News & Insights

Our Thinking · Investments & Capital Markets · Regulatory & Compliance · Europe

ESMA recognises three UK Clearing Houses in a No Deal Brexit

Given the continuing uncertainty surrounding the United Kingdom’s (the “UK”) departure from the European Union (“EU”), regulators and institutions on both sides of the channel have taken a range of initiatives in order to counteract the most dramatic consequences of the UK’s departure from the EU without a withdrawal agreement and implementation period (“no deal […]

Caroline Sheldon1 March 2019

Our Thinking · Regulatory & Compliance

Brexit updates: Italy, Luxembourg & Ireland

Following on from our previous newsletter on recent Brexit updates, in this newsletter we continue our analysis of the new wave of national legislation relating to financial services in Luxembourg, Italy and Ireland. Please click the image below for more information.

Leela27 February 2019

Our Thinking · Regulatory & Compliance

Brexit updates

With less than two months to go until the UK leaves the EU, there have been a lot of recent Brexit related developments in the financial services industry. In our newsletter we look at the Temporary Permissions Regime, the Financial Services Contracts Regime Regulations, the draft version of FSMA (amendment EU Exit) Regulations 2019 as […]

Leela14 February 2019

Our Thinking · Regulatory & Compliance · Europe

ESMA and FCA sign memorandum in case of no deal Brexit

In light of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the United Kingdom (“UK”) departure from the European Union (“EU”), regulators and institutions on both sides of the channel have taken a range of initiatives in order to counteract the most dramatic consequences of the UK departure from the EU without a withdrawal agreement and implementation period […]

Leela1 February 2019

Our Thinking · Regulatory & Compliance · Europe

A bitesized update on the Senior Managers and Certification Regime

The Senior Managers and Certification Regime (“SM&CR”) is part of the UK regulators’ drive to improve culture, governance and accountability within financial services firms. It aims to deter misconduct by improving individual accountability and awareness of conduct issues across firms. Banks and PRA-designated investment firms have been subject to the SM&CR since March 2016. On […]

Leela29 January 2019

Our Thinking · Regulatory & Compliance · Europe

Suspicious activity reports inspection granted by the High Court

In Lonsdale v National Westminster Bank plc (October 2018), the court granted the claimant, Mr Lonsdale, the opportunity to inspect the suspicious activity reports (“SARs”) submitted by his bank, National Westminster Bank PLC (“NatWest”) to the National Crime Agency (the “NCA”) relating to his accounts held with the Bank. THE FACTS Mr Lonsdale held seven accounts […]

Emma Cleveland17 January 2019

Our Thinking · Commercial & Corporate · Europe

Excluding misrepresentation and entire agreement clauses

The high court recently considered the interpretation of an entire agreement clause and excluding claims for misrepresentation in the recent judgement of Fawaz Al-Hasawi (“Mr Al-Hawawi”) and Nottingham Forest Football Club (the “Club”) & Others (2018). An entire agreement clause is a standard term used in contracts to clarify and limit what has been agreed to particular contractual documents […]

Emma Cleveland10 January 2019

Our Thinking · Regulatory & Compliance

UK crypto-assets and distributed ledger technology taskforce report

The Taskforce (consisting of HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England) was launched by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in March 2018 and since then it has been working on developing its response to the regulatory challenges for use of crypto-assets and underlying technology on the UK market, summarised in the final report […]

Emma Cleveland9 January 2019

Our Thinking · Regulatory & Compliance · Europe

Brexit update: The FCA’s temporary permission regime

HM Treasury has published a number of draft Statutory Instruments (“the Draft Sis”) including a Temporary Permissions Regime (“TPR“) as a temporary measure to replace the passporting regime in Schedule 3 and 4 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”) in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The legislative framework for the TPR […]

Emma Cleveland8 January 2019

Our Thinking · Investments & Capital Markets · Commercial & Corporate · Europe

Penalty clauses

In the recent case of Holyoake and Candy (June 2018), the Court of Justice clarified the interpretation of the penalty rule, and how careful drafting can take a clause outside the scope of the rule. THE PENALTY RULE AND ITS POTENTIAL WIDE APPLICATION TO CONTRACTS The penalty rule imposes that clauses that are “penalties” are unenforceable […]

Emma Cleveland3 January 2019

Hear it from a General Counsel

When regulation shifts, our General Counsel set out what has changed for your firm and the steps we recommend you take.