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Financial Services UK
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April 15, 2024
Kirkland Hires Leveraged Finance Pro From Allen & Overy
Kirkland & Ellis LLP has recruited a debt finance specialist from Allen & Overy LLP as it continues to rebuild in the United Kingdom after undergoing a string of departures to rival U.S. law firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP in late 2023.
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April 08, 2024
Attwells Denies Breaking Promise In £1.2M Loan Dispute
Attwells Solicitors LLP has denied promising that it was acting on behalf of a man who, the law firm says, was probably fraudulently posing as the owner of two properties in a move to borrow £775,000 ($980,000) from a finance company.
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April 08, 2024
Gowling, Osborne Clarke Steer £60M Tech Co. Pension Deal
Insurer Just Group said Monday it has completed a £60 million ($75.7 million) buy-in of a pension scheme sponsored by technology companies Epson (UK) Ltd. and Epson Europe BV, in a deal guided by Gowling WLG and Osborne Clarke.
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April 08, 2024
Pension Schemes Considering Alternatives For End Goal
Pension plans need to carefully weigh a range of options for their end game strategies, a professional services firm said, as retirement savings scheme funding continues to hover around near record levels.
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April 08, 2024
Grant Thornton Fined For Audit Compliance Breaches
The Financial Reporting Council said Monday it has fined accounting firm Grant Thornton £40,000 ($50,500) for failing to comply with audit regulations in its work on a local authority's pension fund.
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April 15, 2024
Hill Dickinson Hires 2 Teams From Irwin Mitchell
Hill Dickinson LLP has recruited two groups of real estate specialists from Irwin Mitchell LLP for its new office in Birmingham after a corporate team made a similar move earlier in the year.
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April 05, 2024
High Court Limits Use Of Confidential Info In $3.7B Asset Fight
Relatives of a dead Russian oligarch and an investment company accused of international fraud on Friday partially succeeded in obtaining an order to prevent the alleged misuse of their confidential information.
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April 05, 2024
UK Urges Delay In Claiming Pensions Until Rules Change
The U.K. tax authority has warned people to delay claiming their pensions until after Saturday, when the lifetime allowance is abolished, while the government clarifies technical changes to the legislation.
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April 05, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen the BBC sued by former Georgian defense minister David Kezerashvili, Russian businessman Ildar Sharipov file a defamation claim against the publisher of the Liverpool Echo newspaper, MEX Group Worldwide sue Barclays and NatWest, and a climbing gear company hit retailer Next with a claim of copyright infringement. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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April 05, 2024
6 Questions For Paul Hastings' Stuart Alford KC
Paul Hastings LLP's new partner, Stuart Alford KC, is a former senior official at the Serious Fraud Office and has worked at two heavyweight U.S. firms, Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins. Here, he talks to Law360 about his career and about white-collar crime.
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April 05, 2024
18 Crime Gangs Specialize In VAT Fraud, Europol Says
Eighteen major criminal gangs in the European Union specialize in value-added tax fraud, having end-to-end control over the entire criminal process, the EU's law enforcement agency said Friday.
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April 05, 2024
Allens-Guided Experian To Acquire Peer Illion For $540M
Experian PLC has agreed to buy Australasian rival credit analyst illion for up to $820 million Australian dollars ($540 million), as the Ireland-based global financial data specialist moves to bolster its presence in the region's growing credit reporting market.
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April 05, 2024
Retired Rabbi To Return £2.3M To Charities After NCA Probe
A retired rabbi will return £2.35 million ($3 million) to two charities after he kept the money rather than distribute it for its intended legitimate causes, the National Crime Agency said on Friday.
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April 05, 2024
UK Pension Schemes Maintain Near-Record Surpluses
The aggregate surplus of the U.K.'s defined benefit pension sector remained at near-record levels of around £151 billion ($190.8 billion) in March, a consultancy has said.
