Financial Services UK

  • May 28, 2024

    NatWest Unaware Of Former Trader's Asperger's Diagnosis

    A former NatWest trader has lost his bid to revive his disability discrimination claim against the high street lender's investment banking arm as an appeals tribunal upheld findings that it did not know about his Asperger's syndrome diagnosis when he unsuccessfully applied to rejoin the company.

  • May 28, 2024

    White & Case Guides ABN Amro On €672M German Bank Buy

    Dutch lender ABN Amro said Tuesday that it plans to a buy German private bank for €672 million ($730 million) in a move to become one of the largest providers of banking services to wealthy clients in Germany.

  • May 24, 2024

    The UK Laws That Will Pass Or Fail As Election Looms

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's decision to call an early general election to be held on July 4 has left several pieces of legislation hanging in the balance during the so-called "wash-up" period before Parliament is formally dissolved, while others have been pushed through. 

  • May 24, 2024

    Labour Gov't Could Force Big Tech Into Fraud Repayments

    A potential new Labour government means a turning point in tackling financial fraud if it should force big tech companies like Meta and Google to join banks in having to reimburse customers duped into sending fraudsters money, according to lawyers.

  • May 24, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen an IT engineer seek permission to search a landfill hiding a hard drive supposedly storing millions of pounds in bitcoin, Glencore take on legal action by American Century Investments, gold payment app Glint bring a breach of duty claim against FRP Advisory, and an ongoing dispute between a solicitor and the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • May 24, 2024

    Banking 'Selfie' Fraudster Gets 3 Years In Prison

    A fraudster was handed a three-year prison sentence for making fake applications to obtain loans and pensions potentially losing banks around £178,000 ($227,000), the Crown Prosecution Service announced Friday.

  • May 24, 2024

    FCA Bans Two Advisers Accused Of Misleading Clients

    The Financial Conduct Authority has banned two advisers from working in financial services for "recklessly" exposing pension holders to high-risk investments, the regulator said Friday.

  • May 24, 2024

    Woman Imprisoned For Laundering From $5B Bitcoin Fraud

    A British-Chinese woman was imprisoned for more than six years on Friday at a London court for laundering bitcoin converted from an alleged £5 billion ($6.3 billion) investment fraud.

  • May 24, 2024

    Addleshaw Guides Coventry's £780M Co-op Bank Deal

    Coventry Building Society has formalized plans to buy the Co-operative Bank for £780 million ($990 million), the lenders said in a joint statement Friday, a move they claim will create an institution better equipped to challenge larger high street names.

  • May 23, 2024

    NY Top Court Revives FanDuel Investors Suit

    New York's top appeals court on Thursday revived a suit brought by FanDuel investors who claim they were deprived of profits from a merger, disagreeing with a lower court's interpretation of Scottish law.

  • May 23, 2024

    White & Case Adds Former A&O Tax Pro In Luxembourg

    White & Case LLP announced it has added a tax partner to its Luxembourg office from A&O Shearman who specializes in international and Luxembourg corporate tax law.

  • May 23, 2024

    Marketer Denies Owing Investors For Flawed Property Scheme

    An investment marketer has denied owing care home investors £2.3 million ($2.9 million) after they sank money into a flawed property scheme, claiming it never said the investments were safe.

  • May 23, 2024

    FSB Spots Weaknesses In Short-Term Funding Markets

    The Financial Stability Board said vulnerabilities used in short-term markets for financing companies need to be addressed because of the risk to the wider financial system in times of crisis such as COVID-19.

  • May 23, 2024

    Investec Sets Aside £30M For FCA Motor Finance Review

    Investec PLC has put aside £30 million ($38 million) as the banking group faces the Financial Conduct Authority's industry-wide motor finance review, according to the company's report for financial year 2024 published Thursday.

  • May 23, 2024

    Trader Denies Using 'Magic Money Tree' At £1.4B Fraud Trial

    Sanjay Shah, a former hedge fund owner who is accused of defrauding Denmark's tax authority out of £1.4 billion ($1.8 billion), denied using a "magic money tree" in his trading at a London court Thursday.

  • May 23, 2024

    Pension Plans Must Get Handle On Data Quality, TPR Says

    Retirement savings plans in the U.K. face increased regulatory scrutiny to ensure that Britain has the best possible standards on safeguarding the personal data of clients, the pensions watchdog has said.

  • May 23, 2024

    Bank Sues Adviser For £9M In Property Overvaluation Dispute

    A U.K. bank has alleged a retail adviser owes it £9.2 million ($11.7 million) for overvaluing a property development and causing it to lend millions of pounds more than it should have.

  • May 23, 2024

    Tech Resilience Regime Ambiguous, European Banks Say

    A trade body representing banks in Europe warned on Thursday that new regulations requiring finance firms to prevent risks arising from cyberattack or systems failure are ambiguous and could create differing approaches to compliance.

  • May 23, 2024

    FCA Fines HSBC £6.2M For Mistreating Customers In Arrears

    The Financial Conduct Authority said Thursday that it has fined HSBC £6.2 million ($7.9 million) for inadequate treatment of customers in financial difficulty. 

  • May 30, 2024

    White & Case Hires 2 Latham Partners In Germany

    White & Case LLP has added two partners from Latham & Watkins LLP with more than three decades worth of experience between them in capital markets to its Frankfurt office.

