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Financial Services UK
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April 08, 2025
BoE Proposes Faster Investment Recognition For Insurers
The regulatory arm of the Bank of England said Tuesday that it wants to make it easier for insurance companies to invest in the U.K., part of a process to boost the competitiveness of the domestic economy.
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April 07, 2025
HMRC Says Hospital Parking Should Not Be VAT-Free
HM Revenue and Customs told Britain's top court on Monday that a National Health Service trust providing car parking services should not be exempt from value-added tax, a case that could affect dozens of stayed appeals by NHS entities that total £70 million ($90 million).
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April 07, 2025
Cash Uncovered In FCA Probe Was My Dad's, Analyst Testifies
A former analyst for an asset management firm testified in London on Monday that £198,000 ($253,000) unearthed by investigators as part of an insider dealing probe was not dirty money, but was partially cash destined for his father's construction business in Albania.
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April 07, 2025
WeWork Loses 'By We' EU Trademark For Co-Working Spaces
European Union officials have stripped WeWork of its "By We" trademark over co-working spaces, ruling that it could gain an unfair advantage if shoppers create a link with the "We" branding of a Dutch fashion chain.
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April 07, 2025
FCA Proposes Lighter Rules For Hedge Fund Managers
The Financial Conduct Authority proposed Monday to reform its regime for alternative asset managers, making it easier to enter the market and grow the business.
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April 07, 2025
Linklaters Names New Global Financial Regulation Boss
Linklaters LLP said Monday that it has appointed a new global head of its financial regulation group who will be based in Hong Kong.
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April 07, 2025
Doubts Grow Over Impact Of UK Capital Market Deregulation
Government efforts to revitalize the country's sluggish economy by stripping away regulatory burdens on financial markets have raised concerns among lawyers that consumers might be exposed to more risk, amid doubts that the steps can stimulate broader U.K. economic output.
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April 07, 2025
EU To Assess Interest Rate Changes On Pension Funds
Europe's insurance regulator said Monday that it will assess how changes in interest rates tied to geopolitical tensions may harm pension funds during its fifth annual stress test on the sector.
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April 07, 2025
Wealth Manager Quilter Buys NHS Pensions Analyst
Quilter PLC said Monday that it has acquired MediFintech, an analyst of National Health Service pensions, as the wealth manager looks to bolster its advisory arm to cope with a change to public service retirement plans.
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April 07, 2025
Allianz Luxembourg Unit Penalized For AML Breaches
Luxembourg's financial regulator has hit the domestic branch of insurer Allianz with a €283,000 ($310,000) fine for breaching the country's anti-money-laundering and terrorist-financing rules.
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April 07, 2025
Brit Jailed For Money Laundering Plot After 7 Yrs On The Run
An extradited tax fugitive has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for his involvement in a £3.5 million ($4.5 million) money laundering scheme, HM Revenue and Customs said Monday.
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April 07, 2025
Fidelity Japan Rejects Merger Approach From AVI Japan
The board of Fidelity Japan Trust has rejected a merger proposal from rival AVI Japan Opportunity Trust, telling its shareholders to vote to continue with its current strategy instead.
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April 07, 2025
Credit Agency Hit With Fine For Misleading Approval Claims
A European Union financial markets regulator said on Monday that it has fined a financial technology credit ratings agency €420,000 ($460,000) for "misleadingly" using the authority's name to suggest that it endorsed the company's activities.
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April 04, 2025
Deutsche Bank Not Liable For ISIS Terror, Judge Finds
A New York federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit accusing Deutsche Bank AG of facilitating the financing of the Islamic State, saying that the families of two journalists and an aid worker the terrorist group killed failed to sufficiently allege that the bank participated in a human trafficking venture.
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April 04, 2025
Appeals Court Won't Halt Russian Investment Litigation
England's Court of Appeal will not nix an order refusing to halt "vexatious" litigation in Russia initiated by sanctioned entities against third parties to an arbitration agreement, issuing an opinion that chided an investment manager for leaving the court "in the dark" about its relationship to the third parties.
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April 04, 2025
Bulgarian Tax Authorities Violated EU VAT Law, ECJ Rules
Bulgarian tax authorities violated European Union value-added tax law by removing a construction company from the nation's VAT registry for nonpayment of taxes without conducting a thorough investigation into whether it should be stricken, the European Court of Justice ruled.
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April 04, 2025
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen Russian industrialist Oleg Deripaska target the intelligence arm of CT Group with a commercial fraud claim, Big Technologies sue its former CEO for allegedly concealing interests in several shareholders, and an investment firm tackle a professional negligence claim by Adidas. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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April 04, 2025
Businessman's Daughter Sees £79M 'Sham' Loan Case Tossed
The daughter of a deceased businessman had her attempt to bring a claim on behalf of one of her father's companies over a "sham" loan thrown out by a London court owing to a rule mandating that only the company itself can bring such a claim.
