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Mar 28, 2024 | 
lexology.com | David Capps |Sean Jeffrey |Justin Mcclelland |William Robertson |Alan Ward |Christophe Boucherie
The FCA's latest Business Plan for 2024-25 had just been published. They make a number of forward- looking "Commitments". We touch upon some of those plans and express some views on what they may mean for firms (our observations appear in italics). Reducing and preventing financial crimeThe FCA say they will continue to take a data-led approach to identify potential harm for supervisory and/or enforcement action.
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Feb 28, 2024 | 
lexology.com | David Capps
It has been a busy start to the year for UK Enforcement Agencies. In a recent press release, the FCA announced that they had conducted a major operation to arrest three London-based individuals on suspicion of insider dealing, conspiracy to insider deal, and money laundering linked to organised crime. This announcement comes hot on the heels of the new SFO chief's first public speech, in which he made strong statements about the use of covert tactics and payments to whistle-blowers.
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Feb 15, 2024 | 
shlegal.com | David Capps
The FCA has provided a progress update on their work in their recent publication, "Reducing and preventing financial crime", and they look ahead to identify four areas of focus in the coming year. In this article, we summarise the key takeaways regulated firms need to consider. Looking back Investment and APP fraud are priorities. Prevention, including initiatives to inform and educate the public, is critical, coupled with a strong enforcement response to maximise the deterrence.
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Jan 17, 2024 | 
lexology.com | David Capps |Sean Jeffrey |Justin Mcclelland |Sue Millar |William Robertson |Alan Ward | +1 more
The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by Banca Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Dexia Crediop SpA (the "Banks”) and dismissed a cross-appeal by the Comune di Venezia (“Venice”), upholding the validity of interest rate swaps entered into by Venice with the Banks and overturning the High Court decision that they were void because Venice lacked capacity to enter into them under Italian law.
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Dec 14, 2023 | 
lexology.com | David Capps |Sean Jeffrey |Justin Mcclelland |Alan Ward
The FCA has recently published its Policy Statement PS23/16 - Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels. It contains the FCA's final rules comprising:-An anti-greenwashing rule for all FCA authorised firms to reinforce the message that sustainability-related claims must be fair, clear and not misleading.
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Dec 1, 2023 | 
shlegal.com | David Capps
The Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") is consulting on plans to require consumer credit firms to hand over a vast swathe of data on their individual customer transactions. They propose that this will include data points such as each borrower's date of birth, postcode, employment and residential status, declared net monthly income and expenditure as well as the size and nature of their loans.
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Nov 15, 2023 | 
lexology.com | David Capps |Genevieve Quierin
In this article, we look at some of the takeaways from the FCA's recent review of payment services firms' anti-fraud systems and controls, in particular around authorised push payment ("APP") fraud. Tackling financial crime, including APP fraud, continues to be a priority for the FCA. They have recently carried out a review of how firms mitigate the risks of APP fraud and fraud attacks more broadly. They identify both examples of good practice and areas for improvement.
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Sep 25, 2023 | 
shlegal.com | David Capps
A new FCA Consultation Paper concerning "Diversity and inclusion in the financial sector – working together to drive change" ("the CP") was published on 25 September 2023. Given its title, it is perhaps somewhat surprising that it contains some potentially wider-ranging proposals around non–financial misconduct, including revising the approach taken to the FCA's fitness & propriety assessment for individuals and the application of its conduct rules in relation to non-financial misconduct.
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Jul 5, 2023 | 
shlegal.com | David Capps
As part of a series of measures announced on 5 July 2023, the FCA published a Consultation Paper in relation to their proposed framework for establishing a "Consolidated Tape" or "CT" in the UK ("the CP"). A CT collates market data such as trade prices and volumes in a financial market, with the aim of providing a comprehensive picture of transactions in a specific asset class, bringing together trades executed on trading venues as well as those arranged "over-the-counter" ("OTC").
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Jun 13, 2023 | 
shlegal.com | David Capps
The UK Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") has published its near-final rules in relation to the regulation of financial promotions in respect of cryptoassets. They are a game-changer in relation to the "regulation" of cryptoassets in the UK, even though such assets are not yet within the FCA's regulated activities perimeter. On 8 June 2023, the FCA published its near-final rules in relation to the regulation of financial promotions in respect of cryptoassets.
