Laura WilesThe PRA, in consultation with HM Treasury, has decided to postpone the implementation of the Basel 3.1 framework by one year to 1 January 2027. The delay will allow more time for clarity on how the framework will be...
Category - Topics
Michael LewisPSR publishes new strategy
The PSR has published its strategy for the next 2 years. It is now mid-way through a 5 year strategy, and has made strong progress in delivering positive change. It now needs to: complete work already underway...
Emma Radmore
A new Scottish security regime
Major changes to how to grant and take effective fixed security over certain types of Scottish assets (including rental income, debt claims, insurance policies, material contracts, and other moveable assets (like stock...
Chris McLauchlanASA upholds complaint against investment training programme
The ASA has upheld a complaint against Zimran Ltd t/a Prosperi Academy. Prosperi Academy is an app offering financial investment training courses. The ad showed an individual’s bank account balance increasing in...
Government responds on governance of AI
The Government response to recommendations of a commons committee on governance of AI agrees that AI-specific legislation is needed and that it will consult on legislation that will apply to the still small number of...
OFSI and OFAC sign sanctions MoU
OFSI and OFAC have entered into a MoU (signed in October 2024) to help exchange of information and cooperation between the two bodies in administering and enforcing financial sanctions. The MoU sets out the desire for...
Ring fencing changes regulations made
Changes to the ring-fencing regime will take effect in February and will implement changes to improve how the regime works. The changes both resolve unintended consequences of the current law, provide greater...
OFSI and OFAC sign MoU
HMT has published a MoU between the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) and the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), to facilitate the exchange of information between the organisations...
Designated Activities enforcement Regs take effect
The Regulations amending FSMA to give the FCA necessary supervision and enforcement powers in respect of the new Designated Activities have been made and take effect on 14 January. The new powers apply in respect of the...
BoE updates on digital pound
The BoE has published a report setting out the work it has done in the last year on the digital pound and the evolving payments landscape. The regulator has been working with HMT to explore the possibility of a digital...
PRA outlines insurance supervision priorities for 2025
The PRA has published a Dear CEO letter to PRA-regulated insurance firms, setting out its supervision priorities for 2025. The key priorities reflect the ongoing developments in the context for life and general...
Regulators consult on FSCS management expenses levy limit 2025/26
The FCA and PRA are consulting on proposals for the Management Expenses Levy Limit (MELL) for the FSCS in 2025/26. The regulators propose the MELL for 2025/26 will be £108.6m, consisting of: the FSCS management expenses...
FCA fines Arian Financial for failings relating to cum-ex trading
The FCA has fined Arian Financial LLP £288,962.53 for financial crime systems and controls failures. The firm’s failure to implement adequate measure put it at risk of being used to support fraudulent trading and...
FCA sets out strategy for credit reference agencies and service providers
The FCA has published a portfolio letter to credit reference agencies (CRAs) and credit information service providers (CISPs) setting out its strategy for the next two years. The priorities will focus on: Embedding of...
HM Treasury confirms continuation of pension fund clearing exemption
Following a call for evidence in November 2023 on the exemption pension funds currently have from the obligation to clear certain derivates contracts at a central counterparty, HM Treasury has published responses from...
FCA objects to Change in Control due to notification failures
The FCA has issued a final notice objecting to the proposed acquisition of Olampicaran Limited by Mr Ahmed, who had failed to notify and seek approval from the FCA. Olampicaran was a small payments firm providing money...
FCA looks at bias in natural language processing
The FCA has published a research note that looks at bias in the specific context of word embeddings. Word embeddings are used by many natural language processing applications and as an alternative to large language...
Treasury Committee asks whether LISA still fit for purpose
The Treasury Committee is asking for evidence on whether the LISA is still an appropriate financial product. The product was introduced in 2016, and has as its main benefit enabling under 40s to contribute up to £4,000...
1 crypto registration approved last month
The FCA has updated its statistics on applications by crypto firms for registration under the MLRs. The latest stats show that 1 firm succeeded in becoming registered last month, while 2 applications were withdrawn...
UK designates extreme right wing group under sanctions legislation
The Government has designated “Blood and Honour” (and any aliases it uses) under the sanctions regime, imposing a full asset freeze on it with effect from 8 January. It says it has reasonable grounds to...
Motor finance appeals listed for April 2025
The Supreme Court hearings on the Hopcraft, Wrench and Johnson motor finance cases have been listed for 1-3 April 2025, although it is possible this may change.
