Financial Services UK

  • May 15, 2024

    Watchdog Warns Bank CEOs Of Inadequate Recovery Plans

    The Prudential Regulation Authority told the chief executives of smaller U.K. banks and building societies in a letter on Wednesday that their companies should improve recovery plans, saying that they use insufficiently severe scenarios in testing.

  • May 15, 2024

    FCA Charges 3 For Alleged £8M Pension Fraud

    The Financial Conduct Authority said Wednesday it has charged three consultants over an alleged fraudulent investment scheme in which victims lost £8 million ($10.1 million) of their pension savings.

  • May 15, 2024

    Experts See Risks In FCA's Soft-Touch Response To AI

    The Financial Conduct Authority has so far failed to detail its rules on artificial intelligence and is moving toward a reliance on companies to self-report, putting it at risk of deferring excessively to the sector it regulates, legal experts say.

  • May 14, 2024

    Autonomy Overstated Revenue Before HP Sale, Jury Hears

    Autonomy's reported revenue was overstated by a combined $300 million in the two-and-a-half years before HP acquired it, an accounting expert testified Tuesday in a California criminal trial over claims that Autonomy founder Michael Lynch duped HP into buying his software company for an inflated $11.7 billion price.

  • May 14, 2024

    Christian Org. Staves Off Same-Sex Bias Trial With $120K Deal

    A Christian nonprofit has agreed to pay a Washington job candidate $120,000 to avoid a damages trial on claims it refused to hire her because she was in a same-sex marriage, though it said it would appeal the liability finding against it.

  • May 14, 2024

    Billionaire's Pilot Cops To Tax Count, Avoids Insider Trial

    A pilot from Virginia accused of profiting from stock tips fed to him by British billionaire Joe Lewis on Tuesday copped to dodging taxes on $500,000 of income from Lewis' company, in a plea deal that avoids an insider trading trial.

  • May 14, 2024

    UK Gov't Rules Out NDA Ban In Harassment Cases

    HM Treasury said Tuesday that the U.K. government will not commit to a legislative ban on nondisclosure agreements in harassment cases, rejecting a call from MPs to bring an end to the "abusive use" of NDAs to silence victims.

  • May 14, 2024

    UniCredit Bids To Toss $69M Plane Payment Sanctions Ruling

    UniCredit urged an appeals court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that it was not reasonable for its London branch to believe it was prohibited from making $69.3 million in payments to three Irish lessors tied to aircraft held in Russia because of Western sanctions.

  • May 14, 2024

    EU Watchdog Sets Anti-Greenwashing Guidelines For Funds

    The European Union's markets regulator on Tuesday published its final guidelines for firms using ESG terms in fund names, requiring 80% of the fund's investments to match the claimed criteria to combat greenwashing risk.

  • May 14, 2024

    Gov't To Add Legal Powers, Staff To Stop Benefits Fraud

    The Department for Work and Pensions said Tuesday it will support new legislation to expand its powers to make arrests and conduct searches in its crackdown on benefits fraud.

  • May 14, 2024

    EU Finance Ministers Strike Deal On Withholding Tax Refunds

    European Union finance ministers agreed Tuesday to a withholding tax refund law, as previous holdouts Poland and the Czech Republic withdrew their objections.

  • May 14, 2024

    UK Pension Scheme Funding Edges Up £2.8B

    The overall funding level of U.K. pension schemes edged up £2.8 billion ($3.5 billion) last month, according to official figures Tuesday, but experts warned that there was potential "volatility" on the horizon amid uncertainty over whether interest rates will change this year.

  • May 14, 2024

    Repository Denies Withholding Investment Data From Fund

    A securitization repository has denied "capriciously" withholding investment data from an investment fund, claiming that it never received a request for the information and did not know the fund existed.

  • May 14, 2024

    ATM Network Accuses Stripe Of Infringing 'Link' TMs

    The main ATM network in the U.K. has accused Stripe of infringing its trademarks and hijacking its reputation by providing a payments system under the "Link" name, telling a court that consumers associate this branding with the cash machine system in Britain.

