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Financial Services UK
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May 28, 2024
Aviva Completes £130M Pension Deal With Telereal
A property investment company has offloaded £130 million ($166 million) of its pension liabilities to Aviva PLC, the insurer said Tuesday.
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May 28, 2024
EU Investment Firms Told To Upgrade Marketing Reports
The European Union's financial markets regulator has said that investment firms should improve their marketing disclosures to investors, calling on national watchdogs to act against rule-breakers.
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May 28, 2024
Pension Deals Market Working For Small Providers, Aon Says
The deal market for small pension schemes looking to offload their liabilities to insurers is working despite fears that such plans are being crowded out of the market, Aon said Tuesday.
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May 28, 2024
Israeli Aquaculture Firm Sued Over $21M Unpaid Settlement
An asset management firm based in the Cayman Islands is seeking more than $21 million from an Israeli aquaculture company over an allegedly unpaid settlement agreement intended to resolve earlier arbitration proceedings.
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May 28, 2024
NatWest Unaware Of Former Trader's Asperger's Diagnosis
A former NatWest trader has lost his bid to revive his disability discrimination claim against the high street lender's investment banking arm as an appeals tribunal upheld findings that it did not know about his Asperger's syndrome diagnosis when he unsuccessfully applied to rejoin the company.
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May 28, 2024
White & Case Guides ABN Amro On €672M German Bank Buy
Dutch lender ABN Amro said Tuesday that it plans to a buy German private bank for €672 million ($730 million) in a move to become one of the largest providers of banking services to wealthy clients in Germany.
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May 24, 2024
The UK Laws That Will Pass Or Fail As Election Looms
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's decision to call an early general election to be held on July 4 has left several pieces of legislation hanging in the balance during the so-called "wash-up" period before Parliament is formally dissolved, while others have been pushed through.
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May 24, 2024
Labour Gov't Could Force Big Tech Into Fraud Repayments
A potential new Labour government means a turning point in tackling financial fraud if it should force big tech companies like Meta and Google to join banks in having to reimburse customers duped into sending fraudsters money, according to lawyers.
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May 24, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen an IT engineer seek permission to search a landfill hiding a hard drive supposedly storing millions of pounds in bitcoin, Glencore take on legal action by American Century Investments, gold payment app Glint bring a breach of duty claim against FRP Advisory, and an ongoing dispute between a solicitor and the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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May 24, 2024
Banking 'Selfie' Fraudster Gets 3 Years In Prison
A fraudster was handed a three-year prison sentence for making fake applications to obtain loans and pensions potentially losing banks around £178,000 ($227,000), the Crown Prosecution Service announced Friday.
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May 24, 2024
FCA Bans Two Advisers Accused Of Misleading Clients
The Financial Conduct Authority has banned two advisers from working in financial services for "recklessly" exposing pension holders to high-risk investments, the regulator said Friday.
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May 24, 2024
Woman Imprisoned For Laundering From $5B Bitcoin Fraud
A British-Chinese woman was imprisoned for more than six years on Friday at a London court for laundering bitcoin converted from an alleged £5 billion ($6.3 billion) investment fraud.
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May 24, 2024
Addleshaw Guides Coventry's £780M Co-op Bank Deal
Coventry Building Society has formalized plans to buy the Co-operative Bank for £780 million ($990 million), the lenders said in a joint statement Friday, a move they claim will create an institution better equipped to challenge larger high street names.
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May 23, 2024
NY Top Court Revives FanDuel Investors Suit
New York's top appeals court on Thursday revived a suit brought by FanDuel investors who claim they were deprived of profits from a merger, disagreeing with a lower court's interpretation of Scottish law.
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May 23, 2024
White & Case Adds Former A&O Tax Pro In Luxembourg
White & Case LLP announced it has added a tax partner to its Luxembourg office from A&O Shearman who specializes in international and Luxembourg corporate tax law.
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May 23, 2024
Marketer Denies Owing Investors For Flawed Property Scheme
An investment marketer has denied owing care home investors £2.3 million ($2.9 million) after they sank money into a flawed property scheme, claiming it never said the investments were safe.
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May 23, 2024
FSB Spots Weaknesses In Short-Term Funding Markets
The Financial Stability Board said vulnerabilities used in short-term markets for financing companies need to be addressed because of the risk to the wider financial system in times of crisis such as COVID-19.
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May 23, 2024
Investec Sets Aside £30M For FCA Motor Finance Review
Investec PLC has put aside £30 million ($38 million) as the banking group faces the Financial Conduct Authority's industry-wide motor finance review, according to the company's report for financial year 2024 published Thursday.
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May 23, 2024
Trader Denies Using 'Magic Money Tree' At £1.4B Fraud Trial
Sanjay Shah, a former hedge fund owner who is accused of defrauding Denmark's tax authority out of £1.4 billion ($1.8 billion), denied using a "magic money tree" in his trading at a London court Thursday.
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May 23, 2024
Pension Plans Must Get Handle On Data Quality, TPR Says
Retirement savings plans in the U.K. face increased regulatory scrutiny to ensure that Britain has the best possible standards on safeguarding the personal data of clients, the pensions watchdog has said.
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May 23, 2024
Bank Sues Adviser For £9M In Property Overvaluation Dispute
A U.K. bank has alleged a retail adviser owes it £9.2 million ($11.7 million) for overvaluing a property development and causing it to lend millions of pounds more than it should have.
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May 23, 2024
Tech Resilience Regime Ambiguous, European Banks Say
A trade body representing banks in Europe warned on Thursday that new regulations requiring finance firms to prevent risks arising from cyberattack or systems failure are ambiguous and could create differing approaches to compliance.
