Financial Services UK

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From Russia With Love? UK Lawyers Mull Sanctions U-Turn

Finance companies are enlisting white-collar lawyers to draw up plans for tapping back into Russia if the U.S. breaks with its Western allies and eases sanctions, although experts warn that unpredictable political winds mean there are as many risks as opportunities.

Mortgage application form stock photo, close-up

UK Mortgage 'Coercion' Ruling Raises Bank Liability Risk

A decision by the U.K. Supreme Court on Wednesday could substantially increase the liability on mortgage lenders to undertake checks on their customers, raising implications for repossessions in a move that is likely to require new rules from the Financial Conduct Authority, according to lawyers.

Bigger Isn't Better In £25B Pensions Megafund Reform

The U.K. government unveiled on Thursday a sweeping reform program to drive the creation of new pension megafunds with the firepower to invest more in the U.K. economy — but experts warn this could stifle competition and "put a gun" to providers' heads.

Entrance to the UK Supreme Court in London

UK Supreme Court Boosts Creditor Protection In Fraud Cases

Britain's highest court has handed administrators more power to pursue businesses that turn a blind eye to fraud, with a ruling on Wednesday that will bolster protection for creditors and could raise the stakes for companies flying too close to the wind, lawyers say.

June 10, 2025
Innsworth Seeks Review Of £200M Mastercard Settlement Split

Litigation funder Innsworth announced Tuesday it was launching a High Court challenge to how the Competition Appeal Tribunal decided to distribute a £200 million ($270 million) settlement reached between Mastercard and Walter Merricks to end litigation over credit card fees.
June 10, 2025
CMS Faces £10M Negligence Claim Over Investec Debt Advice

A property developer has alleged that law firm CMS owes him at least £10 million ($14 million) for negligent advice concerning a debt-restructuring plan that he says he never would have agreed to if he had been given proper warning.
June 10, 2025
Greensill Says He Was Trapped In Katerra Restructuring Deal

Lex Greensill said Tuesday that he was "between a rock and a hard place" in a restructuring deal involving his eponymous firm and SoftBank, a Japanese investment company, as the former banker gave evidence in a $440 million trial in London of a claim brought by a collapsed Credit Suisse fund.
June 10, 2025
UK Treasury Committee Warns HMRC Over Phishing Attack

A British treasury committee warned HM Revenue & Customs in a letter published Tuesday that its failure to report details of a breach affecting around 100,000 taxpayers is unacceptable.
June 10, 2025
Apple, Sony Fight Class Reps Over New Legal Funding Deals

Apple, Visa, Mastercard and Sony told the Court of Appeal Tuesday that funding agreements driving multiple competition class action claims in the U.K. are unlawful and unenforceable.
June 10, 2025
Insolvency Service Hires Crypto-Specialist To Aid Recoveries

A U.K. government agency responsible for investigating company insolvencies has appointed its first crypto-specialist to help recover digital assets such as bitcoin for creditors.
June 10, 2025
Expanding FCA Taps Ex-Crime Agency Exec As Deputy CEO

The Financial Conduct Authority said Tuesday that it has appointed Sarah Pritchard, a qualified litigator and former director of the National Economic Crime Centre, as deputy chief executive to handle its expanding remit.
June 10, 2025
FCA's Rathi Tries To Gauge Gov't Risk Appetite For Crypto

The Financial Conduct Authority warned a cross-party group of MPs on Tuesday it needed a steer on the government's risk appetite for crypto-assets amid the push for U.K. competitiveness and economic growth.
June 10, 2025
Ex-Sky Sports Host Gets 11-Year Director Ban Over £10M Debt

Former Sky Sports presenter Alan Bentley has been banned from running companies for 11 years after his football betting business collapsed with debts to investors of more than £10 million ($13.5 million), the Insolvency Service revealed Tuesday.
June 10, 2025
FCA Unveils Rules For Private Stock Market Launch

The Financial Conduct Authority set out rules on Tuesday for its world-first regulated stock market for private companies in the latest bid by Britain to boost growth and provide alternatives to London's ailing equity capital market.
June 09, 2025
Media Biz Chair Who Misled Investors Told To Buy Out Shares

The chairman of a media company has been ordered to buy out a minority shareholder after a London appeals court said Monday that he had deliberately deceived investors about his attempts to work towards selling the company.
June 09, 2025
Lex Greensill Claims SoftBank Hid Deal With 'Code Of Silence'

