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Financial Services UK

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    Banks, Insurers Eye The Door As UK Reaches Brexit Deadlock

    By William Shaw

    Britain's financial services have lost patience with the stalled political process and are transferring assets out of the U.K. regardless of what kind of Brexit deal, if any, the government seals with the European Union, their legal advisers said Wednesday.

  • January 2, 2019

    UK Rolls Out New Rules On Executive Pay At Large Cos.

    The U.K’s largest companies will be forced to disclose how much their bosses are paid — and the size of the pay gap between the most senior staff and their average employee — under new rules that came into force Tuesday and are designed to boost accountability at the highest level.

  • January 2, 2019

    Investment Firms' Scrap Over Fees Gets New Trial Date

    A U.K. judge has agreed to delay by at least seven months a trial centered on a London-based financial adviser's claim that a Rwandan investment firm has refused to pay it nearly $3 million in invoiced fees, according to new court documents.

  • January 2, 2019

    UK Claims Managers Told To Seek Temporary Authorization

    Claims management companies are now able to apply for temporary permission to operate lawfully in the U.K., the Financial Conduct Authority said Wednesday, as it prepares for the introduction of a tough authorization regime in April.

  • January 2, 2019

    Tycoon In Bitter Fraud Suit Says Relative Misused Funds

    A real estate tycoon accused of swindling £14.5 million ($18.2 million) from the property investment business that he ran has alleged in documents filed at the High Court in London that its founder is misusing the company’s funds to pursue legal proceedings against him in an increasingly bitter family dispute.

  • January 2, 2019

    ECB Appoints Administrators At Troubled Italian Bank

    The European Central Bank appointed temporary administrators and a surveillance committee on Wednesday to take charge of Italy’s Banca Carige SpA, after most of the bank’s board members resigned.

  • January 2, 2019

    FCA Orders Business To Stop Marketing Investments

    The Financial Conduct Authority has ordered an investment company to stop marketing its fixed-rate investment bonds and individual savings accounts as it carries out an investigation.

  • January 1, 2019

    White Collar Cases To Watch In 2019

    The coming year's white collar docket is an active one, with several large health care fraud cases set to go to trial and post-trial litigation that could shape the law in insider trading and other financial crimes and affect how companies cooperate in criminal probes.

  • January 1, 2019

    UK Banks, Insurers Brace For Busy Regulatory Year In 2019

    The U.K.'s financial services face a regulatory reckoning on Brexit in 2019, as well as a shift away from the long-standing Libor benchmark and a deadline for payment protection insurance complaints that have cost banks billions of pounds in compensation. Here Law360 looks at the hurdles facing banks and insurers in the year ahead.

  • January 1, 2019

    UK Financial Services, Insurance Cases To Watch In 2019

    Two of Britain's most long-awaited financial services cases are set to go to trial in January, giving court watchers plenty to look forward to in 2019 — from complex fraud suits to a showdown over insurance in the Deepwater Horizon Disaster. Here Law360 looks at the key cases coming in the year ahead.

  • January 1, 2019

    Banking Regulation To Watch In 2019

    The return of divided government in Washington may put a damper on the prospects for more banking legislation, but federal regulators will have their hands full in 2019 finishing rules to implement the last big banking bill, updating old rules around lending in underserved areas and rethinking their rethink of the Volcker Rule.

  • January 1, 2019

    3 International Arbitration Trends To Watch In 2019

    As the new year gets underway, practitioners can expect to see a number of trends within international arbitration — including the watering down of investment protection, a rise in the number of contractual disputes and the ongoing evolution of arbitral rules — continue to unfold. Here are three international arbitration trends you need to know about for 2019.

  • December 21, 2018

    Ex-Alstom Exec Jailed On Bribery Charges At London Court

    A former sales executive at Alstom Power Ltd., who was convicted for conspiring to bribe politicians and employees at a Lithuanian power plant to score €240 million ($274 million) in contracts, was jailed at a London court on Friday for four and a half years.

  • December 21, 2018

    UK Customers Hit As 2 Insurers Collapse, Regulators Say

    Gibraltar-based motor insurer Horizon has entered into administration, affecting 1,700 customers in Britain, while a Danish insurance company that also operates in the U.K. and across Europe has gone bankrupt, creating extra work for regulators ahead of Christmas.

  • December 20, 2018

    British Gov't Maps Out Post-Brexit Gibraltar Financial Ties

    The British government laid out several legislative measures on Wednesday to ensure that financial services are disrupted as little as possible after Brexit, ranging from guaranteeing passporting rights with Gibraltar to duplicating securitization law.

  • December 20, 2018

    Libor Prosecutors Told To Sift Their Work From Paul Weiss'

    A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday suggested prosecutors retrace a five-year investigation into former Deutsche Bank AG traders accused of rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate and delineate it from work by the bank's counsel at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP.

  • December 20, 2018

    UK, EU Regulatory News To Know As 2018 Winds Down

    European Union and U.K. authorities geared up to celebrate the holidays by releasing a flood of proposals, legislation and reports this week ranging from directives on sustainability for financial institutions to caps on the compensation for some medical claims. 

