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Financial Services UK
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April 24, 2024
Fund Manager Denies Losing Jailed Politician's Wife £8M
A fund manager has denied transferring €28 million ($30 million) from the account of an imprisoned Turkish politician's wife without her permission, claiming she gave written instructions to invest the money in emerging markets.
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April 24, 2024
EU Keeps Gibraltar, Panama, UAE On AML Blacklist
Gibraltar, Panama and the United Arab Emirates should remain on the European Union's blacklist of high-risk countries for money laundering, the European Parliament said, stopping the EU from following the lead of a global organization promoting standards for countries to fight those crimes.
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April 24, 2024
Payments Watchdog Seeks Responses On Supervision Plans
The Payment Systems Regulator said Wednesday it is opening a consultation on its approach to supervision of payment systems operators, including new principles for firms in the sector to apply.
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April 24, 2024
Osborne Clarke Guides Canada Life's £46M Lexmark Deal
Insurer Canada Life has agreed to a £46 million ($57 million) buy-in with the pension scheme of printing business Lexmark Holdings Inc. in a transaction guided by Osborne Clarke LLP.
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April 24, 2024
PRA Asks Banks To Review Private Equity Exposure
The Prudential Regulation Authority asked banks to review and assess their current practices to ensure they align with the regulator's expectations for effective risk management concerning private equity-linked credit and counterparty exposures.
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April 24, 2024
EU Says 3 States Aren't Correctly Following AML Law
The European Commission said Wednesday that three European Union countries — Ireland, France and Latvia — aren't correctly implementing the bloc's laws against money laundering, meaning that the countries now have two months to correct the shortcomings.
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April 24, 2024
Law Firm Ordered To Repay Couple £194K For Loan Breach
A court has ordered a law firm to reimburse a married couple at least £194,000 ($241,000) after finding that it had failed to adhere to the terms of two loan agreements the pair provided to help to fund its working capital and cover general business expenses.
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April 23, 2024
Ex-Autonomy Tech Exec Doubted 'Bizarre' $6M Deal, Jury Told
Autonomy's ex-chief technology officer testified Tuesday in the California federal fraud trial of former CEO Michael Lynch that he had concerns about Autonomy's "bizarre" 2010 deal to sell $6 million in repackaged hardware, which prosecutors allege was never delivered and was only used to artificially inflate Autonomy's revenues.
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April 23, 2024
RGL Confirms Woodford Claim Against Hargreaves Lansdown
RGL Group confirmed Tuesday it is pursuing a fresh claim against investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown over the collapse of Woodford Equity Investment Fund.
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April 23, 2024
FCA To Return £530K To Investors From Deposit-Taking Scam
The Financial Conduct Authority said Tuesday it will return £533,000 ($664,000) in recovered money to investors who were hit by a deposit scam run through two companies, including a soccer league operator.
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April 23, 2024
FCA Charges Man With Fraud In £2.7M Investment Scheme
The Financial Conduct Authority said Tuesday that it had charged a British man with fraud after he hid "significant losses" from investors as part of a £2.67 million ($3.33 million) scheme trading on foreign exchange markets.
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April 23, 2024
Bank Of Ireland Used Deceit To Loan Millions, Investor Claims
Bank of Ireland allegedly deceived a real estate investment business into borrowing millions from it by giving inflated property evaluations based on old estimates that were £1.2 million ($1.5 million) higher than up-to-date figures, according to a London court filing.
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April 23, 2024
Investment Fund Accuses Repository Of Dishonesty
A U.K. investment fund has accused a registered securitization repository of acting dishonestly and unlawfully when it repeatedly refused to provide the fund's subsidiary access to data critical to help it make informed decisions about future investments.
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April 23, 2024
FCA Clarifies Greenwashing Rule, Extends ESG regime
The Financial Conduct Authority has published clarifying final guidance on its anti-greenwashing rule for all regulated firms, saying on Tuesday that it will also extend its broader sustainability regime to include portfolio managers.