Court refuses JR application on mis-advised SIPP investment
The High Court has refused an application for judicial review of the FSCS’s refusal to reconsider a compensation determination in respect of three investors who lost money after transferring funds from their...
Lords Committee writes to FCA on motor finance commission cases
The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has written to the FCA asking it to clarify certain elements of its position on the motor finance commission cases, as set out in a letter dated 13 November...
Regulators review MoU on payments systems
The BoE, FCA, PRA, PSR have reviewed their MoU on payments systems in the UK, as they are required to do on an annual basis. The regulators noted that over the past year they have taken steps to improve the sharing of...
FCA executes search warrants in relation to unauthorised businesses
The FCA, in conjunction with the West Midlands Police, the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit and Police Scotland, has executed search warrants in two investigations involving unauthorised debt and claims management...
FCA issues Supervisory Notice to Hydrogard Legal Services
The FCA has published a First Supervisory Notice against Hydrogard Legal Services Limited, a firm with claims management permissions, requiring it to immediate cease carrying on all regulated activities other than with...
FCA sets out updates to the National Storage Mechanism
Following a consultation, the FCA has set out its enhancements to the National Storage Mechanism (NSM). The changes will introduce more comprehensive metadata requirements to improve functionality, making it easier for...
Regulators publish cyber findings for 2024
The BoE, PRA and FCA have published their latest annual CBEST thematic report. The report assesses the cyber resilience of key financial institutions through security testing performed in ‘live’ corporate...
FMSB publishes final client onboarding standard
The Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB) has published its final Standard for Client Onboarding: Documentation and Processes. The Standard has been drafted to allow onboarding firms to continue to fully apply the...
FCA asks Collateral investors to come forward for an apology
The FCA has apologised to people who invested in peer-to-peer firm Collateral, whose directors fraudulently changed the firm’s details on the FCA’s interim permission register to make it look like it had...
FCA consults on CCI framework
The FCA is consulting on how it plans to build the new UK regulatory framework for Consumer Composite Investments, brought in to replace the EU PRIIPs concept. As we’ve previously reported, legislation creates a...
FCA charges former WealthTek partner
The FCA has brought criminal charges against John Dance, the principal partner at WealthTek LLP, in relation to 9 criminal offences, including multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. WealthTek, then known as...
FCA confirms pause on non-DCA complaints
The FCA has confirmed new temporary rules for handling motor finance non-DCA commission complaints, that broadly mirror those already in place for DCA commission related complaints. Firms will not have to provide a...
FOS updates on motor finance complaints
The FOS has updated its website to reflect the High Court judgment on DCAs that went in FOS’ favour. It says it is carefully considering what the judgment means for other similar cases in its current workload. The...
PRA sets out policy on solvent exit planning for insurers
Following a consultation, the PRA has published a policy statement on solvent exit planning for insurers. The PRA had proposed new rules and expectations that firms must prepare for a solvent exit as part of their...
PRA postpones launch of dynamic insurance stress test
The PRA has announced that it is postponing the launch of the dynamic general insurance stress test (DyGIST) until May 2026. The delay is intended to reduce the burden on general insurers in 2025 as they prepare to...
Employment guidance update December 2024
There’s been some new guidance and other interesting papers on employment-related themes over the past month. Acas guidance on sexual harassment – Acas has updated its guidance on sexual harassment to reflect the...
Charlotte BloomfieldHigh Court backs FOS on DCA complaint
The High Court has dismissed all 3 grounds of appeal brought by a lender under a discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) for motor finance, following a FOS decision to uphold a customer complaint. The grounds of...
Duncan ScottFCA successfully appeals Upper Tribunal decision
The Court of Appeal has allowed the FCA’s appeal against an Upper Tribunal decision which asked the regulator to reconsider a proposed ban against an individual and directed that a fine should not be imposed. In...
Employment cases update – December 2024
We are pleased to introduce into FIN a series of monthly updates from our employment team. This post looks at a few interesting cases. De Bank Haycocks v ADP RPO UK Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 1291 The Court of Appeal had to...
Jon HalesFCA consults on PISCES platform framework
The FCA is consulting on the proposed framework for its Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES). PISCES will be a new type of trading platform, enabling intermittent trading of private...
LSB review highlights importance of SME protections
The LSB’s review of registered firms’ application of its Standards of Lending Practice for business customers has found 102 areas where action has been required to bring firms into compliance with the...
PRA publishes authorisations performance report for Q3 2024
The PRA has published its report on its authorisations performance during Q3 2024/25, During the relevant period from 1 September to 30 November 2024, the PRA achieved 100% compliance with its service standards across...