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April 19, 2024
Fieldfisher Expands Pensions Practice With 4 PwC Hires
European law firm Fieldfisher LLP has announced it is bolstering its U.K. pensions practice by hiring a partner, two directors and an associate from PwC UK.
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April 04, 2024
UK Billionaire Lewis Avoids Prison For Insider Trading
A New York federal judge on Thursday sentenced British billionaire Joe Lewis to three years of probation for feeding his girlfriend and private-jet pilots nonpublic stock tips about his private equity firm's portfolio companies, saying a prison term would put the 87-year-old at "serious risk" of death.
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April 04, 2024
Mayer Brown Adds Former KPMG Tax Specialist In London
Mayer Brown has added a former KPMG tax professional to its London office to advise clients on asset management and fund matters in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, the firm announced.
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April 04, 2024
Investors Hit Agent For £2.3M Over Failed Care Home Scheme
Care home investors have sued an investment agent for £2.3 million ($2.9 million) in a London court over claims they promoted a "fundamentally flawed" property development scheme as a safe and reliable investment.
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April 04, 2024
Law Firm Defeats Adviser's Unfair Redundancy Claim
A Scottish law firm didn't unfairly cull one of its financial advisers during a redundancy process because bosses scored candidates with a reasonable checklist, an employment tribunal has ruled.
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April 04, 2024
Insurer Wants Greater Flexibility On State Pension Age
The U.K. government should explore giving Britons more choice over when they can start claiming their state pension amid concerns over increases to the official retirement age, insurer Aegon said Thursday.
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April 04, 2024
Pillsbury's New UK White Collar Chief Eyes Success In London
Former Serious Fraud Office "powerhouse" Audrey Koh is in the building, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman says it now has the tools to launch its white-collar and corporate investigations practice in London. Here, Koh and managing partner Matthew Oresman survey the legal landscape.
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April 04, 2024
FCA To Claw Back £1.6M From Fund Manager For Investors
The Financial Conduct Authority said on Thursday that it has won court approval to take £1.6 million ($2 million) from fund manager Argento Wealth and its only director, who promoted two allegedly unlawful investment schemes.
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April 04, 2024
Fladgate Sued For $26.5M Over Botched Debt Claim Advice
Fladgate LLP lost an investment fund an estimated $26.5 million after negligently advising it on how to take action to recover money owed under bonds, according to a High Court claim.
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April 04, 2024
UK Joins Global Data Protection Enforcement Program
Britain's data watchdog said Thursday it has signed a new agreement with the Global Cooperation Arrangement for Privacy Enforcement to cooperate on cross-border data protection with the U.S. and eight other Pacific Rim countries.
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April 04, 2024
Financial Ombudsman Braces For Bigger Caseload
The U.K. Financial Ombudsman Service said Thursday that it had upped its estimate of how many complaints it expects to receive in the coming financial year to 210,000 from 181,000 due to increased everyday financial concerns.
Expert Analysis
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New Financial Services Act Leaves Few Firms Untouched
The recently published Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, which replaces retained EU law with U.K. legislation, is one of the most significant pieces of post-Brexit regulation, with key practical implications for actors such as investment firms and crypto-asset and payment service providers, say Tim Cant, Emma Tran and Bisola Williams at Ashurst.
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FCA 'De-Banking' Clampdown May Need Gov't Backing
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s recent clampdown on unfair bank account closures will give customers greater transparency, but with terms usually skewed in the bank’s favor, it is a policy matter for the government to enact further protections for businesses and consumers, say Stephen Rosen and Jean-Martin Louw at Collyer Bristow.
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UK Securitization Reform Opts For Modest Approach, For Now
Recently published consultation papers from the U.K. Prudential Regulation and Financial Conduct Authorities on new securitization rules mainly restate retained EU law, but there are some targeted adjustments being proposed and further divergence is to be expected, say Alix Prentice and Assia Damianova at Cadwalader.