  • May 23, 2024

    Hargreaves Lansdown Snubs £4.7B Bid From CVC, Abu Dhabi

    The board of Hargreaves Lansdown said Thursday that it has rejected a proposed £4.7 billion ($6 billion) takeover offer from a consortium of private equity companies, including CVC and the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi.

  • May 22, 2024

    Property Transfer For Tax Break Not Dishonest, UK Court Says

    Two liquidated London real estate companies failed to convince the United Kingdom Court of Appeal that their former director behaved dishonestly by transferring their holdings to Jersey trusts for less than market value to obtain a tax advantage, according to a judgment released Wednesday.

  • May 22, 2024

    HSBC Can't Use Brexit To End UK Role In EU Body, Staff Say

    High street lender HSBC is obligated to keep the U.K. arm of its European works council despite Brexit, the representative body for European staff argued Wednesday as it challenged a ruling that the bank could exclude the U.K. once it left the European Economic Area.

  • May 22, 2024

    Ex-Goldman Banker Gets Contempt Sentence Suspended

    A London appellate court on Wednesday chose "the road of mercy rather than justice" and suspended a prison sentence for a former Goldman Sachs banker who breached court orders to hand over information concerning the financial assets of the wife of an imprisoned Turkish politician.

  • May 22, 2024

    Hilco Exec Wins £296K After Being Sacked For Whistleblowing

    A tribunal has awarded a former Hilco Capital Ltd. HR director almost £296,000 ($377,000) in compensation after she was unfairly sacked for blowing the whistle over alleged banking irregularities.

Expert Analysis

  • How Employers Can Support Neurodiversity In The Workplace

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    A recent run of cases emphasize employers' duties to make reasonable adjustments for neurodiverse employees under the Equalities Act, illustrating the importance of investing in staff education and listening to neurodivergent workers to improve recruitment, retention and productivity in the workplace, say Anna Henderson and Tim Leaver at Herbert Smith.

  • What The Anti-Coercion Instrument Will Bring To The EU

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    Vassilis Akritidis and Jean-Baptiste Blancardi at Crowell & Moring discuss why the European Union recently adopted a report on the anti-coercion instrument to reform its trade legislation, how the instrument will be used to respond to unfair economic pressure from third countries, and how businesses can impact the EU's decision making.

  • Why FCA Crypto Rules Need To Align With UK Gov't Aims

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    There is a critical need for cryptocurrency regulations that protect consumers while supporting the government's aim to make the U.K. a crypto hub, but the Financial Conduct Authority’s recently effective rules on financial promotion of crypto-assets bring an unintended risk that legitimate firms will be driven out of the market, says Laura Navarathnam at the Crypto Council for Innovation.

  • CMA Report On AI May Lead to Greater Competition Control

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    The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority’s recent report on artificial intelligence foundation models is a sign that developers could face increased merger control and antitrust enforcement, and businesses should be mindful of these views to ensure that their models do not come under investigation, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • UK Mozambique Ruling Will Have Int'l Ramifications

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    The recent U.K. Supreme Court judgment in Mozambique v. Privinvest considered for the first time stay proceedings under the Arbitration Act, offering guidance on whether claims are a "matter" within the scope of an arbitration clause, which could become a point of reference for foreign courts in the future, say lawyers at Herbert Smith.

  • Recent Trends In European ESG-Related Shareholder Activism

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    New ESG reporting standards in the European Union, as well as recent climate change, board diversity and human rights cases, illustrate how shareholder activism may become more prominent in years to come as regulation and investor engagement continues to strengthen, say lawyers at Debevoise.

  • Audit Regulator Review Has Tips On Climate Metric Reporting

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    The U.K. Financial Reporting Council’s recent review of climate-related metrics and targets in listed companies’ annual reports is an extremely useful guide for issuers considering the quality of their disclosure reporting, with a number of key areas identified as central to further improvement, say lawyers at Bryan Cave.

  • What Russia Case Reveals About UK Sanctions Enforcement

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    The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation recently issued its first enforcement action under the U.K.'s expanded Russia sanctions against a relatively small company for a moderately severe breach — a decision that highlights several questions about the watchdog’s purpose and methods, say Maia Cohen-Lask and Tasha Benkhadra at Corker Binning.

  • Breaking Down The UK's Draft Updates To Prospectus Regime

    While there still may be changes, the U.K.'s near-final draft statutory instrument to update and in some parts replace the current on-shored EU prospectus regime is likely to represent a significant overhaul of the existing regime and may make U.K. capital markets a more attractive venue for listings for issuers, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Italy's Bank-Profits Tax Plan May Become Model For Eurozone

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    If Italy's recently proposed 40% bank-profits tax helps keep its populist coalition government in power, notwithstanding the European Central Bank's legal challenges, the passage could spark a windfall tax trend across the eurozone and even in the U.K., says Cris Cicala at Stinson.

  • Bitcoin Case Highlights Advanced Age Of UK's IP Law

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    An appellate court's recent decision in a case involving the copyright of bitcoin's file format emphasizes the role of copyright protection in software, and also the challenges of applying decades-old laws to new technologies, say Marianna Foerg and Ben Bell at Potter Clarkson.

  • 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.

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