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April 04, 2025
Pension Protection Fund Says 'Time Is Right' To Review Rules
Britain's pensions compensation fund has said the "time is right" to review a range of key areas of its governing legislation, including how it sets its levy and rules determining how benefits for older pensioners rise.
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April 11, 2025
Jones Day Hires 4 Pros In Madrid For Financial Markets Team
Jones Day has hired a group of four lawyers from Simmons & Simmons LLP and Spanish law firm RocaJunyent SLP to enhance its services in leveraged finance and capital markets transactions.
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April 11, 2025
HSF Private Equity Pro Moves To Dechert As Merger Looms
A seasoned private equity lawyer from Herbert Smith Freehills LLP is moving to Dechert LLP as HSF edged a step closer to its anticipated transatlantic merger with Kramer Levin.
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April 04, 2025
Denmark's £56M Cum-Ex Fraud Case Struck Out On Appeal
Denmark's roughly £56 million ($72 million) tax refund fraud claim against an English brokerage was struck out Friday after a London appeals court ruled that an issue "fundamental" to the case had been decided in earlier proceedings.
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April 04, 2025
Pension Members 'Afraid' Of Gov't Surplus Extraction Plans
Nearly all members of defined benefit pension schemes in Britain do not want politicians interfering in their operations, polling reveals, as policymakers move to relax retirement savings rules to allow schemes to invest billions of pounds tied up in surpluses.
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April 04, 2025
UK Pension Funds Braced To Weather Bond Market Turmoil
British pension schemes are most likely sufficiently hedged to withstand the current volatility in bond markets, experts said, amid growing concern over a global trade war.
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April 04, 2025
Swiss Firm Guides Crédit Agricole Unit To Buy Banque Thaler
French banking giant Crédit Agricole said Friday that its subsidiary Indosuez Wealth Management will acquire Swiss private lender Banque Thaler in a deal that will bring the unit's total assets under management to almost €220 billion ($243 billion).
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Protecting The Arbitral Process In Russia-Related Disputes
Four recent High Court and Court of Appeal rulings concerning anti-suit injunction claims illustrate that companies exposed to litigation risk in Russia may need to carefully consider how to best protect their interests and the arbitral process with regard to a Russian counterparty, say lawyers at Linklaters.
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Audit Reform Takeaways After Record KPMG Fine
The Financial Reporting Council’s recent £21 million fine against KPMG for its Carillion audit work failures is representative of the agency’s increasing proactivity in policing audit quality, and brings to light the U.K. government’s slow-moving but ongoing efforts to majorly reform audit sector regulations, says Paul Brehony at Signature Litigation.
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RSA Insurance Ruling Clarifies Definition Of 'Insured Loss'
A London appeals court's recent ruling in Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance v. Tughans, that the insurer must provide coverage for a liability that included the law firm's fees, shows that a claim for the recovery of fees paid to a firm can constitute an insured loss, say James Roberts and Sophia Hanif at Clyde & Co.
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Putin Ruling May Have Unintended Sanctions Consequences
By widening the scope of control, the Court of Appeal's recent judgment in Mints v. PJSC opens the possibility that everything in Russia could be deemed to be controlled by President Vladimir Putin, which would significantly expand the U.K.'s sanctions regime in unintended ways, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.
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Navigating The New Framework On Nature-Related Reporting
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ recently published disclosure framework represents a significant step toward the coalescence of nature-related disclosure standards for corporates and financial institutions, and has the potential to influence investor expectations and future regulation, say lawyers at Kirkland.
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FCA Engagement Signals New Direction In ESG Disclosures
The Financial Conduct Authority recently published a response to a consultation on sustainability-related standards, highlighting the regulator's priorities for the U.K.'s green transition, including an early indication that it may turn its attention to nature-based disclosures, say Ferdisha Snagg and Andreas Wildner at Cleary.
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New Policies Will Aid UK Cos. Accessing US Capital Markets
The U.K. government's recent adoption of regulations permitting the use of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, and announcement of measures to remove a 1.5% tax on certain share issues and transfers, should help ensure that England remains an attractive holding company jurisdiction for companies seeking a listing on U.S. stock exchanges, say lawyers at Davis Polk.
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Key Takeaways From ICO Report On Workforce Monitoring
The Information Commissioner's Office recently published guidance on workplace monitoring, highlighting that employers must strike a balance between their business needs and workers' privacy rights to avoid falling afoul of U.K. data protection law requirements, say lawyers at MoFo.
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Creating A Safe Workplace Goes Beyond DEI Compliance
The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority recently proposed a new diversity and inclusion regulatory framework to combat sexual harassment in the workplace, and companies should take this opportunity to holistically transform their culture to ensure zero tolerance for misconduct, says Vivek Dodd at Skillcast.