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April 23, 2024
Top UK Court Blocks Gazprom Unit's Russian UniCredit Claim
Britain's highest court upheld an injunction on Tuesday barring a Gazprom subsidiary from pursuing a €450 million ($480 million) claim against UniCredit Bank AG in Russia after the German lender withheld financing for the construction of gas processing plants because of sanctions.
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April 22, 2024
Finance Biz. Sues Ex-Contractor For £1.6M Over Stolen Clients
A finance company has accused a self-employed adviser of breaching obligations after exiting the company and taking more than a hundred customers worth £1.6 million ($1.9 million) of future income with her to a competitor.
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April 22, 2024
Freshfields-Led CVC Unveils Range On $1.7B Amsterdam IPO
European private equity giant CVC Capital Partners PLC, represented by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, on Monday set a price range on initial public offering estimated to raise about €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion), mostly benefiting selling shareholders.
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April 22, 2024
Trader Behind £1.4B Tax Fraud Thought Trades Were Valid
A British trader accused of being the mastermind of a fraudulent trading scheme that cost Denmark's tax authority £1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) genuinely believed that the trades worked, his lawyer told a London court on Monday.
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April 22, 2024
Med Tech Founder Denies Deceiving Investors For $20M Sale
The co-founder of a medical technology business has denied concealing his financial interest in a $20 million deal to purchase shares in his company, claiming he was never told it was important to reveal the seller's identity to the investment company.
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April 22, 2024
Leaked Doc Undermines Court's Libor Findings, Hayes Says
A leaked document from Britain's former banking trade association casts doubt over a key finding in the Court of Appeal's decision to uphold the convictions of two traders jailed for rigging interest rate benchmarks, one of the men claimed Monday.
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April 22, 2024
Commerzbank Did Not Pay Analyst Less Due To His Gender
Commerzbank did not pay an axed compliance analyst a lower salary than his female colleagues based on his sex, a London tribunal has held, ruling that the bank based its pay offers on salary expectations among other benchmarking factors.
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April 22, 2024
Complaints Of Closed Bank Accounts To Ombudsman Surge
Customer complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service about closure of or refusal to open bank accounts have risen sharply in the last year, particularly from businesses, according to figures recently released by a select group of members of Parliament.
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April 22, 2024
FCA To Consider Big Tech Data-Sharing With Finance Firms
The Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday it will examine how Big Tech's access to data could be valuable to firms in the finance sector if it reveals consumers' preferences, and will consider setting out incentives to encourage information-sharing.
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April 22, 2024
FCA Defends Response To British Steel Pension Scandal
The Financial Conduct Authority on Monday said it took "appropriate regulatory action" amid complaints over its handling of the British Steel Pension Scheme transfer scandal and would not uphold any of the grievances it has received over its approach.
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April 29, 2024
Clifford Chance Adds Private Capital Pro From Paul Hastings
Clifford Chance LLP has recruited an investments expert to join its London office as a partner, as the firm looks to add "firepower" to its global financial markets team.
Expert Analysis
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A Look At Environment Agency's New Economic Crime Unit
Sophie Wood at Kingsley Napley explains how the Environment Agency’s newly established Economic Crime Unit will pursue criminal money flows from environmental offenses, and discusses the unit’s civil powers, including the ability to administer account freezing and forfeiture orders, says Sophie Wood at Kingsley Napley.
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Opinion
UK Whistleblowers Flock To The US For Good Reason
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office director recently brought renewed attention to the differences between the U.K. and U.S. whistleblower regimes — differences that may make reporting to U.S. agencies a better and safer option for U.K. whistleblowers, and show why U.K. whistleblower laws need to be improved, say Benjamin Calitri and Kate Reeves at Kohn Kohn.
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4 Legal Privilege Lessons From Dechert Disclosure Ruling
The Court of Appeal's recent decision in Al Sadeq v. Dechert LLP, finding that evidence may have been incorrectly withheld, provides welcome clarification of the scope of legal professional privilege, including the application of the iniquity exception, says Tim Knight at Travers Smith.