  • December 20, 2018

    Convicted Ex-Barclays Trader Told To Pay Up In Euribor Case

    A London judge on Thursday ordered a former Barclays trader previously sentenced to eight years in prison for plotting to manipulate a key European interest rate benchmark to cough up £77,354 ($98,000) in criminal proceeds or face an additional three years of incarceration.

  • December 20, 2018

    Asset Manager Can't Get Finder's Fees From UK Hedge Fund

    A claim brought by an asset manager against a London-based hedge fund over unpaid introducer fees was dismissed by London's High Court on Thursday, with the judge concluding that the construction of various agreements between the parties did not warrant the additional fees being sought.

  • December 20, 2018

    Suspicious Financial Activity Reports Hit Record High

    Britain’s crime-fighting authorities received more reports of suspicious financial activity than ever before in 2018, which has led to nearly £52 million ($65.7 million) of dubious cash being denied to criminals, figures published on Thursday reveal.

  • December 20, 2018

    Lloyds Unit Wins Bid To Strike Advisory Failure Claim In Suit

    A U.K. judge on Thursday narrowed an interest rate swaps misselling claim brought against a unit of Lloyds Banking Group PLC by two property investment and development firms, after the bank argued that the allegations were made too late.

Expert Analysis

  • Despite Brexit, Business As Usual For FCA

    Ben Ticehurst

    The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has acknowledged that Brexit will present challenges, and will set aside some resources in preparation, but its business plan for 2018-2019 sends a strong message that there will be no let-up when it comes to detecting and prosecuting market abuse, says Ben Ticehurst of Rahman Ravelli Solicitors.

  • The Final Word On No Oral Modification Clauses In The UK

    Kathryn Rowe

    The U.K. Supreme Court's recent decision in Rock v. MWB came down on the side of commercial certainty, establishing that "no oral modification" clauses mean exactly what they say. Nonetheless, the decision may lead to some problematic cases, say Kathryn Rowe and Peter McMaster QC of Appleby Global.

  • EU's Proposed Premarketing Rules May Disrupt Fundraising

    John Young

    The European Commission's proposal to amend key European fund management directives introduces new conditions for premarketing a fund in the EU. Unless this proposal is substantially loosened, managers may risk increased regulatory scrutiny if they continue with current fundraising practices, says John Young of Ropes & Gray LLP.

  • UK Overseas Territories Disclosure Rule May Be Premature

    Ian Hargreaves

    Section 51 of the U.K.'s new Anti-Money Laundering Act imposes public beneficial company ownership registers in the British overseas territories. A general push for enhanced disclosure can only be welcomed, but this particular initiative may not be the correct means to reach a worthy goal, say Ian Hargreaves and Stephanie Sarzana of Covington & Burling LLP.

  • Myths And Facts About Using TAR Across Borders

    John Tredennick

    Many legal teams involved in cross-border matters still hesitate to use technology assisted review, questioning its ability to handle non-English document collections. However, with the proper expertise, modern TAR can be used with any language, including challenging Asian languages, say John Tredennick and David Sannar of Catalyst Repository Systems.

  • Predictions For UK Prudential Regulation Authority Standards

    Jamie Monck-Mason

    Two years after the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority acknowledged the threat cyberattacks pose to the U.K.'s financial system, little progress has been made. The Prudential Regulation Authority's new operating standards, expected to publish this year, must show that it is taking cybersecurity seriously, but without stifling innovation, says Jamie Monck-Mason of Willis Towers Watson.

  • Why Companies Should Be Grateful For The GDPR

    Howard Schiffman

    After the pain heals from what for many businesses was a last-minute scramble for General Data Protection Regulation compliance, many of these businesses will come to appreciate how the effort made them stronger from a compliance, security and even operational performance stance, say Howard Schiffman and Adam Cohen of Yeshiva University.

  • EU Law Brings Data Sharing Pointers For US Financial Cos.

    Erin Fonté

    Although data sharing via application programming interfaces is not mandated in the U.S. as it is in Europe under the new Revised Payment Services Directive, financial institutions that do not embrace it risk being left behind in terms of both technology and partnerships, say Erin Fonte and Brenna McGee of Dykema Gossett PLLC.

  • An Uncertain Future For British Judgments In Germany

    Stephen Llewellyn

    Currently, U.K. judgments in civil and commercial matters can be enforced in Germany with the same authority as German judgments. However, depending on what the U.K.'s relationship with the EU will look like after Brexit, the situation might become unbalanced to the detriment of British judgment creditors, say Stephen Llewellyn of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP and Karl von Hase of Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH.

  • UK Regulators Grapple With Cryptocurrencies And ICOs

    Sergey Kvitkin

    Currently, regulation of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings in the U.K. is handled primarily by the Financial Conduct Authority, Bank of England and Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs. Trading in cryptocurrencies themselves is not a regulated activity, but trading in derivatives using digital assets will require FCA authorization and new forms of market intervention are likely on the horizon, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring LLP.