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Examining PayPal's Venture Into The Stablecoin Market
PayPal’s recent release of a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar may represent a groundbreaking innovation or could fail as others have before it, and policymakers in the U.K. and the EU will be watching the impact of this new crypto token with a keen eye, say Ben Lee and Dion Seymour at Andersen.
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High Court Dechert Ruling Offers Litigation Privilege Lessons
While the recent High Court ruling in Al Sadeq v. Dechert LLP, which concerned torture conspiracy allegations against the firm, held that litigation privilege can be claimed by a nonparty to proceedings, the exact boundaries of privilege aren't always clear-cut and may necessitate analyzing the underlying principles, says Scott Speirs at Norton Rose.
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FCA Consumer Duty May Pose Enforcement Challenges
The new U.K. Financial Conduct Authority consumer duty sets higher standards of customer protection and transparency for financial services firms, but given the myriad products available across the sector, policing the regulations is going to be a challenging task, says Alessio Ianiello at Keller Postman.
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UK Insolvency Reform Review Shows Measures Are Working
The U.K. Insolvency Service's recently published review of legislative reforms to the corporate insolvency regime demonstrates that despite being underutilized, the measures have been shown to help viable companies survive, and with the current difficult economic environment, will likely be an important aspect of organizational restructuring going forward, says Kirsten Fulton-Fleming at Taylor Wessing.
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More UK Collective Actions On The Horizon After Forex Ruling
A U.K. appeals court's recent decision in Forex case Evans v. Barclays is likely to significantly widen the scope of opt-out collective proceedings that can be brought, paving the way for more class actions by prospective claimants who have previously been unable to bring individual claims, say Robin Henry and Tamara Davis at Collyer Bristow.
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FCA Listing Reform Proposals Aim To Modernize UK Markets
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's recent proposals to reform listing rules will enhance equities while retaining protections and high governance standards, and will also make the capital markets work more efficiently and competitively with other global markets, say lawyers at Greenberg Traurig.
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Takeaways From ICO's Action In NatWest Privacy Dispute
The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office's latest intervention in the Nigel Farage NatWest Bank dispute highlights the importance of the legal responsibilities of all data processors in possession of sensitive information, and is a reminder that upholding bank customers' privacy rights is paramount, says James Kelliher at Keller Postman.
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How The OECD Global Tax Proposal Could Affect M&A
Following agreement on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Pillar Two proposal to introduce a global minimum tax, domestic implementation is expected to have a significant impact on international M&A transactions, with financial modeling, deal structuring, risk allocation and joint venture arrangements likely to be affected, say lawyers at Freshfields.
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How Russia Sanctions May Complicate Contract Obligations
Against the backdrop of recent comprehensive sanctions against Russia and Belarus, a review of recent U.K. case law clarifies that certain force majeure clauses likely cover trade sanctions, and that future litigation will further develop the scope of force majeure and frustration in the context of sanctions, says Frances Jenkins at Quillon Law.
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New Guidance Offers Clarity For Charities On ESG Investing
The need for charities to understand investing in line with environmental, social and governance aspirations has never been more pressing, and recently updated U.K. Charity Commission guidance should give trustees confidence to make decisions that are right for their organization, says Robert Nieri at Shoosmiths.
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US And EU Poised For Closer Ties In Tech Financial Market
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the European Commission are both concerned about the challenges posed by the increasing digitalization of financial products, such as the use of AI and new forms of credit, and by working together, the two regulators can share information and best practices, says Yulia Makarova at Cooley.
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FCA Case Failures Highlight Value Of Robust Investigation
The recent U.K. upper tribunal judgment in Seiler, Whitestone and Raitzin v. The Financial Conduct Authority, criticizing the regulator for accepting a narrative advanced by the firm, makes clear that such admissions must not get in the way of a proper investigation to enable agencies to target the correct individuals, say Tom Bushnell and Olivia Dwan at Hickman & Rose.