On 30 October 2023, the government published three policy documents on cryptoassets regulation in the UK, covering fiat-backed stablecoins, the wider cryptoasset regulatory regime and the failure of systemic digital settlement asset (DSA) firms. On the whole, the updates confirm the approaches previously proposed. However, much of the detail will only emerge in the next phase once secondary legislation and regulators' rules have been published. Read more

The European Central Bank (“ECB“) and the European Commission (“EC“) have been exploring the adoption of a digital euro, a central bank digital currency (“CBDC“) in the euro area. Read more

Perhaps the most striking thing about the world of finance a decade and a half since the banking crisis is that the industry has not quite managed to regain the allure and self-confidence of earlier times. Certainly, this is a time in which trust – that most precious commodity in banking – is hard to earn and retain. This year's Global Bank Review: Trust Matters explores trust on many fronts. Read more

The UK Supreme Court has handed down its seminal judgment in Philipp v Barclays Bank UK plc [2023] UKSC 25, considering the application of the so-called Quincecare duty to the victim of an “authorised push payment” (APP) fraud. In an APP fraud, the victim is induced by fraudulent means to deliberately authorise their bank to send a payment to a bank account controlled by the fraudster. Read more

In its June 2023 Policy Statement on authorised push payment (APP) fraud (PS23/3), the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) said that payment service providers (PSPs) would not be required to reimburse customers who had failed to exercise the 'customer standard of caution' (on which guidance is awaited) for APP fraud claims.  This makes sense and is consistent with the regulatory principle that 'consumers should take responsibility for their decisions'. Read more

The UK Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) reports that its uphold rate for complaints from customers of firms who are signatories to the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code is higher than those from non-signatories. Read more

The FCA has released its Business Plan 2023/24; the plan covers the second year in the FCA's three-year Strategy.  This is one document among the annual publications issued by the regulator which provide insight into its priorities and focus... Read more

This article was first published in The Banker on 3 March 2023. Final decision yet to be made The world of money is changing. The received wisdom of “cash is king” has long been declining and the world is gradually moving to a more digitised banking space where digital deposits and payments have become dominant; … Read more