FCA fines and bans a director and financial adviser for pension transfer advice
The FCA has banned and fined a director and financial adviser in relation to pension transfer advice failings. Richard Fenech was the sole director of Financial Solutions Midhurst Limited (FSML), responsible for...
BoE speaks on future of RTGS service
Victoria Cleland, Executive Director of Payments at the BoE, has given a speech on the Future Roadmap for BoE’s Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) service, at FinTech Connect. The BoE published a discussion paper...
BBRS Contemporary Scheme closes to new registrations
The BBRS’ Contemporary Scheme has closed to new registrations, as planned, at midnight on 13 December 2024. The BBRS will remain open to resolve complaints for customers that registered before the deadline. The...
FOS receives over 4,800 new cases from businesses
The FOS has received more than 4,800 new cases from small businesses this financial year. The most recent data covers the period from April – November 2024, and demonstrates that fraud and scams remain the most...
FCA seeks comments on cryptoasset market abuse and admission and disclosure regimes
The FCA is seeking comments on its approach to cryptoasset Admissions and Disclosures, and the Market Abuse Regime for cryptoassets (MARC). In November 2024, the government confirmed it will proceed with legislation to...
FOS updates on reports involving Consumer Duty
The FOS has published information on how the Consumer Duty relates to the complaints it looks at. It notes that the CD is not relevant to all complaints but may be a relevant consideration in complaints about things...
Regulators consult on operational incident and third party reporting
The FCA has published a consultation paper on proposals to require firms to report operational incidents and their material third party arrangements. The requirements will apply to authorised firms and PSPs as well as...
FCA publishes discussion paper on pensions regulation
The FCA has published a discussion paper on adapting requirements in the pensions sector. The FCA noted that these is a programme of policy changes underway to this area of the market, but wants the paper to stimulate...
FCA consults on reforms to advice guidance boundary for pensions
As part of its Advice Guidance Boundary Review, the FCA is consulting on targeted support reforms for pensions. The FCA identified a gap in the market between regulated, holistic advice to individuals at one end, and...
FCA conducts literature review on bias in supervised machine learning
The FCA has published a literature review on bias in supervised machine learning. It is the first of a series of planned research notes on bias in AI. The research note found: The main potential source of bias was data...
Supreme Court grants permission to appeal in motor finance cases
The Supreme Court has granted Close Brothers and FirstRand Bank permission to appeal in the cases of Johnson v FirstRand Bank t/a Motonovo Finance, Wrench v FirstRand and Hopcraft v Close Brothers. The cases all relate...
FOS consults on 2025/26 plans and budget
The FOS is consulting on its proposed plans and budget for 2025/26. The FOS noted that due to the uncertainty around motor finance commission cases, and the wider regulatory review of the redress framework, its plans...
FOS publishes Independent Assessor’s annual report for 2023/24
The FOS has published the Independent Assessor’s report for the financial year 2023/24. During this period, the FOS resolved 192,077 cases, with 1.8% of those customers lodging complaints about the service. Of the...
FCA publishes mortgage lending statistics for Q3 2024
The FCA has published mortgage lending statistics for Q3 2024. The data comes from firms carrying out mortgage lending and mortgage administration, who are required to submit the Mortgage Lending and Administration...
FCA updates on business loan guarantee super-complaint
The FCA has collected data from lender firms as a follow up to the super-complaint from the Federation of Small Businesses about the use of personal guarantees for business loans to SMEs. The complaint had noted that...
FCA highlights Consumer Duty focus areas
The FCA has set out its priorities under the Consumer Duty for the rest of 2024 and 2025. These are: embedding the Duty and raising standards: within this priority, the FCA wants to understand how firms are improving...
FCA updates perimeter report
The FCA has updated its Perimeter Report. The report highlights the FCA’s remit and powers, including the new Designated Activities Regime, and then lists the key areas of harm linked to the perimeter and some key...
FCA quarterly consultation includes PEMC limit increase
The FCA’s latest quarterly consultation includes proposals to: clarify some consumer credit product PSD reporting; increase the current £100 medical condition premium trigger that means firms must signpost...
ABI finds diversity improvements
The ABI has found the insurance and long-term savings industry is making progress towards better diversity, but that further development is hindered by a reduction in apprenticeship offerings across the sector.
Lords Committee publishes FCA enforcement position letter
The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has published a letter from Nikhil Rathi answering some questions the Committee has asked following the FCA’s appearance before them. The letter mainly...