  • May 13, 2024

    Irked Autonomy Judge Vents On HP Fraud Trial's Slow Pace

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Monday blasted lawyers for the government and two former Autonomy Corp. PLC executives in a criminal fraud case over the trial's slow progress, saying he's "annoyed," but also "complicit" because he "did not take more of a controlling posture."

  • May 13, 2024

    JP Morgan Battles Viva Wallet Founder Over Buyout Value

    J.P. Morgan International Finance Ltd. urged a London judge Monday to reject a payment company's "nonsensical" case over the investment bank's option to buy out its partner's stake in a joint venture fintech business.

  • May 13, 2024

    Barclays Can Keep $148M Russian Swaps Dispute In London

    Barclays has secured a permanent London court order preventing sanctioned Russian state investment company VEB from taking its $147.7 million swaps dispute with the bank away from the U.K. to an arbitration court in Moscow.

  • May 13, 2024

    Warning On Surge In Mortgages Going Beyond Retirement

    Almost half of new mortgages issued in Britain toward the end of 2023 reach beyond the state pension age, figures published on Monday show, raising the risk of an impending retirement crisis.

  • May 13, 2024

    EasyGroup Sues Vehicle Rental Co. Over 'EasyHire' TM

    EasyGroup has hit English car and van rental business Easihire with a trademark infringement claim, arguing that customers are likely to confuse Easihire with its own easyHire brand.

  • May 13, 2024

    Gov't Tells Finance, Law Watchdogs To Improve AML Reports

    HM Treasury and Britain's anti-money laundering watchdog have told professional bodies in sectors including law and accounting to sharpen the focus in their annual reports on failures in compliance and supervisory actions.

  • May 13, 2024

    Demand Grows For Cross-Border Pensions In Unstable States

    Cross-border pension and saving plans have more than doubled in just five years, with much of the growth in schemes covering employees in unstable countries, according to a survey published Monday.

  • May 10, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    The past week in London has seen Playtech file an intellectual property claim against online casino company OnAir Entertainment amid allegations of corporate spying, a broadcast equipment company sue its former owner amid allegations he conspired to inflate a customer’s finances, and aerospace company Vertical Aerospace hit a manufacturer with a claim following a test flight crash. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • May 10, 2024

    Commerzbank Analyst To Pay £20K After False Allegations

    A financial analyst has lost all his claims of harassment, sexual harassment, victimization and race discrimination at the hands of Commzerbank, as the Employment Tribunal found that some allegations were "pure inventions" and ordered him to hand over £20,000 ($25,000).

  • May 10, 2024

    Costs Of Pension Portals Rise £54M Over Launch Delays

    The cost of building new online pensions dashboards has risen by £54 million ($67.6 million) in three years as the project has faced delays due to poor governance, a damning report by the public sector audit watchdog said on Friday.

  • May 10, 2024

    Ex-Plastics Co. Manager Spared Prison For Insider Dealing

    A London judge gave a former manager at a plastics company an 18-month suspended prison sentence on Friday for insider dealing in connection with the £261 million ($327 million) purchase of a rival company.

Expert Analysis

  • Tackling Global Inflation Is A Challenge For Antitrust Agencies

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    Recent events have put pressure on antitrust agencies to address the global cost-of-living crisis, but the relationship between competition and inflation is complex, and with competition agencies’ reluctance to act as price regulators, enforcement is unlikely to have a meaningful impact, say lawyers at Linklaters.

  • Key Findings From EBA's Money Laundering Report

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    The European Banking Authority's recent report on money laundering and terrorist financing risks, highlighting that payment institutions may be ineffectively assessing or managing those risks, makes clear that addressing its findings will be essential to protecting the European Union from financial crime, say lawyers at Hogan Lovells.

  • Cos. Using AI Should Note Regulators' Privacy Concerns

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    The past year’s unprecedented explosion in the use of artificial intelligence tools has sparked fears over the way personal data may be collected and treated, and organizations adopting AI will need to ensure that they have a lawful basis to use data collected in this way, says Paula Williamson at Excello Law.

