Financial Services UK

  • January 03, 2025

    Ex-Blake Morgan Legal Executive Misled Lender, SRA Finds

    A former chartered legal executive at law firm Blake Morgan LLP has been banned from the profession for making a misleading statement to a mortgage lender client during a property transaction, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said Friday.

  • January 03, 2025

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

    This past week in London has seen Chris Eubank Jr. hit with a libel claim from a boxing promoter, a perfume boss face proceedings from his businesses following sanctions violations claims, and Israeli broadcasters file intellectual property claims against BT and Sky. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • January 03, 2025

    UK Levy Hike Drives Labor Costs Up In 2025, Think Tank Says

    U.K. businesses are facing a spike in labor costs, thanks to the government's decision to raise employers' National Insurance contributions, a payroll levy used to fund social programs, a think tank said Friday.

  • January 03, 2025

    Revolution Beauty Settles Chrysalis Legal Claim Over Shares

    Revolution Beauty has settled a potential £45.2 million ($56 million) legal dispute with Chrysalis Investments over share purchases made by the former major shareholder in the U.K. cosmetics company, according to a public statement made to the London Stock Exchange.

  • January 03, 2025

    Trustees Warned On 'Dead Money' Over Pensions Portal

    Trustees of pension scheme should carefully decide whether it is in the best interest of their members to connect to the long-awaited online retirement savings dashboards program and incur its associated costs, a retirement savings specialist said Friday.

  • January 03, 2025

    UK Investment Firm To Fight Plan By Saba To Oust Board

    Investment company Herald Investment Trust PLC urged shareholders on Friday to vote against plans by Saba Capital Management LP to oust its board after the New York hedge fund criticized the "disastrous" returns to shareholders at seven London-listed trusts.

  • January 02, 2025

    Ex-Kennedys Manager Fined £27K For Due Diligence Failures

    A former manager with Kennedys Law LLP has been fined £27,500 ($34,000) for carrying out inadequate client due diligence surrounding a property development fraud that saw directors pocket over £6.5 million of their investors' money.

  • January 02, 2025

    Mayer Brown Hires Structured-Finance Pro From White & Case

    Mayer Brown LLP announced on Thursday that it had hired a senior structured-finance lawyer from White & Case LLP in London to add to its strengths representing clients in the private capital market.

  • January 02, 2025

    January Sale Scam Behind Transaction Row Rise, Lloyds Says

    Scammers creating fake websites to entice customers to purchase items in last January's online sales caused a 40% spike in credit card transaction disputes that month compared to the normal monthly average, Lloyds Bank said Monday.

  • January 02, 2025

    Barclays Sued For £8.6M By Entrepreneur Over Property Sale

    A businessman is suing Barclays for £8.6 million ($10.7 million), alleging that it undervalued his property and that the sale by the bank of his Manchester building at substantially less than it was worth caused a "domino effect" on his finances.

  • January 02, 2025

    EU's 1st Financial Regulation Deal With Japan In Force

    The European Union said that a first-ever agreement with Japan designed to improve regulation in banking and other financial services and to combat money laundering has come into force.

  • January 02, 2025

    Elite Law Denies Fault In Lender's £1.9M Loan Fraud Case

    An English firm of solicitors has denied a claim that it cost a lender £1.9 million ($2.4 million) by failing to spot that the borrower of a property loan was allegedly a fraudster, telling a London court that it was not obliged to verify his identity.

  • January 02, 2025

    Coventry Building Society Completes £780M Co-Op Deal

    The Coventry Building Society confirmed on Thursday that it has now bought The Co-operative Bank, adding that both U.K. lenders will keep their own banking licenses for the time being.

  • January 01, 2025

    European Tax Policy To Watch In 2025

    The European Union may have to go it alone on international tax policy in 2025, especially because President-elect Donald Trump's return to power means the U.S. will likely oppose any multilateral solution to taxing the digital economy. Here, Law360 looks at important European tax developments to watch for this year.

  • January 01, 2025

    The UK Corporate Crime Cases To Watch In 2025

    Former trader Tom Hayes will get a final shot in 2025 at overturning his conviction for rigging Libor during the financial crisis, a Russian politician will face trial in the first criminal prosecution for breaching sanctions — and Dentons will be back in court over alleged anti-money laundering failures by the law firm.

  • January 01, 2025

    Pensions, Insurance Risk Consolidation On Radar For 2025

    The main themes in 2025 for the insurance and pensions sectors will be consolidation and government priorities for greater investment in the economy —although potential legal and systemic risks loom.

  • January 01, 2025

    Regulation To Prioritize UK Growth Over Risk-Aversion In 2025

    Financial regulators have committed to giving priority to economic growth over risk-aversion in 2025 under new government priorities, a rebalancing that could create a conflict of interest with a recent focus on protecting consumers.

  • December 20, 2024

    Many Firms Lack AI In Risk Operations, Study Finds

    A new study highlighted by UK Finance on Friday has found that almost four in 10 financial services organizations have not implemented artificial intelligence in their risk operations, leaving them with a widening technology gap compared with those who are so prepared.

  • December 20, 2024

    Reading FC Owner Sued For £12M Over Confidentiality Breach

    A Louisiana lawyer's company has filed a £12 million ($15 million) claim against a company held by the owner of Reading Football Club for allegedly breaching legally binding provisions in a takeover deal.

  • December 20, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen the University of Southampton sue a drone-maker over the rights to an uncrewed aircraft patent, Importers Service Corp. and its subsidiary ISC Europe take action against a former director who allegedly owes the company over £1.1 million ($1.4 million), and DAC Beachcroft face a fraud claim by a "prolific litigant." 