FCA looks to appoint bond consolidated tape provider
The FCA is starting a tender process to appoint a bond consolidated tape provider. It will publish all tender documents by the end of January, and invite bidders to ask questions before it issues the final tender...
Treasury makes Singapore equivalence decision
The Markets in Financial Instruments (Equivalence) (Singapore) Regulations 2024 take effect on 31 December 2024 and designates a list of 18 Singaporean trading venues as equivalent to the UK in terms of regulatory...
FCA writes to Supreme Court on motor finance
The FCA has written to the Supreme Court supporting the application of the lenders in the Hopcraft, Wrench and Johnson motor finance commission cases for expedition of the court’s decision on the application to...
BoE speaks on FX market lessons and settlement risk
Philippe Lintern, head of BoE’s foreign exchange division, has delivered a speech on lessons learnt from the history of the FX market, at FX Markets Europe. Lintern began by describing the success story of the...
FCA updates derivatives trading obligation
The FCA has updated its direction relating to the Derivatives Trading Obligation (DTO) with effect from the end of 2024. The DTO came from MiFID, and the FCA is now modifying the UK’s DTO from the transitional...
PRA writes to Credit Unions on annual assessment
Helen Ainsworth, Senior Manager of the PRA’s Credit Unions team has written separately to credit unions (CUs) with total assets of up to £10 million and to CUs with total assets of £10 million to £40 million. The...
FCA updates Financial Crime Guide
Following a consultation, the FCA has made changes to its Financial Crime Guide. The changes cover the following areas: The FCA conducted extensive assessments of firms’ sanctions systems and controls following...
BoE sets out approach to stress testing the banking system
The BoE has set out its approach to stress testing the UK banking system from 2025 onwards, which will sit within its broader framework for assessing financial stability and the soundness of individual banks. The BoE...
BoE publishes system-wide stress test results
The BoE launched its first system-wide exploratory exercise of how a range of firms behave in stressed market conditions mid-2023, it has now published a final report on how the UK financial system would respond to a...
CMA writes to Monzo on Retail Banking Order breaches
The CMA has found Monzo in breach of several parts of the RBO. Specifically, the bank did not: accurately publish the results of the required service quality surveys; publish information on the “monthly maximum...
FCA fines and bans another pensions adviser
The FCA has fined Philip Pryke nearly £1.4m and banned him for failings as a director, compliance officer and adviser at C&I, in relation to defined benefit pension scheme transfer advice during a 4 year period...
FCA scales back enforcement proposals – but still wants to go ahead
The FCA has published a second consultation paper on its proposals for increasing transparency in its enforcement process. It has gone ahead with the consultation partly to help the ongoing parliamentary scrutiny of its...
FOS notes huge increase in complaints
The latest figures from the FOS show complaints have increased by over 50%, with record increases in complaints about frauds and scams, current accounts and credit cards. The FOS also noted in particular an increasing...
FCA consults on MiFID Org Reg transfer to Handbook
The FCA is consulting on how it plans to transfer the firm-facing requirements of the MiFID Org Reg into its Handbook. It doesn’t intend to change the policy behind the Regulation, but some of the provisions will...
FCA fines former Wizz Air executive for closed period trades and disclosure failures
The FCA has fined the former chief supply chain officer at Wizz Air Holdings plc £123,500 for trading company shares when he was not permitted to, and failing to disclose those trades. Between April 2019 and November...
Regulators consult on bonus restriction reform
The PRA and FCA are consulting on reducing the restrictions surrounding bonuses of senior bankers. As noted in the Mansion House speech, the current UK practice makes it an outlier and may be damaging competition and...
FCA updates on crypto regulation approach
The FCA has updated on its approach to crypto regulation in the UK, including an indicative roadmap of key dates and a series of focused consultations. Recent research from the FCA found that approximately 1/3 of people...
FCA publishes research on crypto ownership
The latest FCA research on consumer attitudes and behaviours toward cryptoassets, 12% of UK adults now own crypto, up from 10% in previous findings. Other key findings included: Awareness of crypto rose from 91 to 93%...
FCA fines Macquarie Bank £13m for fictitious trades control failings
The FCA has fined Macquarie Bank Limited – London Branch £13m for serious control failures that allowed an employee to record over 400 fictitious trades. From June 2020 to February 2022, Travis Klein – based...
