Top Stories

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  Catastrophe Insurance Pool For Bloc Proposed By EU Bodies

  By Tom Fish

  The European Union should create a bloc-wide insurance pool and emergency lending backstop worth up to €65 billi...(read more)

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  Slovenian Bank Makes Rival €566M Bid For Austria's Addiko

  By Najiyya Budaly

  Slovenian lender NLB Group has begun a bidding war for Addiko, an Austrian banking group, after proposing a €566...(read more)

• FCA Warns Asset Managers On Conflicts, Consumer Duty

  By Alex Davidson

  The Financial Conduct Authority has warned that some applicants for authorization as asset managers are failing to manage conflicts of interest or to demonstrate they adequately apply its Consumer Duty regime.

• Law Firm Can't Cut Fine Over Client Account AML Failures

  By Eddie Beaver

  A disciplinary tribunal has upheld a fine of £68,000 ($91,400) for anti-money laundering failures against a law firm that used its client bank account to move $23 million for a Russian customer, concluding that the penalty fell within the range of possible sanctions.

• Crypto CEO Fights Extradition On Human Rights Grounds

  By Ronan Barnard

  The former chief executive of a crypto-asset company fought against extradition to the U.S. on fraud charges on Thursday, telling a London court that it would violate his human rights as he would be at an increased risk of suicide.

• COVID-19 Jab Injury Claimants Seek Compensation Reforms

  By William Janes

  A group of claimants suing AstraZeneca over death and injury allegedly caused by side effects of a COVID-19 vaccine said Thursday that they hope an inquiry into the response to the pandemic will recommend that the country's vaccine compensation scheme is reformed.

• PwC Faces Probe Over Audit Of Troubled Investment Firm

  By Eddie Beaver

  The accounting watchdog said Thursday that it has opened an investigation into PwC's audit of the 2023 consolidated financial statements of investment company Digital 9 Infrastructure.

• FCA Finds Customer ID Gaps At Banks, Asset Managers

  By Alex Davidson

  The Financial Conduct Authority has found in a review that banks, asset managers and other financial institutions are failing to make proper background checks on customers to prevent crime.

• UK Extends Deadlines For Unions' Workplace Access Right

  By Adele Redmond

  The government has said that it would give employers more time to negotiate with trade unions seeking to establish a new right to regularly enter workplaces, but raised the potential penalty for repeat violations of an access agreement to £500,000 ($670,000).

• DWF-Led Builder Strabag To Buy Engineer Van Elle For £59M

  By Tom Fish

  The U.K. subsidiary of European construction group Strabag SE has agreed to acquire Van Elle in a cash transaction that values the ground engineering specialist at £58.8 million ($78.8 million), the companies said on Thursday.

• Dyson Can't Stretch UPC Hair Curler Sales Ban To UK

  By Jamie Lennox

  The Unified Patent Court has refused to halt a retailer's U.K. sales of hair-curling products that possibly infringe Dyson's patent, ruling that the English company's ties to Northern Ireland do not justify an injunction outside the unitary system.

• BDO Denies Negligence Caused Collapse In £80M Audit Fight

  By Ronan Barnard

  BDO has rejected an £80 million ($107 million) claim for negligence from a collapsed construction company which alleged that it had bungled an audit, saying the business would still have failed even if £43 million in losses had been uncovered earlier.

• ENRC Battles SFO Investigator Over £1.8M Legal Costs

  By Joanne Faulkner

  A London judge ordered Serious Fraud Office investigator Antony Puddick on Wednesday to disclose details of his solicitors' retainer agreement in a £1.8 million ($2.4 million) costs dispute with Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. following the end of their legal fight. 

• Libyan Wealth Fund's UK Arm Must Pay Ex-Manager £498K

  By Jamie Lennox

  A tribunal has told a U.K. subsidiary of Libya's sovereign wealth fund to pay a former manager £497,500 ($670,000) after it short-changed his holiday entitlement for decades and unfairly sacked him out of the blue.