  • December 20, 2024

    Law Firm Awarded £4.2M For Co.'s Mishandled PPI Claims

    A London court awarded a specialist litigation law firm almost £4.2 million ($5.3 million) on Friday for the costs of a professional services company's botched handling of payment protection insurance claims.

  • December 20, 2024

    The Biggest Developments In Insurance In 2024

    The financial watchdog has come under pressure this year from the Labour government to tackle the cost of insurance, which has soared because of rising claims caused by the ongoing repercussions from Brexit and the war in Ukraine. 

  • December 20, 2024

    Crédit Agricole To Take Full Control Of Caceis From Santander

    Santander Bank has said that French international banking group Crédit Agricole SA will acquire full ownership of their jointly owned global asset servicing provider Caceis by buying out Santander's stake for an undisclosed sum.

  • December 20, 2024

    The Top FCA Enforcement Cases Of 2024

    The blockbuster fines imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority on challenger banks Starling and Metro for anti-money laundering failures, its notable penalties against Barclays and its conviction of a former Goldman Sachs banker for insider dealing are just a few of the key cases from 2024.

  • December 20, 2024

    The Biggest UK Commercial Litigation Cases Of 2024

    The High Court and Court of Appeal resolved some landmark legal disputes in 2024 — the justices liberated the open-source cryptocurrency community from spats over intellectual property protection and determined liability for the high-profile collapse of London Capital & Finance.

Expert Analysis

  • How The UK Investment Screening Regime Is Taking Shape

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    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.

  • Consultations Underpin Mandatory Fraud Victim Repayment

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    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.

  • Swiss Privacy Law Reforms Present Divergences From GDPR

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    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.

  • New Legislation May Not Be Needed For Recovery Of Crypto

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    The recent seizure of cryptocurrency under a civil recovery order raises the issue of whether extended powers under the forthcoming Economic Crime Bill are necessary, with the ability to seize crypto-related items that may be the subject of a search order more likely to be of assistance, says Nicola McKinney at Quillon Law.

  • Opinion

    Russia Ruling Should Lead UK To Review Sanctions Policy

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    The High Court's recent dismissal of the first-ever court challenge to Russian sanctions in Shvidler v. Secretary of State sets a demanding standard for overturning designation decisions, highlighting the need for an independent review of the Russia sanctions regime, says Helen Taylor at Spotlight on Corruption.

  • German Competition Law May Herald New Enforcement Trend

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    The recent amendment to the German Act against Restraints of Competition is expected to significantly expand the powers of the German Federal Cartel Office, and could signal a global trend toward greater direct intervention by national competition authorities and political interference in competition law, say lawyers at Simmons & Simmons.

  • New Financial Services Act Leaves Few Firms Untouched

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    The recently published Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, which replaces retained EU law with U.K. legislation, is one of the most significant pieces of post-Brexit regulation, with key practical implications for actors such as investment firms and crypto-asset and payment service providers, say Tim Cant, Emma Tran and Bisola Williams at Ashurst.

  • FCA 'De-Banking' Clampdown May Need Gov't Backing

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    The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s recent clampdown on unfair bank account closures will give customers greater transparency, but with terms usually skewed in the bank’s favor, it is a policy matter for the government to enact further protections for businesses and consumers, say Stephen Rosen and Jean-Martin Louw at Collyer Bristow.

  • UK Securitization Reform Opts For Modest Approach, For Now

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    Recently published consultation papers from the U.K. Prudential Regulation and Financial Conduct Authorities on new securitization rules mainly restate retained EU law, but there are some targeted adjustments being proposed and further divergence is to be expected, say Alix Prentice and Assia Damianova at Cadwalader.

  • Examining PayPal's Venture Into The Stablecoin Market

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    PayPal’s recent release of a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar may represent a groundbreaking innovation or could fail as others have before it, and policymakers in the U.K. and the EU will be watching the impact of this new crypto token with a keen eye, say Ben Lee and Dion Seymour at Andersen.

  • High Court Dechert Ruling Offers Litigation Privilege Lessons

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    While the recent High Court ruling in Al Sadeq v. Dechert LLP, which concerned torture conspiracy allegations against the firm, held that litigation privilege can be claimed by a nonparty to proceedings, the exact boundaries of privilege aren't always clear-cut and may necessitate analyzing the underlying principles, says Scott Speirs at Norton Rose.

  • FCA Consumer Duty May Pose Enforcement Challenges

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    The new U.K. Financial Conduct Authority consumer duty sets higher standards of customer protection and transparency for financial services firms, but given the myriad products available across the sector, policing the regulations is going to be a challenging task, says Alessio Ianiello at Keller Postman.

  • UK Insolvency Reform Review Shows Measures Are Working

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    The U.K. Insolvency Service's recently published review of legislative reforms to the corporate insolvency regime demonstrates that despite being underutilized, the measures have been shown to help viable companies survive, and with the current difficult economic environment, will likely be an important aspect of organizational restructuring going forward, says Kirsten Fulton-Fleming at Taylor Wessing.

  • More UK Collective Actions On The Horizon After Forex Ruling

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    A U.K. appeals court's recent decision in Forex case Evans v. Barclays is likely to significantly widen the scope of opt-out collective proceedings that can be brought, paving the way for more class actions by prospective claimants who have previously been unable to bring individual claims, say Robin Henry and Tamara Davis at Collyer Bristow.

  • FCA Listing Reform Proposals Aim To Modernize UK Markets

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    The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's recent proposals to reform listing rules will enhance equities while retaining protections and high governance standards, and will also make the capital markets work more efficiently and competitively with other global markets, say lawyers at Greenberg Traurig.

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