  • Comparing EU And UK Proposals To Regulate ESG Ratings

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    Ferdisha Snagg and Andreas Wildner at Cleary examine the key aspects of the EU proposal for regulating environmental, social and governance rating activities and draw comparisons to the U.K. proposal regarding scope, substantive provider obligations on regulated providers and the likely timeline for adoption and implementation.

  • Digital Assets Consultation Offers First Step In Regulation

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    The recently published International Organization of Securities Commissions consultation intending to establish coordinated international regulation of cryptocurrency and digital assets, will benefit and protect retail investors against financial crime risk, also allowing legitimate market entrants to distinguish themselves from less scrupulous participants, says Fred Saugman at WilmerHale.

  • EU And UK Crypto-Asset Consumer Rights Look Set To Differ

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    The U.K. government's recent consultation paper lacks an extended cooling off period to cancel crypto-asset purchases, which notably deviates from the European Union Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation, but depending on feedback, the U.K. may eventually adopt similar consumer protection measures, say Felicity Forward and Matt Green at Shoosmiths.

  • EU Sustainability Initiatives Will Affect Emissions Trading

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    The measures recently adopted by the EU in its "Fit for 55" legislative package to revise its emissions trading system and establish a carbon border adjustment mechanism have far-reaching implications for companies needing to implement changes to offset the potential effects of their business operations, say Melanie Bruneau, Giovanni Campi and Annette Mutschler-Siebert at K&L Gates.

  • The Benefits Of Uniformity In EU Anti-Corruption Proposals

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    The proposed directive requiring European Union member states to incorporate uniform anti-bribery measures would bring greater harmony and consistency, doing much to facilitate the prevention of bribery and drive common standards in the compliance culture of companies, say lawyers at White & Case.

  • What To Know About 'Prior Obligations' Sanctions Exemption

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    The U.K. Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation recently issued a "prior obligations" general license authorizing U.K. persons to receive funds or economic resources owed to them by any person targeted by U.K. asset freeze sanctions, and it is novel for its scope but by no means a panacea, say Jane Shvets and Konstantin Bureiko at Debevoise.

  • Recent Cases Mark Maturation Of CAT Class Cert. Approach

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    The Competition Appeal Tribunal's recent refusal to grant collective proceedings applications against Visa and MasterCard in the Commercial and Interregional Card Claims case shows that the tribunal takes its role as a gatekeeper seriously, and that it will likely continue to be difficult for defendants to defeat certification first time around, say lawyers at Linklaters.

  • Why The UK Needs Tougher Fraud Enforcement

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    The Crown Court's recent conviction of Anthony Constantinou for running a Ponzi scheme is a rare success for prosecutors, highlighting the legal system's painfully slow course when it comes to complex fraud, and the need for significant funds and resources in the fight against financial crime, says James Clark at Quillon Law.

  • What New FCA Management Will Mean For Enforcement

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    Therese Chambers’ first speech since becoming the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s joint executive director provided insightful observations about the expected behaviors of firms and their legal advisers during investigations, indicating the advent of a proactive, prosecution-minded enforcement agency trying to do the right thing, says Richard Burger at WilmerHale.

  • Global M&A Outlook: Slow But Moving Along

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    Global merger and acquisition markets had a tough start to the year, with inflation, rising interest rates and the Ukraine conflict knocking sentiment, but in the macroeconomic, deal makers have continued to unearth pockets of activity to keep deal volumes ticking over, say lawyers at White & Case.

  • Why Int'l Investors Should Keep An Eye On German M&A Regs

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    While German reform proposals will digitize corporate law formalities that have long been immune to change, international limitations remain, particularly for countries outside the European Union, as Germany moves to tighten regulatory hurdles to control inbound investment, say Marcus Geiss and Sonja Ruttmann at Gibson Dunn.

  • How B2B Data Sharing Could Unlock Untapped Value

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    B2B data sharing offers organizations an opportunity to extract greater value from an existing asset, and although it is essential to consider the legal and regulatory framework and maintain a sound governance structure, with strong support businesses that share data are likely to grow more than those that do not, say Jocelyn Paulley and Helen Davenport at Gowling WLG.

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