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. To help keep you up to date on the upcoming regulatory expectations, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new #OperationalResilience hub. Read more

On 5 February 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a report titled ‘Implementing Technology Change’, which sets out findings from its review into how financial services firms manage technology change, the impact of change failures, and industry practices to help reduce the impact of incidents resulting from change management. 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. Read more

HM Treasury has published a consultation paper seeking views on the exercise of its delegated powers under the Financial Services Bill (FS Bill) to ensure the effective implementation of the Investment Firm Prudential Regime (IFPR) and outstanding Basel 3 standards. The consultation also seeks views on the scope of application of the resolution regime for FCA-regulated investment firms. Read more

The FCA’s Final Report on general insurance pricing practices concludes that retail home and motor insurance markets are not working well for all consumers and confirms proposals to prohibit “price walking”. Read more

The UK and EU finalised the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (“TCA”) that governs their future trading and security relationship on 24 December 2020. The TCA offers minimal commitments on financial services and even excludes financial services from some general protections that otherwise apply under the TCA. At the same time, in a non-binding declaration, the UK and EU agreed to enter into a memorandum of understanding by March 2021 on the establishment of a cooperation framework. Read more

The Supreme Court has today handed down judgment in the case of R (on the application of KBR, Inc) (Appellant) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office (Respondent) [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 the Criminal Justice Act 1987 (“CJA”). Read more

In this blog post, we round-up forthcoming developments in the UK and at EU and International levels in financial services regulation which are expected for February 2021. Read more