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 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.
June 06, 2025
UK To Launch Delayed Second Phase Of Pensions Review

The government said it will soon launch the delayed second phase of its pensions review, in what experts hope could be the biggest shakeup for the sector for 20 years.
June 06, 2025
UK Pensions Bill To Transform Trustees' Role, Watchdog Says

Britain's retirement savings watchdog has said it will look to other regulators and governance standards for guidance to ensure that pensions trusteeship is ready for the "transformational" impact of reforms that have recently been announced.
June 06, 2025
UK Floats Legislative Fix For Virgin Media Pensions Case

The government has said it will push through legislation to deal with the legal fallout for pension trustees from a landmark Court of Appeal ruling in 2024.
June 06, 2025
EY Law Steers AIB On Sale Of 49.9% Stake In Payments Biz

Financial services giant AIB Group PLC revealed on Friday it has signed an agreement to sell its 49.9% holding in its payment systems business to Fiserv, Inc., a global fintech company based in the U.S.
June 06, 2025
Macquarie Completes £700M Takeover Of Dutch Waste Biz

Australian financial services giant Macquarie Group has completed its takeover of Dutch waste management business Renewi PLC in a deal worth approximately £700 million ($949 million), the companies said on Friday.
June 05, 2025
Meta Pressed By MPs Over Slow Removal Of Harmful Content

A group of influential MPs said Friday that they have written to Meta asking the Facebook-owner to explain its tardy responses to requests by the City watchdog for the removal of harmful content from financial influencers appearing on its platforms.
June 05, 2025
UK Pension Assets Hit £3.2T Amid Shift To Private Markets

The total value of U.K. pensions grew by 11% in 2024 to £3.2 trillion ($4.3 trillion), the Pensions Policy Institute has said, noting a movement to private market investment in a "period of transition" in Britain.
June 05, 2025
Trading Biz Can't Short Circuit Trial Against Former GC

A London judge said Thursday that a trading services company must go to trial to prove that its former general counsel misused confidential information, citing a possibility that the business abused the lawyer-client relationship.
June 05, 2025
Credit Suisse Says Greensill Deals Left $440M Debt Unpaid

Greensill Capital coordinated with SoftBank to enter into "improper" transactions which caused Credit Suisse investors to lose $440 million in debt, a lawyer for a sub-fund for the collapsed Swiss bank told the first day of trial Thursday.
June 05, 2025
UK Fintech Wise Weighs Switching Primary Listing To US

Payments company Wise PLC said on Thursday it is planning to move its main listing from London to the U.S., becoming the latest British company to shift its main funding focus across the Atlantic.
June 05, 2025
Oligarch Can't Appeal Tossed $14B Asset-Stripping Claim

Imprisoned oligarch Ziyavudin Magomedov cannot challenge a decision to dismiss his $14 billion claim against Transneft, Rostatom, a private equity firm and other entities over an alleged Russian state-led conspiracy to strip his assets in two major port operators, a London appeals court has ordered.
June 05, 2025
FCA Warns Of Tensions On Motor Finance Redress Plan

The City watchdog highlighted on Thursday tensions underlying its potential future motor finance consumer redress program, warning that payouts estimated by some law firms and claims management companies were "highly speculative."
June 05, 2025
Gov't Unveils Landmark Pension Reforms To Boost Savings

The government has unveiled a raft of pension reforms that it said will dramatically boost the savings of millions of British workers.
June 05, 2025
Ombudsman Eyes Interest Rate Cut On Compensation Awards

The financial disputes body has proposed lowering the interest rate it applies to compensation awarded to people who have lost money as it pushes to modernize redress in the U.K.
June 05, 2025
JPMorgan Blocks VTB's Russian Case Over Frozen $156M

JPMorgan won its fight on Thursday to block VTB Bank from bringing a $156 million case in Russia over frozen funds, as a London court ruled that the Russian lender's claims were "vexatious and oppressive."
June 05, 2025
Court Sanctions Miami's £70M Bid For European Exchanges

A court in Jersey has given its nod to the owner of the Bermuda Stock Exchange for the takeover of The International Stock Exchange Group in a deal worth approximately £70.4 million ($96 million), the companies said Thursday.
June 04, 2025
VTB Bank Unit Beats 'Thinnest Possible' Corporate Raid Case

A British unit of Russian state-owned VTB Bank has beaten claims in a London court that it was part of a Kremlin-approved corporate raid, with a judge ruling that a steel businessman's evidence against the lender was "the thinnest possible gruel."
June 04, 2025
Most UK Pension Plans Mulling Surplus Use, LCP Says

Most defined benefit pension plans are either actively considering or already planning to use their retirement plan surplus amid government rule changes, according to consultancy Lane Clark & Peacock.
June 04, 2025
Billionaire Defends Asset Freeze Amid $415M Fraud Case

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego on Wednesday told a London appeals court Wednesday that a man who allegedly defrauded him out of more than $415 million was "grasping at straws" in an attempt to escape an asset-freezing order.

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.