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May 23, 2024
FCA Fines HSBC £6.2M For Mistreating Customers In Arrears
The Financial Conduct Authority said Thursday that it has fined HSBC £6.2 million ($7.9 million) for inadequate treatment of customers in financial difficulty.
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May 30, 2024
White & Case Hires 2 Latham Partners In Germany
White & Case LLP has added two partners from Latham & Watkins LLP with more than three decades worth of experience between them in capital markets to its Frankfurt office.
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May 23, 2024
Hargreaves Lansdown Snubs £4.7B Bid From CVC, Abu Dhabi
The board of Hargreaves Lansdown said Thursday that it has rejected a proposed £4.7 billion ($6 billion) takeover offer from a consortium of private equity companies, including CVC and the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi.
Expert Analysis
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Economic Issues To Watch In The Libor Transition
With the London Interbank Offered Rate officially retiring June 30, market participants and their counsel should consider how the economic questions presented by outstanding contracts and the pros and cons of different alternative reference rates may lead to litigation around Libor cessation, say analysts at The Brattle Group.
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Reserved Investor Fund Would Plug Gap In UK Finance Market
The reserved investor fund recently proposed by HM Treasury has the potential to be a welcome tax-efficient addition to the U.K.’s canon of products for real estate investments, with attractive features for companies and, in particular, large asset managers, say lawyers at Herbert Smith.
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What Firms Need To Know About The FCA Consumer Duty
The Financial Conduct Authority's new consumer duty, in force from July 31, presents an opportunity for manufacturers and distributors of financial services to understand the importance of fair value for consumers, and the regulator will be taking a close interest in this, say Julie Patient, Mark Aengenheister and Virginia Montgomery at Hogan Lovells.
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Examining The Growing Strength Of FRC Enforcement Actions
As the U.K. Financial Reporting Council prepares to broaden its powers and transition into the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority in 2024, it is already demonstrating an increased appetite for enforcement, with greater expectations placed on auditors, say Kathleen Harris, Sean Curran and Melissa Dames at Arnold & Porter.
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UK Case Shows Risks Of Taking Shortcuts In Fund Payments
While the High Court recently reversed a decision in Floreat Investment Management v. Churchill, finding that investors routing funds into their own accounts was not dishonest, the case serves as a cautionary tale on the dangers of directing investment funds other than as contractually provided, say lawyers at Dechert.
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Growing EU Scrutiny Increases Hurdles For Foreign Investors
The application of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation from July will bring further oversight to many large deals, and together with bolt-on strategies, foreign investment regulation and antitrust enforcement, financial sponsors will need to start planning for compliance to avoid potential delays, say Anna Mitchell and Neil Hoolihan at Linklaters.
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How Ambitious New EU Directive Seeks To Fight Corruption
If enacted, the European Union’s recently proposed directive to combat corruption, with its substantive rules, specialized bodies and aim of raising public awareness, would form another milestone in the long-term creation of a genuine European criminal law system, say Katharina Humphrey and Andreas Dürr at Gibson Dunn.
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How The FCA Is Using Its New Powers To Make Changes
The recent sentence of the former London Capital CEO is the latest development in the firm's scandal that prompted a damning report on the Financial Conduct Authority's regulatory conduct, leading the regulator to much soul-searching and a continuing clamp down on firms that misuse their approvals, says Ben Rees at Keller Postman.
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How The US And UK Differ On Crypto Regulation
While the U.K. and U.S. share strong economic ties, their approaches to crypto regulation differ wildly, with the U.K. setting bespoke rules through legislation and the U.S. taking a fragmented, and arguably hostile, approach to regulating crypto-assets, most often happening through enforcement, say attorneys at BCLP.
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Judicial Review Lessons From Financial Ombudsman Case
Even though the judicial review claim was dismissed in the recent High Court decision Shawbrook Bank v. Financial Ombudsman Service, it has important legal and practical takeaways for lenders who can obtain real value by challenging FOS decisions, say lawyers at Linklaters.
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Understanding ESG Considerations In Social Lending
In light of recent updates to sustainable finance guidance by loan market associations, lenders should ensure they request compliance information for projects intended to provide social benefits in order to encourage borrowers to hold environmental, social and corporate governance factors as a priority, says Jasmine Robinson at Taylor Wessing.
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How To Approach Different Data Types In E-Disclosure Matters
The High Court's recent decision in Terre Neuve v. Yewdale highlights the importance of practitioners adequately approaching e-disclosure obligations, including understanding their data landscapes and the nuances of different data types, say Fiona Campbell at Fieldfisher and Alejandro Gomez-Igbo at Forensic Risk Alliance.
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Why FCA Proposals For UK Listing Rules May Need Tweaking
Although many of the Financial Conduct Authority’s recently published proposals for listing rules reform are to be welcomed, a few further changes are needed if the regulator's objective of making the U.K. public markets more attractive is to be achieved, says Nigel Gordon at Fladgate.
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Exploring UK Regulatory Reform Amid Global Bank Failures
In light of recent high-profile bank failures and the publication of a feedback statement to a U.K. regulatory review, the concern that banks are overly reluctant to use their stock begs the question whether regulators now need to rethink the operation of the liquidity coverage ratio, say Alix Prentice and Carl Hey at Cadwalader.
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Key Takeaways From Recent UK Insolvency Disputes
As recent insolvency statistics show that U.K. registered company insolvencies are up 16% compared to last year, having a strong understanding of recent key U.K. decisions and how insolvency disputes operate is more important for companies now than it has ever been, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.