Technology-facilitated innovation in financial services, a diverse collection of topics which coalesces under the portmanteau term of “FinTech”, is increasingly in the sights of policy-makers, whether at global, regional and national or state levels.  Keen observers will have noted a proliferation of consultation documents, statements, warnings, speeches and more emanating from national regulators.  Some of … Read more

On 12 December 2017, the Securities and Futures Commission (the SFC) published its Guidance Note on Cooperation with the SFC (the Guidance). The Guidance contains an updated section on disciplinary proceedings and a new section on proceedings in the civil courts and the Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT). It does not apply to criminal proceedings, which is … Read more

The FCA has today published the Feedback Statement (FS) to its April 2017 Discussion Paper (DP) DP17/03 on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). In its introduction to the FS, the FCA articulates its position on DLT as follows: “Our aim is to be alive to current and potential developments involving DLT, to keep pace with them, … Read more

On 30 November 2017, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announced that it had reached an agreement with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on proposals to introduce an investor identification (investor ID) regime for Northbound trading under the Mainland-Hong Kong Stock Connect schemes. The regime is intended to improve Mainland-Hong Kong cross-border market surveillance … Read more

On 5 December 2017, the EU published its list of 17 non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. The list forms part of the EU’s work to clamp down on tax evasion and avoidance, presenting a united front to dealing with non-EU jurisdictions that, in the EU’s view, encourage abusive tax practices. The 17 jurisdictions identified are: … Read more

On November 29, 2017, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the Pilot Program it launched in 2016 to encourage companies to self-report potential violations of the federal anti-bribery Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) would be made permanent, subject to some amendments. The Pilot Program offers incentives to companies, including leniency, that self-report FCPA … Read more

Welcome to the November 2017 edition of our corporate crime update – our round up of developments in relation to corruption, money laundering, fraud, sanctions and related matters. Our update now covers a number of jurisdictions. For the full update on each jurisdiction, please click on the name of the jurisdiction below. Below we provide a brief overview of … Read more

China’s amended Anti-Unfair Competition Law (amended AUCL) comes into force on 1 January 2018. Much has been written about the various iterative drafts released over the 18-month consultation period. But the final amended AUCL omits some of the more radical amendments proposed and in some ways represents a reduced risk to companies provided they transact … Read more