Expert Analysis

• Anticipating The UK's Top M&A Trends In 2025

  

  Conversations with market participants are focusing on five key questions about 2025's transactional markets, ranging from issues of artificial intelligence, to the boom in takeovers and increased regulatory scrutiny, says Layla D’Monte at King & Spalding.

• Hawaii Climate Insurance Case Is Good News For Energy Cos.

  

  The Hawaii Supreme Court's recent ruling in a dispute between an oil company and its insurers, holding that reckless conduct in the context of activities that can cause climate harms is covered by liability policies, will likely be viewed by energy companies as a positive development, say attorneys at Fenchurch Law.

• The EU AI Act's Impact On Global Financial Regulation

  

  The European Union’s new Artificial Intelligence Act, representing lawmakers’ first comprehensive attempt to regulate AI and giving special attention to the financial services sector, hopes to influence global legal and regulatory frameworks to maintain access to the EU market, say lawyers at Goodwin.

• FCA Survey Results Reveal Rise In Nonfinancial Misconduct

  

  After a Financial Conduct Authority survey recently reported a significant rise in nonfinancial misconduct, there are a number of preventive steps firms should take to create a healthy workplace environment and mitigate the risk of increased regulatory scrutiny, say lawyers at WilmerHale.

• FCA's Broad Proposals Aim To Protect Customer Funds

  

  The Financial Conduct Authority’s proposed changes to payments firms’ safeguarding requirements, with enhanced recordkeeping and fund segregation, seek to bolster existing regulatory provisions, but by introducing a statutory trust concept to cover customers’ assets, represent a set of onerous rules, says Matt Hancock at Greenberg Traurig.

• Modernizing UK Trade Settlement Standard: The Road Ahead

  

  Andrew Tsang and Tom Bacon at BCLP consider the rationale and challenges of a potential U.K. trade settlement acceleration, part of an initiative to modernize the financial market infrastructure, and suggest that incorporating distributed ledger technology as a synchronized recording system would facilitate the move.

• A Look At UK, EU And US Cartel Enforcement Trends

  

  The European Union, U.K. and U.S. competition agencies' recently issued joint statement on competition risks in generative artificial intelligence demonstrates increased cross-border collaboration on cartel investigations, meaning companies facing investigations in one jurisdiction should anticipate related investigations in other jurisdictions, say lawyers at Latham & Watkins.

• What Green Claims Directive Proposal Means For Businesses

  

  With the European Union’s recent adoption of a general approach to the proposed Green Claims Directive, which will regulate certain environmental claims and likely be finalized next year, companies keen to publicize their green credentials have even more reason to tread carefully, say Marcus Navin-Jones and Juge Gregg at Crowell & Moring.

• EU Reports Signal Greenwashing Focus For Financial Sector

  

  Reports from the European Supervisory Authorities on enforcement of sustainability information, plus related guidance issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority, represent a fundamental change in how businesses must operate to maintain integrity and public trust, say Amilcare Sada and Matteo Fanton at A&O Shearman.

• Embedding Consumer Duty: 6 Areas Firms Should Prioritize

  

  The Financial Conduct Authority has repeatedly emphasized that complying with the Consumer Duty is not a tick-box exercise but an ongoing responsibility, so firms need to show that the duty is at the heart of their practices by staying compliant in areas from cultural change to customer vulnerability, say Nicola Higgs and Becky Critchley at Latham.

• Insuring Lender's Baseball Bet Leads To Major League Dispute

  

  In RockFence v. Lloyd's, a California federal court seeks to define who qualifies as a professional baseball player for purposes of an insurance coverage payout, providing an illuminating case study of potential legal issues arising from baseball service loans, say Marshall Gilinsky and Seán McCabe at Anderson Kill.

• What Steps Businesses Can Take After CrowdStrike Failure

  

  Following last month’s global Microsoft platform outage caused by CrowdStrike’s failed security software update, businesses can expect complex disputes over liability resulting from multilayered agreements and should look to their various insurance policies for cover despite losses not stemming from a cyberattack, says Daniel Healy at Brown Rudnick.

• What To Expect From Labour's Pension Schemes Bill

  

  The Labour government’s recently announced Pension Schemes Bill, outlining key policy areas affecting the retirement savings sector, represents a positive step forward for both defined contribution scheme members and defined benefit superfunds, but there are some missing features, says Sonya Fraser at Arc Pensions.

• What EU Opinion May Mean For ESG Product Classification

  

  The recently issued European Supervisory Authority opinion on the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation offers key recommendations, including revising the definition of sustainable investments and making principal adverse impacts consideration mandatory, that could sway the European Commission’s final approach to product classification, say lawyers at Debevoise.

• Insurance Rulings Show Court Hesitancy To Fix Policy Errors

  

  Two recent Court of Appeal insurance decisions highlight that policyholders can only overcome policy drafting errors and claim coverage if there is a very obvious mistake, emphasizing courts' reluctance to rewrite contract terms that are capable of enforcement, says Aaron Le Marquer at Stewarts.