Government updates on digital asset regulation
Tulip Siddiq, Economic Secretary, speaking at the Tokenisation Summit, outlined the government’s approach to DLT and its potential to revolutionise traditional markets. She noted that the Digital Securities...
PRIIPs disclosure change confirmed
The Regulations that take investment trusts outside the scope of the current PRIIPs disclosure requirement (current until the PRIIPs regime is repealed in favour of the new Consumer Composite Investment regime) have...
FCA says life insurers could do better on bereavement handling
The FCA has completed a multi-firm review of how life insurers handle bereaved customers. On the whole, it found they provide good service, but says they can improve on the time they take to settle claims – while...
FCA finalises 2022 decision notices on Barclays
The FCA has published the final notices against Barclays plc and Barclays Bank plc in relation to the bank’s failure to disclose certain arrangements with Qatari entities in 2008. The FCA had decided to impose a...
PSR publishes stakeholder submissions on card schemes and processing fees
The PSR has published the stakeholder submissions to its 2023 working paper on changes to card schemes and processing fees. Earlier this year, the PSR published its provisional findings on competition in the card...
FCA updates whistleblowing data
The latest whistleblowing data from the FCA, covering the quarter ending September 2024 shows: 322 new reports received (up from 253 in Q2 and 280 in the corresponding period last year), with nearly half of reports...
FOS confirms decision to introduce CMC fees
The FOS has published a letter, dated 8 October 2024, from its Chair, Baroness Manzoor CBE, to FCA Chair, Ashley Alder, confirming its board’s decision to introduce a fee for certain claims management companies...
FCA updates payments and e-money Approach Document on “reasonable grounds” for delaying payment
Following a consultation, the FCA has updated its payment services and e-money Approach Document to support amendments to the PSRs made in the Payment Services (Amendment) Regulations 2024. The provisions came into...
Tribunal disagrees with FCA on fine amount
The FCA had found Arian Financial LLP had breached Principles 2 and 3 in respect of failings in its financial crime prevention systems and controls in relation to business introduced by the now infamous “Solo...
BoE and FCA report on AI in financial services
The BoE and FCA have published a report on their third survey of AI and machine learning in UK financial services. Use and adoption The regulators found that 75% of firms already use AI, with a further 10% planning to...
Government makes Consumer Composite Investment Regulations
The Regulations to create the Consumer Composite Investments regime, and set the designated activities relating to them have been made effective from 22 November 2024 for the purposes of setting out the regime and...
FCA charges failed credit union directors with fraud
The FCA has brought charges against 3 former directors of the Dial-A-Cab Credit Union, now in administration. It alleges that committed the offence of fraud by abuse of position by transferring funds out of the credit...
FCA consults on wider extension to motor finance commission complaints handling
The FCA is consulting as promised on extending the time firms have to respond to motor finance complaints involving non-discretionary commissions. The FCA notes that firms are likely to receive high levels of complaints...
Treasury updates money laundering advisory
HM Treasury has updated its money laundering advisory notice in relation to high risk third countries. The update follows the FATF meeting on 25 October and reflects the list agreed (and which took effect) then.
FCA updates market cleanliness measures
The FCA has revised its methodology for its market cleanliness statistic, to make it more accurate. Going forwards it will be able to detect abnormal price movements that happen on the same day as an announcement, use a...
Committee publishes FCA enforcement interview evidence
The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has published the oral evidence from its session on 13 November in which it interviewed Ashley Alder and Nikhil Rathi about the FCA’s enforcement...
FCA bans director after GBH conviction
The FCA has banned Ari Harris, the sole director of Reeds Motors Ltd, after he was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent and deliberately failed to notify the FCA. He had been convicted in 2020 and...
Tribunal agrees with FCA decisions to ban but queries disgorgement calculation
The Upper Tribunal has backed the FCA’s decision to fine and ban Toni Fox-Bryant and David Price after discovering failings in their firm (CFP Management Limited) in relation to pension transfer business. The FCA...
FCA fines and bans individuals for reckless breach of requirements
The FCA has fined and banned two former partners of MedDen Financial Services LLP for recklessly withdrawing funds from their firm’s bank account for their own purposes the day after the FCA had imposed an asset...
FCA reacts to Mansion House speech
The FCA has reacted to several announcements from the Mansion House speech. It has reiterated that it is committed to supporting growth and says it has fully embraced its secondary international competitiveness and...
FCA and FOS seek views on modernising the Redress System
The FCA and the FOS have released a Call for Input that seeks to modernise the current redress framework, which the regulators say works well for individual customer complaints but does not deal so well with cases where...