Coronavirus

Like the US Department of Justice, Congress is sharpening its focus on lenders and FinTech companies who facilitated pandemic-relief programs. In the latest development, the United States House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis issued letters to two companies demanding documents and responses to specific questions. It is clear that investigations into pandemic-relief fraud are accelerating, and it appears the Department of Justice is not alone in setting its sights on lenders and their FinTech partners. Businesses and individuals in the financial industry now must be prepared for congressional investigations.

On 7 January 2021, the FCA published the results of its COVID-19 financial resilience survey data.

The surveys were sent to solo-regulated firms to inform the FCA of the impact of the pandemic on firms’ financial resilience. The surveys did not cover the 1,500 largest firms in the UK financial sector who are regulated by…

The month of July 2020 has seen a number of regulatory updates, guides and reminders to the financial services industry addressing the continuing challenges due to the impact of COVID-19. In particular, ASIC has released an update to its Regulatory Guide 97 Disclosing fees and costs in PDSs and periodic statements amending transitional arrangements due

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Amid emergency initiatives aimed at coping with the Covid-19 emergency, Italy has taken two steps aimed at easing the modalities for concluding contracts online, both of which are particularly significant for the financial services sector.

It is worth reminding that banking and financial contracts under Italian law are valid only if entered in writing. Furthermore,…

On March 16, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management announced additional COVID-19 related relief. This relief is available on the SEC’s COVID-19 page, available here, and summarized below.

Operation of Business From Temporary Locations. The conduct of business from temporary locations, such as an employee’s home, as part of…

On March 13, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced conditional, temporary relief for funds (available here) and both registered and exempt reporting investment advisers (available here) impacted by COVID-19. The relief covers in-person board meetings by fund boards and certain filing and delivery requirements for both advisers and funds. Funds and…

As with other US and non-US regulators, the US federal banking regulators (Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, collectively, the “US federal banking regulators”) have been issuing statements and providing guidance on the impact of the coronavirus on banking services. This blog posts covers some…

In light of mounting concerns about COVID-19, aka the coronavirus, FINRA recently published FINRA Regulatory Notice 20-08 – Pandemic-Related Business Continuity Planning, Guidance and Regulatory Relief. Notice 20-08 provides both guidance on pandemic preparedness and regulatory relief to impacted member firms. Notice 20-08 supplements previous guidance on pandemic preparedness that FINRA published in October 2009…