Background On 4 September 2023, the UK House of Commons debated the House of Lords’ amendments to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill). The House of Commons voted to include an exemption for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and remove the extension of the proposed offence to failure to prevent money laundering. … 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
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 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
In this post, we summarise emerging litigation and investigations trends and their practical implications for financial institutions (FIs). Litigation Litigation trends are largely dependent on social and political changes and we continue to see the impact of the global pandemic and the related financial downturn on emerging litigation trends. Civil fraud claims 2022 has seen … 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
It has been reported that, in 2021, the FCA experienced a 52% increase in reports of “material” cyber security incidents and we expect this upward trend to continue into 2022. The rise in ransomware in particular was highlighted in the very recent paper published by UK Finance, which called on UK authorities to focus on … 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
On 11 March 2022, there was published on the legislation.gov.uk website The Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy Regulations 2022. The statutory instrument makes provision relating to the assessment, payment, collection and recovery of the Economic Crime (Anti-Money Laundering) Levy.… 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
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, there has been a rise in fraudulent behaviour as fraudsters look to take advantage of members of the public and financial institutions (FIs). Phishing, text scams and small-scale fraudulent activity targeting the British public were up 285% in the first half of 2021; HM Revenue and Customs estimates … Continue Reading
As 2021 draws to a close, we look ahead to the trends and new requirements that we may see over the next twelve months for financial institutions (FIs) in the white collar crime sphere as regulators, legislators and individuals continue to adapt to the pandemic and prevailing public opinion. 1. An increase in fraud-related investigations … Continue Reading
A new RT Plus episode covering the FCA authorisation process is out now to stream and download. In this episode, Head of Risk Consulting EMEA Advisory, Lisa Lee Lewis, is joined by Compliance Manager, Victoria Pridmore, to discuss various aspects of the authorisation process. They look at recent issues and updates from the FCA in … Continue Reading
On 3 September the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published CP21/27, its quarterly consultation on changes to the handbook. As part of this consultation, the FCA is proposing Handbook amendments in the following areas: An amendment to how legal expenses insurance is reported under our value measures reporting To move application forms from the Handbook To … Continue Reading
On 26 July, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sent a Dear CEO letter to Portfolio Platforms, setting out reminders of their expectations in the following areas: Operational resilience; SUP 15 notification requirements; Transfer times; and Brexit In respect of operational resilience, the FCA reminds firms that they expect firms to invest in their systems to … Continue Reading
On 26 July the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published policy statement 21/9, which enacts the much anticipated implementation of the Investment Firms Prudential Regime (IFPR). This particular consultation paper follows CP21/7 which was published in April this year. It is in fact the second policy statement on the IFPR, the first being PS 21/6 which … Continue Reading
On 23 July 2021, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published a direction for modification by consent concerning the Remuneration Part of the PRA Rulebook relating to the identification of individuals as material risk takers (MRTs). It has also published guidelines on the modification, in addition to updating its webpage on waivers and modifications. Article 7 … Continue Reading
The commissioning of independent reviews is something the board of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) undertakes periodically. On 23 July, the FOS website published a press release stating that another independent review had been commissioned into whether the FOS can continue to meet the needs of its customers, both businesses and consumers. The review will … Continue Reading
