Financial Services UK

  • April 09, 2024

    HSBC To Take $1B Hit From Sale Of Argentina Unit

    HSBC said Tuesday that it will book a $1 billion loss on the sale of its business in Argentina to local lender Grupo Financiero Galicia, as the London-based bank continues to shift its focus to Asia.

  • April 16, 2024

    Charles Russell Speechlys Hires Banking And Finance Lawyer

    Charles Russell Speechlys LLP has appointed Philip Withey, a lawyer from Womble Bond, as partner in its banking and finance practice in a move the firm believes will boost its business.

  • April 08, 2024

    Ex-Autonomy Exec Says Boss's Invoice Ask Caused Concern

    A former Autonomy finance employee took the stand Monday in the criminal fraud trial of ex-CEO Michael Lynch and finance director Stephen Chamberlain, telling a California federal jury that he was "not comfortable" with one of Chamberlain's invoice requests and was sacked after raising concerns about accounting irregularities.

  • April 08, 2024

    Canada's High Court Enforces Award In Greek Defense Suit

    The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed the enforcement of an arbitral award in a dispute over a contract between aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc. and Greece's Ministry of National Defence, saying a Canadian bank had to refuse payment to the beneficiary of a letter of credit because of fraud.

  • April 08, 2024

    £54M Claimed From Failed Financial Services Last Year

    The U.K.'s lifeboat scheme said Monday it has recovered £54 million ($68 million) in the financial year ended March 31 from the estates of failed financial services companies.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • Accountability Is Key To Preventing Miscarriages Of Justice

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    The wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson and other recent cases show that in order to avoid future miscarriages of justice, there needs to be a fundamental reevaluation of how investigators, prosecutors and the Criminal Cases Review Commission operate, prioritizing stronger penalties and increased funding, say Thomas Walford at Expert Evidence International and policy analyst Gerald Frost.

  • 4 Compliance Considerations Under FCA Consumer Duty

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    Following the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's recent introduction of the new consumer duty regime, firms will need to be mindful of data protection implications when managing their compliance with the duty and data protection legislation, say lawyers at Bird & Bird.

  • What Could Come Of CFPB, EU Consumer Finance Collab

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    A recent joint statement from the European Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau focused on how technology is affecting consumers of financial services, potentially recognizing that legal protections are lacking because tech regulations lag behind its development, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • 6 Key Factors For Successful Cross-Border Dispute Mediation

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    The European landscape of cross-border disputes diverges markedly from the U.S. experience and presents unique challenges, including the amalgamation of diverse cultures and legal systems, but there are several practical steps that practitioners can take to effectively navigate the process, says Peter Kamminga at JAMS.

  • Operational Resilience Considerations In Financial Services

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    A recent letter from the Financial Conduct Authority reminds CEOs of U.K. wholesale banks of their role in the safety and soundness of markets, but all firms can draw lessons and consider their own operational resilience for longer-term security and commercial benefit, says Richard Tall at Faegre Drinker.

  • UK Tech Cases Warn Of Liability Clause Drafting Pitfalls

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    The recent U.K. High Court cases Drax Energy Solutions v. Wipro and EE v. Virgin Mobile Telecoms indicate a more literal judicial approach to construing limitations of liability, even when this significantly limits a claimant's recoverable damages, highlighting the importance of carefully drafted liability provisions, say Helen Armstrong and Tania Williams at RPC.

  • How The UK Investment Screening Regime Is Taking Shape

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    A recent order imposing remedies on an acquisition by EDF Energy highlights emerging trends in the U.K. government's national security reviews of transactions under the U.K. National Security and Investment Act, and shows how the U.K. remedy landscape compares to the U.S. regime, say lawyers at Arnold & Porter.

  • Consultations Underpin Mandatory Fraud Victim Repayment

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    The U.K. Payment Systems Regulator’s recent consultations on authorized push payment fraud reinforce its June policy expectation, which said that unless there is evidence of gross negligence and the consumer standard of caution has not been followed, providers must reimburse fraud victims, say lawyers at Hogan Lovells.

  • Swiss Privacy Law Reforms Present Divergences From GDPR

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    The differences between Switzerland’s recently reformed Federal Act on Data Protection and the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, particularly around data breach reporting and the liability of company officers, will need to be carefully managed by multinationals that may have competing obligations under different laws, say Kim Roberts and Vanessa Alarcon Duvanel at King & Spalding.

  • New Legislation May Not Be Needed For Recovery Of Crypto

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    The recent seizure of cryptocurrency under a civil recovery order raises the issue of whether extended powers under the forthcoming Economic Crime Bill are necessary, with the ability to seize crypto-related items that may be the subject of a search order more likely to be of assistance, says Nicola McKinney at Quillon Law.

  • Opinion

    Russia Ruling Should Lead UK To Review Sanctions Policy

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    The High Court's recent dismissal of the first-ever court challenge to Russian sanctions in Shvidler v. Secretary of State sets a demanding standard for overturning designation decisions, highlighting the need for an independent review of the Russia sanctions regime, says Helen Taylor at Spotlight on Corruption.

  • German Competition Law May Herald New Enforcement Trend

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    The recent amendment to the German Act against Restraints of Competition is expected to significantly expand the powers of the German Federal Cartel Office, and could signal a global trend toward greater direct intervention by national competition authorities and political interference in competition law, say lawyers at Simmons & Simmons.

  • New Financial Services Act Leaves Few Firms Untouched

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    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.

  • FCA 'De-Banking' Clampdown May Need Gov't Backing

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    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.

  • UK Securitization Reform Opts For Modest Approach, For Now

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    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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