The FCA has published its long-awaited consultation on 'duty of care' which has morphed into a proposed package of measures intended to deliver better outcomes for consumers – together a new 'Consumer Duty'. The consultation, which is open until 31 July 2021, proposes: a new Consumer Principle that provides an overarching standard of conduct; and a set of Cross‑cutting Rules and four Outcomes that support the Consumer Principle. The proposals apply to regulated products and services sold to 'retail clients' which would include SMEs. Read more

With the UK regulators' operational resilience policy package finalised at the end of March, an early May speech from Lyndon Nelson, PRA Deputy CEO & Executive Director of Regulatory Operations and Supervisory Risk Specialists was well-timed. Mr Nelson's authoritative voice has guided the evolution of operational resilience as a regulatory – or perhaps more particularly, a supervisory – concept for a number of years on both the UK and the global stages. Read more

At the end of March, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published the Policy Statement (PS7/21) and the Supervisory Statement (SS2/21) which set out its expectations of PRA-regulated firms regarding outsourcing and third party risk management. The publications are part of the wider operational resilience policy package released jointly with the Bank of England (the Bank) and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). In this post, we briefly explain the background to these publications and review the implications for both PRA-regulated firms and service providers. Read more

Way back in 2019, the FCA published a Feedback Statement, summarising responses to its July 2018 Discussion Paper on the proposed introduction of a 'duty of care' and setting out its next steps.  In that Feedback Statement, the FCA said it would publish a further paper seeking detailed views on specific options for change. We are now expecting the much anticipated consultation this month. Read more

On April 29, 2021, SAP SE (SAP), a leading international provider of enterprise application software based in Germany, entered into settlements and a non-prosecution agreement (collectively, the SAP settlements) with US federal agencies for alleged violations of US sanctions and US export controls with respect to Iran. Read more

In the context of an investor’s claim against the provider of his self-invested personal pension (SIPP) under s.27 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), the Court of Appeal has provided guidance on the question of what constitutes “advice” on investments for the purpose of article 53 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (RAO). Read more

On 31 March 2021, Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA delivered a keynote speech on compliance, culture and evolving regulatory expectations to an audience at NYU Law School’s virtual conference on Compliance, Culture, and ESG. We discuss some of the key messages and implications for firms. Read more

Following a three-month industry consultation period, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has released the Consultation Conclusions Paper on Implementation of Mandatory Reference Checking Scheme to Address the “Rolling Bad Apples” Phenomenon (Consultation Conclusions) dated 3 May 2021. Read more