In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that the terms of an English law facility agreement in respect of Tier 2 Capital, allowed the borrower to withhold payment of interest instalments where there was a risk of secondary sanctions being imposed on the borrower under US law. Read more
The FCA recently issued its finalised guidance for payments and e-money firms on safeguarding customer funds and Covid-19. The guidance is designed to mitigate, in the short-term, concerns that some firms are not complying with the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs) and Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (EMRs) safeguarding rules in the way the FCA expects. It is also designed to help prevent potential harm to customers in the event of insolvencies caused by Covid-19. Read more
Herbert Smith Freehills LLP's Seventh Annual Corporate Crime & Investigations (“CC&I”) Conference is being held as a Global Conference Series of webinars over the upcoming months. The first webinar took place on 18 June 2020 and covered the topic of “CC&I in the time of Covid-19”. Read more
Covid-19 restrictions are being slowly eased, but the impact of the pandemic and related lockdown measures on financial crime risk and on related compliance measures continues to be a high priority for business. In our April briefing, we analysed the impact of the restrictions on the UK criminal justice system – in particular, the practical issues facing law enforcement agencies (LEAs), the courts and the prison service. Read more
On 2 July 2020, the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) held a public hearing to explain and discuss the content of the Consultation Paper and Draft RTS with regard to the content, methodologies and presentation of disclosures to be made pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (Disclosures Regulation) published by the ESAs on 23 April 2020. The format of the hearing was a brief presentation on each of the following topics (available here), followed by Q&A sessions. Read more
With UK/EU deal negotiations in the balance and a no-deal scenario still possible, a panel of experts from Herbert Smith Freehills, the Financial Conduct Authority and McCann FitzGerald (for the Ireland perspective) will review the current state of play on Brexit and what comes next for the regulation of cross-border financial services. Read more
On 23 June 2020, the FCA published its long-awaited Discussion Paper on a new prudential regime for MiFID investment firms, to be based on the EU Investment Firms Directive and Regulation (“IFD” and “IFR” respectively), which are due to be implemented in June 2021 (see our blog post).
On the same date, HM Treasury published a related Policy Statement on prudential standards in the Financial Services Bill, which complements and sets the parameters for the FCA's approach as outlined in the Discussion Paper. Read more
ESMA published, on 5 June 2020, new final guidelines on certain aspects of the compliance function requirements under the recast Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II)[1].
The new guidelines replace those issued in 2012, and have been updated in accordance with MiFID II requirements - specifically article 16(2) of MiFID II and article 22 of the MiFID II Delegated Regulation[2]. Read more
On 16 June 2020, Charles Randell, Chair of the FCA and PSR, delivered a speech addressing a virtual roundtable of bank chairs, hosted by UK Finance. Mr Randell considered the immediate impact of Covid-19 on the financial services sector in the UK and the FCA’s role in the recovery of the industry. Read more