Lex Greensill testified in a $440 million London trial Monday that SoftBank, a Japanese investment company, had designed a restructuring agreement involving his firm to avoid putting potential losses on its accounts in his first public appearance since his eponymous firm's collapse.
June 09, 2025
Investment Biz CEO Hit For £2.8M Over Exec's Drinks Loan

A former executive at a U.S. subsidiary of a London investment fund is suing the firm and its founder for about $3 million after they allegedly failed to repay a short-term loan to cover the costs of the company's investment in a drinks company.
June 09, 2025
Ex-Commerzbank Analyst Denies Faking Sex Assault Claims

A former Commerzbank analyst on Monday fought claims that he lied to a court by making false sexual assault allegations in his failed harassment case against the bank, telling a London court he was being truthful.
June 09, 2025
UK Leads Europe On FDI In Financial Services, EY Says

The U.K. continues to be Europe's most attractive destination for foreign direct investment into financial services, despite a drop in the number of projects across the region, Ernst & Young said on Monday.
June 09, 2025
FCA Proposes Reporting Changes For Fund Managers

The Financial Conduct Authority has proposed that it will reduce requirements for U.K. fund managers on how they report on value for investors, a move that would enable significant cost cuts.
June 09, 2025
Broking Group Howden Buys Peruvian Reinsurance Biz

Howden Group said Monday that it has bought Peruvian reinsurance broker Innova Re, marking a further broadening of the insurance broking giant's footprint in Latin America.
June 09, 2025
FCA, NVIDIA Team Up To Launch AI Testing Sandbox

The Financial Conduct Authority said Monday it will launch a supercharged sandbox in collaboration with multinational technology company NVIDIA to help firms experiment safely with artificial intelligence to support innovation.
June 06, 2025
Reality TV Gallery Owner Gets 2½ Years On Terrorism Charges

An art gallery owner and reality TV art expert was sentenced to over two years' imprisonment at a London criminal court on Friday for failing to report his suspicions when selling around £140,000 ($189,400) worth of art to a suspected terrorist financier.
June 06, 2025
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

The past week in London has seen MGM and the owners of the "Addams Family" trademark sue a private equity firm, two Cambridge colleges file for injunctions against Pro-Palestine student protest groups and a former NBA player brings a claim against Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
June 06, 2025
Labour Gov't Eases Carried Interest Rules On Fund Managers

The Labour government has unveiled a series of concessions on changes to the tax rules for carried interest, the investment income passed onto fund managers, following a consultation on the plans.
June 06, 2025
Court Rebukes Lawyers For Fake AI-Generated Citations

A London court referred a barrister and solicitor to their professional regulators on Friday for citing cases that do not exist and warned that freely available generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT are not capable of conducting reliable legal research.
June 06, 2025
Switzerland Plans Tax Data Reporting For Crypto

The Swiss government said Friday that it has approved a plan to extend the automatic exchange of information for tax matters to apply to crypto-assets.
June 06, 2025
Mental Health Moratorium Can't Stop Principal Debt Recovery

A London appellate court ruled Friday that a man in a mental health crisis cannot prevent lenders from repossessing properties used to secure loans worth approximately £1.9 million (£2.6 million), concluding that the principal amounts were not affected by a moratorium on repayments.
June 06, 2025
FCA Proposes Lifting Ban On Crypto ETNs For Consumers

The Financial Conduct Authority proposed Friday to lift its ban on crypto exchange-traded notes for consumers in a move to support U.K. growth and competitiveness, with similar products already available in other countries.

Editor's Picks

5 Questions For Spencer West Partner Karl Foster

The Financial Conduct Authority's approach to enforcement and consumer protection has come up against government economic growth priorities and resistance from the sector to its proposals to "name and shame" companies early on during regulatory probes.
UK Draft Pay Fraud Rules Open Tricky Legal Liabilities

The government's new draft legislation, which will give banks longer to investigate suspicions of fraud before they send payments instructed by customers, will create a wave of new legal liabilities and lead to regulatory hurdles, according to lawyers.
FCA Fires Warning Shot Over City's Consumer Duty Failings

The Financial Conduct Authority has sent out a fresh warning to financial services companies highlighting how some of them are failing to comply with its Consumer Duty regime. But experts have told Law360 that the expectations are unclear.

