The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has published complaints data relating to individual financial businesses for the period from 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2014.
The data shows that the FOS took on 161,649 new cases in that period, with payment protection insurance making up two thirds. Compared with the first half of 2014 banking complaints increased by 8% and investment cases by 4%.
During last week’s SEC Speaks conference, SEC Staff discussed examination and enforcement priorities, its increasing use of data aggregation and sophisticated technology and coordination efforts to proactively address potential issues in the early stages.
For broker-dealers, the Staff identified four specific areas of focus:
The FCA has published Occasional Paper No. 8: Consumer Vulnerability which aims to broaden understanding and stimulate interest and debate around vulnerability as well as provide practical help and resources to firms in developing and implementing a vulnerability strategy.
Chapter 4 of the paper sets out the key problems areas for firms and chapter 7 identifies actions that firms can take and provides examples of good practice. The FCA hopes that the paper will lead to more flexible results for consumer by helping to build momentum that will support firms in developing and implementing practical strategies around vulnerability.
There has been published in the Official Journal of the EU a European Commission Implementing Regulation amending an earlier Implementing Regulation laying down implementing technical standards with regards to supervisory reporting of institutions according to the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR).
The Implementing Regulation relates to Articles 99(5), 99(6), 101(4) and 394(4) of the CRR and entered into force on 21 February 2015.
The City of London Law Society (CLLS) has published the response of its Regulatory Law Committee to the FCA Consultation Paper 14/23: Restrictions on the retail distribution of regulatory capital instruments.
In its response, the CLLS criticises the scope of the proposed prohibition on the distribution of contingent convertible securities and the FCA’s proposal to place restrictions on firms seeking to distribute mutual society shares to retail investors.
The City of London Law Society has published the response of its Regulatory Law Committee to the Fair and Effective Markets Review consultation on fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities markets.
The response does not discuss all 49 questions of the consultation but instead focuses on those issues that relate to the possible future regulatory framework that may be applied to firms undertaking business in fixed income, currency and commodities markets.
The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a revised version of its work programme for 2015. The revised programme takes into account a reduction in its expenditure budget following a vote on the EU budget.
The FCA has published Consultation Paper 15/5: Approach to non-executive directors in banking and Solvency II firms & Application of the presumption of responsibility to senior managers in banking firms (CP15/5).
In CP15/5 the PRA and FCA set out their revised approach to independent non-executive directors (NEDs) in UK banks, building societies, credit unions and PRA-designated investment firms and Solvency II firms.
Under the revised approach, the PRA and FCA will only make the following NEDs subject to approval and inclusion in the senior managers regime (SMR) for relevant authorised persons:
The FCA has published a new webpage providing updates on various aspects of fund authorisation and supervision.
The update covers:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued a new module on Systemically Important Banks (CA-B-2) (SIB Module) to its Supervisory Policy Manual on 18 February 2015. The SIB Module constitutes a statutory guideline under the Banking Ordinance and applies to all Authorised Institutions (AIs) whether locally incorporated or not.
The SIB Module follows policy frameworks