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BT Case May Shape UK Class Action Landscape
The first opt-out collective action trial commenced in Le Patourel v. BT in the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal last month, regarding BT's abuse of dominance by overcharging millions of customers, will likely provide clarification on damages and funder returns in collective actions, which could significantly affect the class action regime, say lawyers at RPC.
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Key Points From EC Economic Security Screening Initiatives
Lawyers at Herbert Smith analyze the European Commission's five recently announced initiatives aimed at de-risking the EU's trade and investment links with third countries, including the implementation of mandatory screening mechanisms and extending coverage to investments made by EU companies that are controlled subsidiaries of non-EU investors.
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Following The Road Map Toward Quantum Security
With the Financial Conduct Authority’s recent publication of a white paper on a quantum-secure financial sector, firms should begin to consider the quantum transition early — before the process is driven by regulatory obligations — with the goal of developing a cybersecurity architecture that is agile while also allowing for quantum security, say lawyers at Cleary.
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Why EU Ruling On Beneficial Ownership May Affect The UK
Following the EU judgment in Sovim v. Luxembourg that public access to beneficial ownership information conflicts with data protection rights, several British overseas territories and dependencies have recently reversed their commitment to introduce unrestricted access, and challenges to the U.K.’s liberal stance may be on the cards, says Rupert Cullen at Allectus Law.
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Key Changes In FRC Code Aim To Promote Good Governance
The focus of the recently published Financial Reporting Council Corporate Governance Code on risk management and internal controls is to ensure the competitiveness of the U.K. listing regime while not compromising on governance standards, and issuers may wish to consider updating their policies in order to follow best practice, say lawyers at Debevoise.
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Ruling In FCA Case Offers Tips On Flexible Work Requests
In Wilson v. Financial Conduct Authority, the Employment Tribunal recently found that the regulator's rejection of a remote work request was justified, highlighting for employers factors that affect flexible work request outcomes, while emphasizing that individual inquiries should be considered on the specific facts, say Frances Rollin, Ella Tunnell and Kerry Garcia at Stevens & Bolton.
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Breaking Down The New UK Pension Funding Regs
Recently published U.K. pension regulations, proposing major changes to funding and investing in defined benefit pension schemes, raise implementation considerations for trustees, including the importance of the employer covenant, say Charles Magoffin and Elizabeth Bullock at Freshfields.
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Predicting DeFi Regulations At Home And Abroad In 2024
Though decentralized finance has advocates on both sides of the Atlantic in figures like U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, DeFi in 2024 seems likely to be folded into existing regulatory frameworks in the U.K. and EU, while anti-crypto scrutiny may discourage DeFi’s growth in the U.S., say Daniel Csefalvay and Eric Martin at BCLP.
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Consultation Docs Can Help EU Firms Prep For Crypto Regs
Firms providing crypto services should note two recent papers from the European Securities and Markets Authority defining proposals on reverse solicitation and financial instrument classification that will be critical to clarifying the scope of the regulatory framework under the impending Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, say lawyers at Hogan Lovells.
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A Closer Look At Novel Jury Instruction In Forex Rigging Case
After the recent commodities fraud conviction of a U.K.-based hedge fund executive in U.S. v. Phillips, post-trial briefing has focused on whether the New York federal court’s jury instruction incorrectly defined the requisite level of intent, which should inform defense counsel in future open market manipulation cases, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert.
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Investors' Call For Voting Changes Faces Practical Challenges
A recent investor coalition call on fund managers to offer pass-through voting on pooled funds highlights a renewed concern for clients’ interests, but legal, regulatory and technological issues need to be overcome to ensure that risks related to the product are effectively mitigated, says Angeli Arora at Allectus.
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Litigation Funding Implications Amid Post-PACCAR Disputes
An English tribunal's recent decision in Neill v. Sony, allowing an appeal on the enforceability of a litigation funding agreement, highlights how the legislative developments on funding limits following the U.K. Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Paccar v. Competition Appeal Tribunal may affect practitioners, say Andrew Leitch and Anoma Rekhi at BCLP.