denied "capriciously" withholding investment data from an investment fund, claiming that it never received a request for the information and did not know the fund existed.

  • May 14, 2024

    ATM Network Accuses Stripe Of Infringing 'Link' TMs

    The main ATM network in the U.K. has accused Stripe of infringing its trademarks and hijacking its reputation by providing a payments system under the "Link" name, telling a court that consumers associate this branding with the cash machine system in Britain.

  • May 13, 2024

    Irked Autonomy Judge Vents On HP Fraud Trial's Slow Pace

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Monday blasted lawyers for the government and two former Autonomy Corp. PLC executives in a criminal fraud case over the trial's slow progress, saying he's "annoyed," but also "complicit" because he "did not take more of a controlling posture."

  • May 13, 2024

    JP Morgan Battles Viva Wallet Founder Over Buyout Value

    J.P. Morgan International Finance Ltd. urged a London judge Monday to reject a payment company's "nonsensical" case over the investment bank's option to buy out its partner's stake in a joint venture fintech business.

  • May 13, 2024

    Barclays Can Keep $148M Russian Swaps Dispute In London

    Barclays has secured a permanent London court order preventing sanctioned Russian state investment company VEB from taking its $147.7 million swaps dispute with the bank away from the U.K. to an arbitration court in Moscow.

  • May 13, 2024

    Warning On Surge In Mortgages Going Beyond Retirement

    Almost half of new mortgages issued in Britain toward the end of 2023 reach beyond the state pension age, figures published on Monday show, raising the risk of an impending retirement crisis.

  • May 13, 2024

    EasyGroup Sues Vehicle Rental Co. Over 'EasyHire' TM

    EasyGroup has hit English car and van rental business Easihire with a trademark infringement claim, arguing that customers are likely to confuse Easihire with its own easyHire brand.

  • May 13, 2024

    Gov't Tells Finance, Law Watchdogs To Improve AML Reports

    HM Treasury and Britain's anti-money laundering watchdog have told professional bodies in sectors including law and accounting to sharpen the focus in their annual reports on failures in compliance and supervisory actions.

  • May 13, 2024

    Demand Grows For Cross-Border Pensions In Unstable States

    Cross-border pension and saving plans have more than doubled in just five years, with much of the growth in schemes covering employees in unstable countries, according to a survey published Monday.

  • May 10, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    The past week in London has seen Playtech file an intellectual property claim against online casino company OnAir Entertainment amid allegations of corporate spying, a broadcast equipment company sue its former owner amid allegations he conspired to inflate a customer’s finances, and aerospace company Vertical Aerospace hit a manufacturer with a claim following a test flight crash. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • May 10, 2024

    Commerzbank Analyst To Pay £20K After False Allegations

    A financial analyst has lost all his claims of harassment, sexual harassment, victimization and race discrimination at the hands of Commzerbank, as the Employment Tribunal found that some allegations were "pure inventions" and ordered him to hand over £20,000 ($25,000).

Expert Analysis

  • Audit Regulator Review Has Tips On Climate Metric Reporting

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    The U.K. Financial Reporting Council’s recent review of climate-related metrics and targets in listed companies’ annual reports is an extremely useful guide for issuers considering the quality of their disclosure reporting, with a number of key areas identified as central to further improvement, say lawyers at Bryan Cave.

  • What Russia Case Reveals About UK Sanctions Enforcement

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    The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation recently issued its first enforcement action under the U.K.'s expanded Russia sanctions against a relatively small company for a moderately severe breach — a decision that highlights several questions about the watchdog’s purpose and methods, say Maia Cohen-Lask and Tasha Benkhadra at Corker Binning.