Expert Analysis

What End of Payment Systems Regulator Means For Biz

The U.K. government’s plan to abolish the Payment Systems Regulator and absorb its functions into the Financial Conduct Authority should eventually lighten the compliance burden for businesses under the PSR’s remit, which may in turn encourage growth, but the proposed changes will roll out slowly, say lawyers at Farrer & Co.
Compliance Lessons From Art Dealer's Terror Financing Plea

Regulated businesses can learn from the missteps of a recently convicted London art dealer, who failed to disclose sales to a suspected Hezbollah financier, by implementing compliance measures like anti-terrorism financing screenings as robust as their anti-money laundering policies and training staff to spot red flags, say lawyers at White & Case.
UK Securities Tax Reform Will Be Welcomed By Investors

The proposed reforms resulting from HM Revenue & Customs' recent consultation on modernizing stamp taxes on shares, suggesting a single digital tax on securities to replace stamp duty and stamp duty reserve tax, are expected to reduce complexity for investors transacting in U.K. securities, say lawyers at Ropes & Gray.
UK Capital Reforms May Help Startup Founders, VC Investors

Hidden in the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's recent proposals on the definition of capital for investment firms are changes to the eligibility requirements for instruments to be included in a firm's regulatory capital — changes that may reduce the risk of investing, especially in early-stage fintech firms, says Andrew Henderson at Goodwin.
EU Watchdog's ESG Dashboard Raises Transparency Bar

The European Banking Authority’s recently introduced ESG dashboard is a key tool in aligning financial institutions with the European Union's sustainability policies, and fundamentally alters the risk environment by transitioning climate-related data from a compliance afterthought to a core component of strategic decision-making, says Kristýna Tupá at Schönherr.
What To Note As HM Treasury, FCA Plan New Crypto Regs

Taken together, HM Treasury’s recently proposed crypto-asset regulations and the Financial Conduct Authority’s new discussion paper on regulating crypto-asset activities provide key insights into the government's planned regime, which represents significant changes that will affect all firms providing related services, says Mark Chalmers at Davis Polk.
Tools For Effective Asset Tracking In Offshore Jurisdictions

In light of a technology company's recent allegations that its former CEO maintained an undisclosed interest in offshore companies, practitioners may want to refresh their knowledge of the tool kit available for tracing and recovering allegedly misappropriated assets from both onshore and offshore jurisdictions, say lawyers at Walkers Global.
FCA Review Highlights Valuation Standards For Private Funds

The Financial Conduct Authority’s recent review of private funds valuation practices underscores the increasing importance of conducting robust and independent procedures, offering an opportunity for fund managers to strengthen their current valuation frameworks and improve investor confidence, say lawyers at Greenberg Traurig.
What Santander Fraud Ruling Means For UK Banking Sector

A London court's recent judgment in Santander v. CCP Graduate School held that a bank does not owe any duty to third-party victims of authorized push payment fraud, reaffirming the steps banks are already taking to protect their own customers from sophisticated fraud mechanisms, say lawyers at Charles Russell.
FCA Update Eases Private Stock Market Disclosure Rules

The Financial Conduct Authority’s recently updated proposals for the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System would result in less onerous disclosure obligations for businesses, reflecting ongoing efforts to balance an attractive trading venue for private companies while maintaining sufficient investor protections, say lawyers at Debevoise.
Key Questions As Court Mulls Traders' Libor Convictions

The U.K. Supreme Court is considering whether to overturn two traders’ Libor and Euribor manipulation convictions, with the appeal reinvigorating debate over the breadth of English common law’s conspiracy to defraud offense and raising questions about the limits of a judge’s role in criminal jury trials, says Ellen Gallagher at Vardags.
Expect Complex Ruling From UK Justices In Car Dealer Case

While recent arguments before the U.K. Supreme Court in a consumer test case on motor finance commissions reveal the court’s take on several points argued, application of the upcoming decision will be both nuanced and fact-sensitive, so market participants wishing to prepare do not have a simple task, says Tom Grodecki at Cadwalader.
How UK Proposals Would Simplify Fund Manager Regime

The ongoing HM Treasury consultation and Financial Conduct Authority call for input on the future regulation of alternative investment fund managers indicate that deliberate steps are being taken to make the AIF regime more suitable for the U.K. market, with the aim of encouraging growth and competitiveness, says Leonard Ng at Sidley.
FCA's Regulatory Plans Signal Cause For Cautious Optimism

The Financial Conduct Authority’s latest strategy document plans for less intrusive supervision, a more open and collaborative approach, and a focus on assertive action where needed, outlining a vision of deepened trust and rebalanced risk that will be welcomed by all those it regulates, says Imogen Makin at WilmerHale.
What Latest VC Model Document Revisions Offer UK Investors

Recent updates to the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association model documents, reflecting prevailing U.K. market practice on early-stage equity financing terms and increasing focus on compliance issues, provide needed protection for investors in relation to the growth in global foreign direct investment regimes, say lawyers at Davis Polk.