Norton Rose Fulbright (LexBlog United Kingdom)

On 22 April 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a speech by its chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, entitled ‘Navigating the UK’s Digital Regulation Landscape: Where are we headed?’. In the speech, Mr Rathi announced the FCA’s plans to focus on Big Tech, which are included in Feedback Statement FS24/1 (published alongside the speech). The speech also covered the FCA’s...

The SFO has published its 5-year strategy document (the Strategy Document), highlighting a number of areas of focus, from international coordination with counterparts to capitalising on technology and incentivising their workforce. This follows Director of the SFO, Nick Ephgrave’s, speech in February 2024 setting out key priorities (see our recent Investigations and Enforcement horizon scanning...

In this recent United Kingdom Supreme Court judgment discussed here, in addition to considering the meaning of “catastrophe” in the context of the Covid-19 losses and the treaty wording, the application of the “hours clause” was also considered.  The reinsurers argued that even if there was a catastrophe only business interruption that had occurred in...

This recent United Kingdom Supreme Court Judgment considered whether under the relevant reinsurance program Covid-19 losses all arose out of or were directly occasioned by one “catastrophe”.  If so, the losses could be aggregated so that the reinsurers would pay those claims under the relevant treaty terms.  The judgment contains an extensive review of historical...

On 15 April 2024, Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor of Financial Stability at the Bank of England (BoE), delivered a speech explaining how the BoE seeks to deliver trust and support innovation, both as a provider and as a regulator of retail and wholesale money, against the backdrop of significant technological change in payments. In her...

On 9 April 2024, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published its Annual Plan for 2024/2025, setting out the PSR’s key aims, activities and expected costs for 2024/2025. The Annual Plan highlights that this year (the third of the PSR’s 5-year strategy) will be a important one for consolidating the delivery of the PSR’s work aimed...

On 11 April 2024, the Government published a Correction Slip relating to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. The Correction Slip states that with regards to Schedule 2, paragraph 33, in the inserted Chapter 4A, after the italic heading “STS equivalent non-UK securitisations”, on a new line, the heading “Article 28A” should be inserted...

The UK Court of Appeal was asked to interpret the phrase in a statute providing that no arrears of interest could be recovered after the expiration of six years from the date on which “the interest became due”. The question was whether the word “due” meant “owing” in the sense of a liability having arisen...

On 10 April 2024, the FCA published Consultation Paper CP24/7: Payment Optionality for Investment Research. Background The UK rules on investment research stem from the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II). At the moment the UK rules prevent UK asset managers from purchasing research with bundled payments other than when the payment is...

On Tuesday 16 April 2024, please join us for a webinar where our team from across EMEA will discuss the key recent and upcoming trends in financial crime legislation and regulatory enforcement in the EU, UK and Singapore. This webinar will highlight important changes to anti-money laundering regulation and wider financial crime legislation in the...

On Tuesday 9 April 2024, as part of our UK In-house legal forum training programme, we will be running a webinar on ESG and greenwashing in financial services. The session will look at recent UK regulatory developments regarding sustainability, including the FCA’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and investment labels regime, at how regulators are dealing with...

As a general rule, court proceedings and the related documents are open to the public.  There is an important reason for that: justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.  But what if that would lead to the disclosure of valuable and confidential commercial information to the opposing party or...

On 27 March 2024, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) announced that it is conducting its second annual review of Specific Direction 12 (SD12) and published a call for views. Background SD12 is designed to ensure that Link Scheme Holdings Ltd (LINK), the operator of the LINK ATM network, maintains the broad geographic spread of the...

On 28 March 2024, the Bank of England (BoE) published a Consultation Paper (CP) on proposed changes to statements of policy and procedure following the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (FSMA 2023). FSMA 2023 introduced several important updates to the UK’s regulatory framework for financial services and certain of these changes create new, or...

On 27 March 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) updated its webpage on fund tokenisation to add information on the Technology Working Group’s phase 2 report, published on 26 March 2024. The FCA and HM Treasury are observers on the industry-led Group, which is considering the implementation of fund tokenisation in the UK. The FCA...

