Sebastian Barling

Dec 4, 2024 | jdsupra.com | Sebastian Barling |Wilf Odgers |Simon Toms

[co-author: Martin Katunar]In her first comments since the July 2024 UK general election, Economic Secretary to the UK Treasury Tulip Siddiq MP delivered a speech at the Tokenisation Summit on 21 November 2024 that outlined the recently elected UK government’s approach to digital asset regulation.

Nov 5, 2024 | jdsupra.com | Sebastian Barling |Anxin Hua |Simon Toms

In the UK, 14 million people used “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) at least once in the six months leading up to January 2023. Frequent users were more than four times as likely as other consumers to have missed a payment on a bill or credit card. UK regulators have been increasingly concerned about the potential risks the BNPL model poses to consumers, and in particular vulnerable consumers.

Oct 11, 2024 | jdsupra.com | Sebastian Barling |Robert Chaplin |Ben Lyon

The Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA’s) director of insurance supervision, Shoib Khan, recently clarified the PRA’s approach to the UK (re)insurance market, including in the following key areas: The application of the PRA’s Secondary Competitiveness and Growth Objective (SCGO) and its differentiated supervisory approach. Facilitating productive life and funded (re)insurance (Funded Re) investments while mitigating risks. Encouraging investment by (re)insurers into the UK market.

Oct 2, 2024 | jdsupra.com | Sebastian Barling |Robert Chaplin |Ben Lyon

[co-author: Martin Katunar]On 21 August 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Thematic Review TR24/2 (Review), as part of its on-going scrutiny of the general insurance sector, focusing on pricing and value for money provided by insurance products. The Review focused on whether insurance manufacturers and distributors are meeting their product governance and oversight obligations under the rules in PROD 4 for general insurance (GI) and pure protection (PP) products.

Sep 16, 2024 | lexology.com | Sebastian Barling |Simon Toms |Joseph Kamyar |Frances Burchall

On 11 September 2024, the UK government introduced the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill, which provides that digital assets can be considered to be personal property under the laws of England and Wales, and could therefore be afforded the same legal protections as other, traditional categories of personal property. Digital assets include cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and carbon credits. The bill itself is very brief.