  • Breaking Down The UK's Draft Updates To Prospectus Regime

    While there still may be changes, the U.K.'s near-final draft statutory instrument to update and in some parts replace the current on-shored EU prospectus regime is likely to represent a significant overhaul of the existing regime and may make U.K. capital markets a more attractive venue for listings for issuers, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Italy's Bank-Profits Tax Plan May Become Model For Eurozone

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    If Italy's recently proposed 40% bank-profits tax helps keep its populist coalition government in power, notwithstanding the European Central Bank's legal challenges, the passage could spark a windfall tax trend across the eurozone and even in the U.K., says Cris Cicala at Stinson.

  • Bitcoin Case Highlights Advanced Age Of UK's IP Law

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    An appellate court's recent decision in a case involving the copyright of bitcoin's file format emphasizes the role of copyright protection in software, and also the challenges of applying decades-old laws to new technologies, say Marianna Foerg and Ben Bell at Potter Clarkson.

  • Accountability Is Key To Preventing Miscarriages Of Justice

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    The wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson and other recent cases show that in order to avoid future miscarriages of justice, there needs to be a fundamental reevaluation of how investigators, prosecutors and the Criminal Cases Review Commission operate, prioritizing stronger penalties and increased funding, say Thomas Walford at Expert Evidence International and policy analyst Gerald Frost.

  • 4 Compliance Considerations Under FCA Consumer Duty

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    Following the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's recent introduction of the new consumer duty regime, firms will need to be mindful of data protection implications when managing their compliance with the duty and data protection legislation, say lawyers at Bird & Bird.

  • What Could Come Of CFPB, EU Consumer Finance Collab

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    A recent joint statement from the European Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau focused on how technology is affecting consumers of financial services, potentially recognizing that legal protections are lacking because tech regulations lag behind its development, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • 6 Key Factors For Successful Cross-Border Dispute Mediation

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    The European landscape of cross-border disputes diverges markedly from the U.S. experience and presents unique challenges, including the amalgamation of diverse cultures and legal systems, but there are several practical steps that practitioners can take to effectively navigate the process, says Peter Kamminga at JAMS.

  • Operational Resilience Considerations In Financial Services

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    A recent letter from the Financial Conduct Authority reminds CEOs of U.K. wholesale banks of their role in the safety and soundness of markets, but all firms can draw lessons and consider their own operational resilience for longer-term security and commercial benefit, says Richard Tall at Faegre Drinker.

  • UK Tech Cases Warn Of Liability Clause Drafting Pitfalls

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    The recent U.K. High Court cases Drax Energy Solutions v. Wipro and EE v. Virgin Mobile Telecoms indicate a more literal judicial approach to construing limitations of liability, even when this significantly limits a claimant's recoverable damages, highlighting the importance of carefully drafted liability provisions, say Helen Armstrong and Tania Williams at RPC.

  • How The UK Investment Screening Regime Is Taking Shape

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    A recent order imposing remedies on an acquisition by EDF Energy highlights emerging trends in the U.K. government's national security reviews of transactions under the U.K. National Security and Investment Act, and shows how the U.K. remedy landscape compares to the U.S. regime, say lawyers at Arnold & Porter.

  • Consultations Underpin Mandatory Fraud Victim Repayment

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    The U.K. Payment Systems Regulator’s recent consultations on authorized push payment fraud reinforce its June policy expectation, which said that unless there is evidence of gross negligence and the consumer standard of caution has not been followed, providers must reimburse fraud victims, say lawyers at Hogan Lovells.

  • Swiss Privacy Law Reforms Present Divergences From GDPR

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    The differences between Switzerland’s recently reformed Federal Act on Data Protection and the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, particularly around data breach reporting and the liability of company officers, will need to be carefully managed by multinationals that may have competing obligations under different laws, say Kim Roberts and Vanessa Alarcon Duvanel at King & Spalding.

  • New Legislation May Not Be Needed For Recovery Of Crypto

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    The recent seizure of cryptocurrency under a civil recovery order raises the issue of whether extended powers under the forthcoming Economic Crime Bill are necessary, with the ability to seize crypto-related items that may be the subject of a search order more likely to be of assistance, says Nicola McKinney at Quillon Law.

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