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Financial Services UK
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September 20, 2024
Willkie Guides On African Banking Biz's SocGen Deal
Societe Generale said Friday it has inked a deal to offload its 57.93% stake in its bank based in Guinea Conakry, West Africa, for an undisclosed sum to Atlantic Financial Group, which was advised by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
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September 20, 2024
DLA Piper Boosts Corporate, Insurance Teams With 2 Partners
DLA Piper has strengthened its European corporate and insurance practices with the recruitment of two experienced partners to its offices in Spain and Italy.
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September 20, 2024
Audit Watchdog Revises Actuarial Standard For Insurers
Britain's accounting watchdog on Friday published a revised version of the rules for actuarial work in the insurance sector that it said reflected recent regulatory changes around delivering good outcomes for consumers.
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September 20, 2024
Pension Savings Plans Warned Over 'Deflation Spiral' Risk
Pension schemes should make contingency plans now for falling inflation, a consultancy has said, as it warned that failure to prepare could result in a destabilizing rush to sell off U.K. government bonds.
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September 20, 2024
EQT To Buy Indian Affordable Housing Finance Biz For $210M
Swedish investment giant EQT plans to buy Indostar Home Finance of India for $120 million, to help its growth as the Asian country struggles with housing shortages.
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September 20, 2024
UK Fraud Reimbursement Plan Could Attract Organized Crime
A program launching in October that allows victims of fraudulent authorized push payments to get reimbursement from banks and payments companies could be exploited by organized crime to cash in with bogus claims, according to lawyers.
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September 19, 2024
London Law Firm Fined For Breaching AML Rules
A London law firm must pay £3,700 ($4,900) in fines plus costs after it failed to comply with strict anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules, the solicitors' watchdog for England and Wales has said.
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September 26, 2024
Wiggin Scores 6-Person Sports Law Team From Walker Morris
Wiggin LLP announced Thursday it has hired a new chief for its sports law practice, along with his five-strong team, as the firm looks to cement its practice in the area.
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September 19, 2024
Lloyds Bank Beats Employees' Settled Hybrid Working Claims
An employment tribunal has nixed claims against Lloyds Bank after ruling that three employees were unlikely to prove the bank had wrongly rejected their request to work from home.
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September 19, 2024
Gov't Urged To Push Collective Defined Benefit Pension Plans
The U.K. government should push forward new collective pension plans with "bold and innovative" thinking to address Britain's retirement adequacy challenge, Hymans Robertson LLP said Thursday.
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September 19, 2024
UK Issues Disclosure Exemptions For Investment Trusts
The government and Financial Conduct Authority announced Thursday plans to reform the U.K. retail disclosure rules in early 2025, with immediate interim exemption of investment trusts from current requirements on cost disclosures to retail investors.
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September 19, 2024
AI Helping Rise In UK Insurance Fraud, Report Shows
Nearly one in five insurance claim handlers believe that many fraud claims now involve fake supporting documents created or altered using artificial intelligence tools, a new report shows.
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September 19, 2024
EU Wrong To Block Berlusconi's Bank Stake, Top Court Rules
Europe's highest court ruled Thursday that the European Central Bank was wrong to decide that a prior conviction for tax fraud prevented former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from holding a stake in a bank in the country.
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September 19, 2024
Close Brothers To Sell Wealth Manager To Oaktree For £200M
Close Brothers said Thursday that it has agreed to offload its wealth management business to Oaktree Capital Management for up to £200 million ($265 million) in a bid to boost its capital position and "navigate the current uncertain environment."
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September 18, 2024
City Presses For Strategy To Draw £7.7B In New Foreign Cash
The governing body of the City of London urged the government on Thursday to design a strategy that will entice foreign sovereign investors to plow an estimated £7.7 billion ($10.2 billion) of additional capital into the domestic economy.
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September 18, 2024
FCA Accuses 4 Of Textile Co. Pump-And-Dump Scheme
Four businessmen connected to Worthington Group were accused by the Financial Conduct Authority at the beginning of a London criminal trial Wednesday of being involved in a scheme to artificially pump up the price of shares of the former textiles company while it was effectively insolvent.
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September 18, 2024
Privinvest Says Missing Disclosure Made Fair Trial Impossible
A shipbuilding company is seeking to dodge having to pay approximately $2 billion in damages awarded to Mozambique over a bribery scheme that wrecked the country's economy, urging a court to stay enforcement of the judgment to await the outcome of any appeal.
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September 18, 2024
Dashboards Program To Use Gov't Login Service Details
Savers will be able to use the U.K. government's standardized login service to prove their identity and access the long-awaited pension dashboards once they go live, the program has said.
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September 18, 2024
FCA Finds Largest Banks Challenged To Assess Fair Value
The Financial Conduct Authority said Wednesday that the largest banks and building societies have found it hard to assess value for customers in cash savings, as required by the Consumer Duty.
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September 18, 2024
Justices Say €450M RusChem Case Governed By English Law
English courts had the jurisdiction to prevent a Gazprom subsidiary from pursuing a €450 million ($500 million) claim in the Russian courts against UniCredit Bank AG, Britain's top court said Wednesday as it delivered its reasons for halting the litigation earlier this year.
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September 18, 2024
Danske Bank Ends French AML Probe With $7M Settlement
Disgraced lender Danske Bank said Wednesday that it has agreed to pay €6.33 million ($7 million) to French prosecutors to end a formal investigation into suspected money laundering involving transactions totaling €21.6 million.
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September 18, 2024
Clearpay Defends Ending Westfield Deals Over Xmas Closures
Clearpay Finance has argued in a filing at the High Court that it was entitled to end two "buy now, pay later" partnerships with Westfield's London shopping centers early because they closed for more than 24 hours during the Christmas period.
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September 17, 2024
FCA Cash Access Rules For Banks Bite Early
The Financial Conduct Authority said Wednesday its rules for large banks to protect cash access for businesses and consumers have already made an impact, with multiple extra banking hubs confirmed across the U.K.
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September 17, 2024
Investors' Losses Were Caused By Own Failures, Firm Says
A Liverpool-based law firm has denied claims it was negligent when advising investors on a real estate investment deal alleged to be a Ponzi scheme, arguing that investors' losses were caused by their failure to follow legal advice.
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September 17, 2024
Competitiveness Outranks Climate In New EU Commission
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shifted her focus from climate change to boosting competitiveness as she proposed her team of commissioners for the next five-year mandate Tuesday, handing out key jobs covering everything from competition enforcement to trade policy.
Expert Analysis
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Recent Trends In European ESG-Related Shareholder Activism
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.
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Audit Regulator Review Has Tips On Climate Metric Reporting
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.
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What Russia Case Reveals About UK Sanctions Enforcement
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.
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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.
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Italy's Bank-Profits Tax Plan May Become Model For Eurozone
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.
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Bitcoin Case Highlights Advanced Age Of UK's IP Law
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.
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Accountability Is Key To Preventing Miscarriages Of Justice
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.
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4 Compliance Considerations Under FCA Consumer Duty
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.
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What Could Come Of CFPB, EU Consumer Finance Collab
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.
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6 Key Factors For Successful Cross-Border Dispute Mediation
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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Operational Resilience Considerations In Financial Services
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.
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UK Tech Cases Warn Of Liability Clause Drafting Pitfalls
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.
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How The UK Investment Screening Regime Is Taking Shape
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.
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Consultations Underpin Mandatory Fraud Victim Repayment
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.
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Swiss Privacy Law Reforms Present Divergences From GDPR
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.