On 26 November 2019, the FCA announced that it would use its temporary intervention powers to restrict the mass marketing of speculative mini-bonds to retail customers. Although the intervention will allow the promotion of unlisted speculative mini-bonds to sophisticated and/or high net worth individuals, marketing materials which are produced by or approved by an authorised firm will also have to include a specific risk warning and disclose costs or payments made to third parties that are deducted from investors' money. Read more

European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis announced in a speech at the Guildhall in London last week that, 'as the risk to financial stability has not yet been fully removed, because industry has not so far fully prepared', he intends to renew the temporary equivalence decision for UK central counterparties (CCPs) beyond the current expiry date of 30 March 2020. Read more

This fourth article of a series on crypto assets considers which crypto assets are subject to the market abuse regulation (MAR), and the particular challenges that may present. Read more

On 29 October Lord Sharkey introduced a Private Members' Bill into the House of Lords, which proposed amending the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ("FSMA") to empower the FCA to introduce a duty of care owed by authorised persons to consumers in carrying out regulated activities under FSMA (the "Bill"). The Bill proposed that a duty of care be defined as an obligation to exercise reasonable care and skill when providing a product or a service. Read more

Every quarter our financial services regulatory team publishes the Financial Services Regulatory Timeline, a look ahead at key regulatory milestones in the coming months and years in a range of areas, created for our clients in financial institutions. Three areas covered in the Timeline are Financial Crime, Enforcement, and Market Abuse. For the readers of our corporate crime e-bulletins, we have produced these sections as a Calendar of key developments in Financial Crime, Market Abuse and Enforcement which can be accessed here. 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 November 2019. Read more

On 16 October 2019, the FCA published its Feedback Statement on Climate Change and Green Finance. The paper summarises the key themes arising from feedback to the FCA's Discussion Paper (18/8) as well as the FCA's responses and intended next steps. Read more