October was another busy month in the financial services regulatory space. ASIC issued a number of new legislative instruments to continue the relief available under sunsetting class orders, while also removing certain notification obligations under the reportable situations regime. Interestingly, these changes were followed by ASIC’s second publication on insights from the reportable situations regime, … Continue Reading
Following the enactment of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) last month, the UK Government has proposed in the Criminal Justice Bill (CJB) (here) to extend the scope of corporate liability for senior managers beyond certain economic offences to all UK criminal offences. Reform of economic crime laws was originally proposed by … Continue Reading
Background On 20 October 2023, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued an updated joint circular on intermediaries’ virtual asset-related activities (Joint Circular) with appendices. This Joint Circular supersedes the previous joint circular of 28 January 2022. When the SFC formulated its regulatory approach to virtual assets (VAs) … Continue Reading
A new “failure to prevent fraud” offence has been introduced as part of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (the Act). The Act has received Royal Assent, and although timing for implementation is unclear, it is expected that the new offence could come into force during early 2024. This forms part of broader reforms of UK corporate … Continue Reading
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (the Act), which includes the failure to prevent fraud offence (the FTPF Offence), has received Royal Assent. Overview The FTPF Offence will make an organisation liable if it fails to prevent a specified fraud offence from being committed where: (i) an employee or agent commits the fraud; … Continue Reading
The next round of the consideration of the new failure to prevent fraud offence (the FTPF Offence), proposed as part of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill), saw the House of Lords push back again on restricting application of the offence to large organisations only. The proposal, which the House of Lords … Continue Reading
In our latest Regulation Tomorrow Plus podcast, Senior Knowledge Lawyer Catherine Pluck is joined by London Financial Services partners Jonathan Herbst and Katie Stephen, who discuss some recent regulatory developments in relation to culture, as well as some practical steps that firms can be taking in this area. The podcast can be found here.… Continue Reading
The UK Parliament is in the process of debating the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill), which is expected to be finalised by the end of the year and come into force during 2024. There has been much discussion of the new failure to prevent fraud offence (for more detail see our article … Continue Reading
This post was co-authored with Abhirami Ravishankar. On 10 May 2023, following the Federal Treasurer’s Budget announcement of additional funding for ASIC’s greenwashing surveillance and enforcement work, ASIC issued two noteworthy publications providing guidance for market participants on how, and how not to, display their green credentials. The first release was the ASIC Report 763 ‘ASIC’s recent … Continue Reading
Introduction In a landmark decision on the legal status of digital assets in Hong Kong handed down on 31 March 2023, the Court of First Instance, in Re Gatecoin Limited[1], has ruled that cryptocurrencies satisfy the definition of “property” under Hong Kong law and are capable of being held on trust. The case arose in connection … Continue Reading
The Insurance Ordinance (Amendment) Bill (the Bill) was published by the Hong Kong Government (Government) in the Gazette on 6 April 2023. The Bill seeks to amend the Insurance Ordinance (Cap.41) (the IO) and other relevant legislation to provide the legal framework for the implementation of a risk-based capital (RBC) regime for the Hong Kong … Continue Reading
Updated Friday 8 September 2023 The UK Government intends to introduce a new “failure to prevent fraud” offence as an amendment to its Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill). On 11 April 2023, the Home Office published a fact sheet (which was updated on 20 June 2023) and tabled an amendment to introduce the failure to prevent … Continue Reading
On 29 December 2022, the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published a report titled ‘Capital Markets Information Security Monitor’ (the Report). According to the AFM, business processes of capital market institutions (e.g. trading venues, proprietary traders, and clearing & settlement institutions) are heavily and increasingly dependent on complex IT … Continue Reading
On 26 October 2022, the Bank of England (the Bank) provided an update on the Data Standards Review, which has been commissioned by the Transforming Data Collection joint transformation programme being led by the Bank of England and FCA with industry. The joint transformation programme’s vision is that ‘The Bank of England and the FCA … Continue Reading
On 26 October 2022, the Bank of England updated its webpage on waivers and modification of rules. The webpage has updated its section on available waivers and modifications by consent to include the following: Modification by Consent of Rule 6.57 of Annex II of Part 6 (Templates and instructions) of the Reporting (CRR) part of … Continue Reading
On 26 October 2022, the European Commission adopted a legislative proposal to make instant payments in euro available to all citizens and businesses holding a bank account in the EU and EEA countries. The proposal aims to ensure that instant payments in euro are affordable, secure, and processed without hindrance across the EU. The proposal, … Continue Reading
On 23 September 2022, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, unveiled the new ‘Growth Plan’. Key takeaways for the financial services sector announced within the plan include: Later this autumn the Government will bring forward an ambitious deregulatory package with its aim being to unleash the potential of the UK financial services sector. This … Continue Reading
How should we regulate virtual assets? This is a question on the mind of almost every financial services regulator in the world. Many have adopted a very cautious and in some cases a prohibitory approach. However, the Abu Dhabi Global Market’s (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) has taken a more innovative and pragmatic approach … Continue Reading
On 4 May 2022, the UK Government announced a ban on services exports to Russia, and as of 21 July 2022 that ban is now in force by virtue of regulation 54C of The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (as amended by The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 14) Regulations 2022) (the Regulations). … Continue Reading
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (the Act), which came into force in March 2022, aimed amongst other things, to give UK sanctions authorities greater power to take enforcement action and impose penalties on persons that breach sanctions restrictions, through the introduction of a “strict liability” test. These new powers of the UK’s … Continue Reading
Ahead of the anticipated FCA policy statement and final rules on the changes to the Appointed Representatives regime, which were expected to be published in H1 2022, in this briefing paper we consider some of the steps that firms should be taking to prepare for the anticipated changes in the FCA’s final policy.… Continue Reading
The FCA has recently conducted a review of financial crime controls at a sample of six challenger banks in order to identify the key financial crime risks to which such banks are exposed. The review was prompted by a substantial increase in the volume of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed by challenger banks. Whilst the … Continue Reading
The pandemic, and the associated move to hybrid working, and the current geopolitical environment are creating a number of unique governance challenges for regulated firms across the financial services industry. Whilst regulators understand the broader backdrop that firms face, they have also remained clear throughout that firms must take reasonable steps to meet their regulatory … Continue Reading
The onset of the pandemic in March 2020 forced financial institutions (FIs) across the world to change their working practices. Large numbers of employees moved from working in an office five days a week to working from home as countries locked down. Today, it appears unlikely that FIs will return to their previous working models … Continue Reading