In March 2018, Mrs Philipp transferred two payments to accounts in the UAE, totalling £700,000, representing her and her husband, Dr Philipp’s savings. In doing so, Mrs and Dr Philipp thought they were assisting an investigation by the FCA and National Crime Agency (“NCA”) into fraudulent activities. Unfortunately for the Philipp family, they were, in fact, the victims of that fraud, not helping to tackle it. Dr Philipps authorised transfers to Mrs Philipps’ accounts from…

While trading frenzies are as old as the markets themselves, the novelty of widespread retail trading in obscure US stocks fueled by Reddit chat forums has prompted recent interventions by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Unfortunately the FCA’s terse 29 January statement on “recent share trading issues” gave little insight into how it viewed these events from a regulatory perspective. The FCA said only that buying shares in volatile markets is “risky“, and…

Last month, the FCA launched its Defined Benefit Advice Assessment Tool (“DBAAT“) as part of its strategy to reduce harm to consumers and improve the suitability of defined benefit (“DB“) transfer advice. The tool will help firms to understand precisely how the FCA assesses the suitability of DB transfer advice.…

What is SFDR? The SFDR is part of the European Commission’s package of reforms to implement its sustainable finance strategy. The strategy focuses on three areas: Strengthening the foundations for sustainable investment by creating an enabling framework. The Commission believes many financial (and non-financial) companies still focus excessively on short term financial performance instead of long term development and sustainability-related challenges and opportunities. Increasing opportunities to have a positive impact on sustainability for citizens, financial…

The Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) has published a ‘Dear CEO’ letter to insurers following the recent decision made in the Supreme Court test case on non-physical damage business interruption (“BI”) insurance. The FCA is determined to make the next steps on the recent ruling as clear as possible.…

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has just published the outcome of new research into the approach that Audit Committee Chairs (ACCs) take to audit quality. The findings suggest inconsistency among ACCs on what constitutes audit quality, and how it should be approached, which the FRC says “lends weight to the proposals for reforms in the audit sector”.…