Operational resilience is the next phase in the evolution of financial services regulatory policy. Regulators’ expectations are increasing – but it’s an evolution rather than a revolution; firms – more specifically firms’ senior managers – must “join the dots” across a range of practical risk management and governance activities. Increased regulatory scrutiny can lead to … Read more

In an article published on our global class actions hub, Jonathan Ripley-Evans and Fiorella Noriega del Valle of our Johannesburg office consider the process for certification of class actions in South Africa and the significant hurdles involved, as illustrated by the South African High Court’s refusal to certify a shareholder class action against a company’s directors in the case … Read more

The High Court has dismissed a claim brought by the liquidators of an investment company against a bank for knowing receipt, in circumstances where the investment company’s shares were transferred by a trustee (in breach of trust) to the bank, and used by the bank to discharge part of a debt owed by the trustee … Read more

As reported in our previous blog post, the Supreme Court has handed down judgment in a keenly anticipated case concerning the scope of extraterritorial application of the SFO’s document compulsion powers under section 2(3) of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 (CJA): R (on the application of KBR, Inc) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office [2021] … Read more

In the context of the UK’s legislative solution for the transition of so-called “tough legacy” LIBOR contracts, contained within the Financial Services Bill (FS Bill), HM Treasury (HMT) has recently published a consultation paper: Supporting the wind-down of critical benchmarks. The consultation considers the case for incorporating a legal “safe harbour” in the legislation, to … Read more

On 12 February, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in a high profile jurisdictional challenge relating to group claims brought against Royal Dutch Shell plc and its Nigerian subsidiary in connection with alleged pollution in the Niger Delta: Okpabi and others v Royal Dutch Shell plc and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd [2021] … Read more

On 2 February 2021, the European Council paved the way for the EU’s legislative solution for the transition of legacy LIBOR contracts to become law, by adopting amendments to the Benchmark Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 (BMR), which will now enter into force and apply from 13 February 2021. The final version of the EU’s legislative fix … Read more

On 5 February 2021, the Supreme Court handed down judgment in the case of R (on the application of KBR, Inc) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office [2021] UKSC 2 concerning whether the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) can require a foreign company to produce documents held overseas, pursuant to its investigation powers under section 2(3) of … Read more