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Financial Services UK
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September 24, 2024
Nasdaq, Deutsche Boerse Targeted In EU Antitrust Raids
Nasdaq and Deutsche Boerse said Tuesday that they are among the financial services firms being investigated by the European Commission over alleged violations of EU competition laws in derivatives trading.
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September 24, 2024
Half Of Local Gov't Pension Plans Have No Net-Zero Target
Half of the local government pension schemes in Britain have yet to set a net-zero emissions target, according to a report published Tuesday, which reveals that just 49% of local authority retirement funds have committed to a strategy.
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September 23, 2024
7 Questions For Ashurst White-Collar Partner Judith Seddon
Judith Seddon, a partner at Ashurst LLP, made her mark by working on major cases arising from the 2008 financial crisis. Here, she sits down with Law360 to talk about her career, trends in white-collar work and how she ended up in criminal law entirely by accident.
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September 23, 2024
FCA Chair Cleared Over Whistleblower Complaints Handling
Britain's finance watchdog said Monday that its chair had been cleared of wrongdoing over his handling of two whistleblower complaints but that it will strengthen protection for people who sound the alarm after it reviewed its internal policy.
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September 23, 2024
FCA Faults City Bodies' AML Policing As Inconsistent
The Financial Conduct Authority on Monday raised concerns over the inconsistent enforcement of anti-money laundering regulations by City professional bodies, particularly in the legal and accountancy sectors.
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September 23, 2024
UK Insurers' Tax Contribution Hits Record High £18.5B
Members of the Association of British Insurers contributed a record £18.5 billion ($24.6 billion) in tax to the U.K. economy last financial year, the trade body said Monday.
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September 23, 2024
UniCredit Boosts Commerzbank Stake To 21%, Eyes More
Italian lender UniCredit said Monday that it has boosted its stake in German rival Commerzbank from 9% to 21% and is eyeing further investment as it appeared to be laying the groundwork for a possible full takeover.
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September 23, 2024
UK Watchdog Thins Out Pension Plan Reporting Rules
The Pensions Regulator said Monday it has scaled back the amount of data that retirement schemes are expected to submit under new funding regulations, which went live this weekend.
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September 23, 2024
Finance Sector Seeks Regulatory Clarity As Challenges Loom
The financial services sector is pushing for clearer regulations on artificial intelligence and environmental, social and governance criteria, according to research by global law firm DLA Piper.
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September 23, 2024
Clifford Chance-Led BNP To Buy HSBC Unit In Germany
BNP Paribas SA said Monday that it has agreed to buy HSBC's private banking unit in Germany as part of its plans to expand its wealth management arm in a "key strategic market."
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September 20, 2024
BNP Paribas Plugging $5B Into Apollo-Backed Atlas
Private equity giant Apollo and its Atlas SP Partners platform, both advised by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, on Friday unveiled a strategic partnership with European Union bank BNP Paribas, led by Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, that will see the global bank plugging an initial $5 billion investment into the collaboration.
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September 20, 2024
EU Moves To Hike Ukraine Loan To €35B In Case US Pulls Out
The European Commission proposed Friday that the European Union should increase its share of loans to Ukraine backed by frozen and immobilized Russian state assets up to €35 billion ($39.1 billion) from about €18 billion in case the U.S. backs out of its part of a Group of Seven agreement.
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September 20, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
The past week in London has seen crypto exchange Binance face a new claim from the co-founder of SO Legal, a U.S. immersive art company take on a Bristol venue for copyright violations and Blake Morgan LLP hit with a pension schemes claim by The Trust for Welsh Archeology. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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September 20, 2024
Businessman Gets 18 Months In Prison For COVID Loan Fraud
A British businessman was sentenced to 18 months in prison at a criminal court Friday for dishonestly obtaining a COVID-19 small business loan to repay an associate embroiled in a fight with the Serious Fraud Office.
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September 20, 2024
BoE Tells Small Banks To Choose Preferred Capital Regime
The Bank of England told smaller banks Friday to choose now whether to apply the latest Basel 3.1 capital rules or an alternative simpler regime, freeing them up to focus on growth.
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September 20, 2024
Willkie Guides On African Banking Biz's SocGen Deal
Societe Generale said Friday it has inked a deal to offload its 57.93% stake in its bank based in Guinea Conakry, West Africa, for an undisclosed sum to Atlantic Financial Group, which was advised by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
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September 20, 2024
DLA Piper Boosts Corporate, Insurance Teams With 2 Partners
DLA Piper has strengthened its European corporate and insurance practices with the recruitment of two experienced partners to its offices in Spain and Italy.
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September 20, 2024
Audit Watchdog Revises Actuarial Standard For Insurers
Britain's accounting watchdog on Friday published a revised version of the rules for actuarial work in the insurance sector that it said reflected recent regulatory changes around delivering good outcomes for consumers.
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September 20, 2024
Pension Savings Plans Warned Over 'Deflation Spiral' Risk
Pension schemes should make contingency plans now for falling inflation, a consultancy has said, as it warned that failure to prepare could result in a destabilizing rush to sell off U.K. government bonds.
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September 20, 2024
EQT To Buy Indian Affordable Housing Finance Biz For $210M
Swedish investment giant EQT plans to buy Indostar Home Finance of India for $120 million, to help its growth as the Asian country struggles with housing shortages.
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September 20, 2024
UK Fraud Reimbursement Plan Could Attract Organized Crime
A program launching in October that allows victims of fraudulent authorized push payments to get reimbursement from banks and payments companies could be exploited by organized crime to cash in with bogus claims, according to lawyers.
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September 19, 2024
London Law Firm Fined For Breaching AML Rules
A London law firm must pay £3,700 ($4,900) in fines plus costs after it failed to comply with strict anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules, the solicitors' watchdog for England and Wales has said.