As we highlighted in our previous post (What to expect in employment law in 2024), 2023 saw the introduction of several significant employment legislative changes. Just to remind you of the changes due to come into effect in April. Holiday Leave and Pay: Provisions for irregular hours and part-year workers apply to leave years starting...

On 22 March 2024, HM Treasury (HMT) published a Policy Paper on the next phase of “Building a Smarter Financial Services Regulatory Framework for the UK”. The Policy Paper outlines the impact and progress of the programme so far, work underway and the Government’s approach on the next phase of the Smarter Regulatory (SRF) Framework....

On 19 March 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its Business Plan for 2024/25, setting out the work it will do over the next 12 months to help deliver its commitments in the third year of its 3-year strategy, with the aim of achieving better outcomes for consumers and markets. The Business Plan highlights...

On 18 March 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a joint letter with Ofgem, Ofwat and Ofcom via the UK Regulators’ Network, outlining their shared expectations of the consumer outcomes firms should be delivering in response to identified consumer harms across their sectors, particularly in relation to debt collection practices. Accordingly, together with Ofgem,...

On 18 March 2024, the Department for Business and Trade announced that it is consulting on competition and consumer protection related information sharing between relevant UK public authorities. The consultation paper highlights that the sharing of information among regulators and public bodies plays an important role in effective enforcement and regulation, and that there can...

On 12 March 2024, the Bank of England (BoE) published Policy Statement PS5/24 on solvent exit planning for non-systemic banks and building societies, setting out how these types of firm in the UK should prepare, as part of their business-as-usual (BAU) activities, for an orderly ‘solvent exit’ and, if needed, be able to execute one....

On 11 March 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a statement updating its position on cryptoasset-backed Exchange Traded Notes (cETNs) for professional investors. The statement explains that the FCA will not object to requests from Recognised Investment Exchanges (RIEs) to create a UK listed market segment for cETNs. These products would be available for...

In March 2022, a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Treasury Committee published a report regarding the development, implementation and impact of economic sanctions on Russia (the 2022 Report).  In brief, the 2022 Report found that: The UK’s sanctions framework has continued to evolve, with businesses left to navigate the increasing complexity of implementing...

On 5 March 2024, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office published a post-legislative scrutiny memorandum on the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA). The memorandum provides a summary and preliminary assessment of the provisions and implementation of the SAMLA. SAMLA, which received Royal Assent on 23rd May 2018, was enacted to provide new legal...

On 6 March 2024, HM Treasury (HMT) published a consultation setting out the Government’s proposal for a new innovative market that aims to allow private companies to scale and grow, and to boost the pipeline of future initial public offerings (IPOs) in the UK. The consultation outlines a proposal for a new platform that will...

Money laundering is a significant risk for many firms that conduct business in the UK, but the way this risk materialises and crystalises differs depending upon, amongst other things, the nature of a firm’s business. Due to the differing risk profiles across sectors, firms must tailor their systems and controls to be able to identify,...

The authors acknowledge the assistance of Salma Khatab, paralegal, in researching and preparing some aspects of this blog The UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) has published its response to its consultation on its white paper, ‘A pro innovation approach to AI regulation’ (the Response). The Response outlines key investment initiatives and regulatory...

On 1 March 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it is seeking feedback alongside the Bank of England (BoE) on draft guidance for reporting under the revised UK EMIR Article 9 reporting requirements. On 24 February 2023, the FCA and BoE jointly published Policy Statement 23/2 (PS23/2) confirming changes to the derivative reporting framework...

On 28 February 2024, the Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB) published for consultation a transparency draft of a standard for client onboarding documentation and processes. The draft identifies current inefficiencies within the UK’s regulatory requirements and guidance for ‘Know Your Client’ (KYC) due diligence. The shortcomings highlighted include: To remedy the inefficiencies, the FMSB...

On 23 February 2024, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published a letter providing details of how it will assess Pay.UK’s proposals for monitoring compliance with the Faster Payment System (FPS) reimbursement rules to determine whether to approve them. Background In Policy Statement PS23/3, the PSR set out its view that Pay.UK is the appropriate body...