Safeguarding pensions and retirement income have been high on the FCA’s agenda for a while now. In the FCA Business Plan for 2018/19 it said: “We want to ensure that consumers are equipped to make good decisions to fund their retirement such as through appropriate advice or guidance, and can access good quality, value for money retirement products. We also want to ensure consumers know how to avoid pensions’ scams and poor deals” The FCA…

Last month we reported that the Court of Appeal (The Director of the SFO v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Limited [2018] EWCA Civ 2006) had reversed the High Court’s controversial and troubling decision from 2017 that concerned the extent to which litigation privilege could apply to documents generated in the context of internal investigations https://www.finance-disputes.co.uk/2018/09/litigation-privilege-sense-prevails-in-the-court-of-appeal/. It was announced earlier this week that the SFO will not be pursuing an appeal to the Supreme Court.  So the Court…

The last 18 months or so has seen a slight readjustment or nuancing of the FCA’s “credible deterrence” policy (which was all about tough, targeted and public disciplinary action with increasing fines and naming and shaming) that has been at the heart of the regulator’s enforcement strategy since 2008.…

The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) continues to see its caseload increase to record levels despite the fact that it is dropping more investigations than ever before. Recently published statistics reveal that in the year ending March 2018 a total of 208 investigations were ended compared to 115 in the previous year and 98 in 2015/16. The FCA’s Enforcement Annual Performance Report 2017/18 reveals that the total number of cases open rose from 410 on 1…

The FCA published a consultation paper on 1 August 2018 to revamp its rules and guidance for payment service providers (“PSPs”) and e-money institutions, alongside proposing a crack down on the marketing and promotion of currency conversion services. The proposals are designed to tackle recent concerns over confusing and misleading marketing material and exchange rates shown by some e-money and non-bank payment service providers, and to bring the wider money lending industry under consistent FCA…

Last week the Court of Appeal (The Director of the SFO v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Limited [2018] EWCA Civ 2006) reversed the High Court’s controversial and troubling decision from 2017 that concerned the extent to which litigation privilege could apply to documents generated in the context of internal investigations. ENRC successfully argued that legal professional privilege protected from disclosure to the SFO certain documents that had been prepared by ENRC’s lawyers and forensic accountants as…