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September 26, 2024
Wiggin Scores 6-Person Sports Law Team From Walker Morris
Wiggin LLP announced Thursday it has hired a new chief for its sports law practice, along with his five-strong team, as the firm looks to cement its practice in the area.
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September 19, 2024
Lloyds Bank Beats Employees' Settled Hybrid Working Claims
An employment tribunal has nixed claims against Lloyds Bank after ruling that three employees were unlikely to prove the bank had wrongly rejected their request to work from home.
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September 19, 2024
Gov't Urged To Push Collective Defined Benefit Pension Plans
The U.K. government should push forward new collective pension plans with "bold and innovative" thinking to address Britain's retirement adequacy challenge, Hymans Robertson LLP said Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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A Look At 2023's Landmark Insolvency Developments
The insolvency landscape in 2023 witnessed pivotal court decisions that will continue to shape the industry in 2024, with a focus on refining director and administrator duties and obligations, and addressing emerging challenges, says Kerri Wilson at Ontier.
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Pension Industry Should Monitor Evolving ESG Issues In 2024
ESG thinking in the pensions industry has substantially evolved from focusing on climate change and net-zero to including nature and social considerations, and formalizing governance processes — illustrating that, in 2024, continually monitoring ESG issues sits squarely within trustee fiduciary duties, says Liz Ramsaran at DWF.
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What 2024 Has In Store For White Collar Crime Enforcement
Changes in Serious Fraud Office leadership and corporate crime laws in the U.K. signal a chance to kickstart enforcement in 2024, and companies need to stay alive to risks within their business, preparing in particular for the new offense of failure to prevent fraud, say lawyers at Latham.
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Emerging Trends From A Busy Climate Litigation Year
Although many environmental cases brought in the U.K. were unsuccessful in 2023, they arguably clarified several relevant issues, such as climate rights, director and trustee obligations, and the extent to which claimants can hold the government accountable, illustrating what 2024 may have in store for climate litigation, say Simon Bishop and Patrick Kenny at Hausfeld.
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Regulating Digital Platforms: What's Changing In EU And UK
Lawyers at Mayer Brown assess the status of recently enacted EU and U.K. antitrust regulation governing gatekeeper platforms, noting that the effects are already being felt, and that companies will need to avoid anti-competitive self-preferencing and ensure a higher degree of interoperability than has been required to date.
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How Boards Can Mitigate Privacy, Cybersecurity And AI Risks
In 2023, data privacy, cybersecurity and AI persist as prominent C-suite concerns as regulators stepped up enforcement, and organizations must develop a plan for handling these risks, in particular those with a global footprint, say lawyers at Latham.
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The Outlook For UK Restructuring Plans At Home And Abroad
The U.K. continues to be a center for large-cap, cross-border restructurings, though its competitive edge over the EU in this regard may narrow, while small and medium-sized enterprises are already likely to avoid costly formal processes by reaching out to their secured lenders for restructuring solutions, say Paul Keddie and Timothy Bromley-White at Macfarlanes.
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Foreign Assets Ruling Suggests New Tax Avoidance Approach
The U.K. Supreme Court's recent ruling in His Majesty's Revenue & Customs v. Fisher, which found that the scope of the transfer of foreign assets is narrow, highlights that the days of rampant tax avoidance have been left behind, and that the need for wide-ranging and uncertain tax legislation is lessening, says James Austen at Collyer Bristow.
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Lessons To Be Learned From 2023's Bank Failures
This year’s banking collapses, coupled with interest rate rises, inflation and geopolitical instability have highlighted the need for more robust governance, and banks and regulators have learned that they must adequately monitor and control liquidity risk to protect against another financial crisis, say Juliette Mills and Alix Prentice at Cadwalader.
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An Overview Of European Private Investments in Public Equity
Although still fairly rare, private investments in public equity may continue to be an attractive option for some European issuers seeking to secure equity financing, and advisers planning such an investment should consider the various local options, requirements and norms, say lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell.
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Cos. Must Monitor Sanctions Regime As Law Remains Unclear
While recent U.K. government guidance and an English High Court's decision in Litasco v. Der Mond Oil, finding that a company is sanctioned when a designated individual is exercising control over it, both address sanctions control issues, disarray in the law remains, highlighting that practitioners should keep reviewing their exposure to the sanctions regime, say lawyers at K&L Gates.
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Unpacking The UK's Proposals To Regulate Crypto-Assets
Recent proposals for crypto-asset regulation in the U.K. demonstrate support for crypto's potential, but there is concern around the authorization process for organizations undertaking crypto-asset activities, and new regulations will require a more detailed assessment of firms' compliance not previously addressed, say Jessica Lee and Menelaos Karampetsos at Brown Rudnick.
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The Top 7 Global ESG Litigation Trends In 2023
To date, ESG litigation across the world can largely be divided into seven forms, but these patterns will continue developing, including a rise in cases against private and state actors, a more complex regulatory environment affecting multinational companies, and an increase in nongovernmental organization activity, say Sophie Lamb and Aleksandra Dulska at Latham.
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UK Takeover Code Changes: Key Points For Bidders, Targets
Newly effective amendments to Rule 21 of the U.K. Takeover Code, which remove legal and administrative constraints on a target operating its business in the ordinary way during an offer, will add clarity for targets and bidders, and are likely to be welcomed by both, say lawyers at Davis Polk.
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Russia Ruling Shows UK's Robust Jurisdiction Approach
An English High Court's recent decision to grant an anti-suit injunction in the Russia-related dispute Renaissance Securities v. Chlodwig Enterprises clearly illustrates that obtaining an injunction will likely be more straightforward when the seat is in England compared to when it is abroad, say lawyers at Linklaters.