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Financial Services UK
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July 25, 2025
'Disconnect' Between Pension And Savings, Broadstone Says
Britons aged between 40 and 75 who are yet to fully retire face a gap of more than £18,000 ($24,000) per year between their state pension and the income they hope to live on, actuarial consultant Broadstone said Friday.
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July 25, 2025
Pensions Watchdog Wants Dashboards Data Improvements
Too many pension schemes do not have enough high quality, recent or digital data as the retirement savings industry edges towards the launch of the long-awaited dashboards programme, the top regulator has said.
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July 25, 2025
Bahraini Bank Worker Loses Whistleblowing Case Over Delay
A short-lived employee of a Bahraini bank has lost his bid to sue his former employer, as a London tribunal ruled he waited too long to bring his claim he was fired for whistleblowing.
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July 25, 2025
Odey's Libel Claim And Sex Assault Case To Have Joint Trial
Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey's £79 million ($106.2 million) libel claim against the Financial Times will be tried jointly with claims by five women accusing him of sexual abuse, a London judge ruled Friday.
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July 25, 2025
Gov't Warned That Pension Bill Excludes Investment Cos.
A trade body for investment companies said Friday it had urged the government to amend the Pension Schemes Bill so that its power to require pensions to invest in private assets will allow this through investment companies.
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July 25, 2025
Ruling Puts Dexia's €400M Row With Torino In English Courts
A judge ruled Friday that England has exclusive jurisdiction to hear a €400 million ($469 million) dispute over the validity of transactions Dexia SA inked with Comune di Torino in Italy to restructure the municipal government's debts.
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July 25, 2025
AXA Wins £675M Missold PPI Payout Fight With Santander
AXA has won a £675 million ($907 million) battle with Santander to recover payouts for wrongly sold payment protection insurance as a London court ruled that the Spanish banking giant was liable for "systemic failings" in historical sales of the policy.
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July 25, 2025
Slaughter And May-Led Close Brothers To Sell Unit For £104M
British merchant banking group Close Brothers said Friday that it has agreed to sell its subsidiary Winterflood Securities to Marex Group PLC for approximately £103.9 million ($139.7 million) to simplify its portfolio and focus on its core lending business.
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July 25, 2025
MoD Official Named As New Companies House CEO
Senior Ministry of Defence official Andy King has been appointed as chief executive of Britain's official business registrar as it seeks to toughen its stance on financial crime.
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July 25, 2025
UK Prospectus Changes Merely Shifting Diligence Burden
Listed companies will no longer be forced in 2026 to publish demanding documents during most secondary fundraising drives under updated prospectus rules, but lawyers warn this might simply mean that businesses spend more time and money on diligence when they make other disclosures.
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July 25, 2025
NatWest To Reward Investors With £750M Share Buyback
NatWest Group said Friday that it plans to start buying back up to £750 million ($1 billion) of shares as it reported a strong performance for the first half of this year.
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July 24, 2025
Ukrainian State-Owned Bank Targets Russia In New Claim
State-owned Oschadbank said Thursday it has taken the first steps to initiate arbitration against Russia over the loss of its assets in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, citing the Kremlin's "gross violations" of international law.
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July 24, 2025
Traders' Win Casts Doubt On Plans For No-Jury Fraud Trials
Repeated failure by the courts to ensure that two former traders imprisoned for rigging benchmark interest rates were given a fair trial has fueled criticism of radical reforms to roll back jury trials in complex fraud cases to ease pressure on the judicial system.
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July 24, 2025
Four Traders Plan Appeals After Justices Quash Convictions
Four City traders convicted of manipulating benchmark interest rates plan to file new challenges against their verdicts after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that two former bankers in similar cases failed to receive a fair trial.
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July 24, 2025
Fintech Execs Deny Misleading Bank In £4M Fraud Claim
Defunct fintech startup BrickVest Ltd. and its co-founders have denied allegations brought by a German specialist property lender in a £4.2 million ($5.7 million) London claim that they hid additional investment in the business before its collapse.
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July 24, 2025
CMS Fights £10M Negligence Claim Over Investec Deal
CMS has denied allegations of negligence from a former client, saying the property developer gave the green light to repayment terms with Investec that the law firm negotiated and is now falsely claiming to have been caught off-guard by the deal.
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July 24, 2025
Munich Re Can't Nix Private Equity Firm's $491M IPO Claim
Munich Re Group failed Thursday to get a private equity firm's claim of approximately $491 million struck out, after a court found that it couldn't rule out the possibility that the German reinsurer had breached an agreement over the public listing of a U.S. company.
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July 24, 2025
Audit Watchdog Imposed £14.5M In Fines Last Year
Britain's audit watchdog said Thursday it levied £14.5 million ($19.6 million) in fines across a 12-month period ending in March that also saw it wrap the majority of its investigations in a more timely way than ever before.
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July 24, 2025
NCA Seizes £17M Tied To Suspected Illegal China Trades
The National Crime Agency revealed Thursday that a Chinese national has agreed to forfeit money and seven London properties worth £16.7 million ($22.6 million) which the agency suspects are the proceeds of criminal securities trading in China.
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July 24, 2025
Investment Biz Denies Financier's $3.5M Unpaid Loan Claim
An investment company and its director have denied they breached a contract for a $2 million loan issued by a financier for an investment in a drinks business, telling a London court that the money is not yet repayable.
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July 24, 2025
BoE Speeds Up Insurance Vehicle Approvals To Boost Growth
The Bank of England put into force Thursday rules speeding up authorizations for a type of insurer known as special purpose vehicles, slashing related compulsory senior manager applications with immediate effect to boost U.K. growth.
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July 24, 2025
SFO Charges 6 With Fraud Over £75M Pension Investments
The Serious Fraud Office charged six individuals with fraud and money laundering on Thursday over alleged misrepresentations made to investors who poured £75 million ($101 million) from their pensions into self-storage units.
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July 24, 2025
Lloyd's Grants Provisional Approval For South African Insurer
Specialist insurance market Lloyd's of London has granted "in principle" the go-ahead for Santam to launch a syndicate in London, a move the South African company said will fast-track its international growth.
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July 24, 2025
Chesnara Raises £140M To Fund HSBC Life Buy
British pensions company Chesnara PLC said Thursday that it has raised approximately £140 million ($190 million) to partly fund the £260 million acquisition of the specialist life protection and investment bond provider of banking giant HSBC.
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July 24, 2025
Brown & Brown To Buy UK Racehorse Insurance Broker
The European subsidiary of insurance broker Brown & Brown Inc. has agreed to acquire Weatherbys Hamilton LLP, a specialist U.K. broker that offers cover for farms, estates and racehorses.
Expert Analysis
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Comparing UK And EU's View On 3rd-Party Service Providers
The U.K. is taking welcome steps to address the lack of direct oversight over critical third-party service providers, and although less onerous than that of the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act, the U.K. regime's proportionate approach is designed to make providers more robust and reliable, say lawyers at Shearman.
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Key Points Of BoE Response To Digital Pound Consultation
Lawyers at Hogan Lovells analyze the recent Bank of England and U.K. government response to a consultation on the launch of a digital pound, finding that the phased approach to evaluating the issues makes sense given the significant potential impact on the U.K. economy.
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Goldman Prosecution Delivers A Clear Sign Of FCA Strength
The recent successful prosecution of a former Goldman Sachs analyst for insider dealing and fraud is a reminder to regulated individuals that economic crime will never be tolerated, and that the Financial Conduct Authority is willing to bare its teeth in the exercise of its prosecutorial remit, says Doug Cherry at Fladgate.
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The Good, The Bad And The New Of The UK Sanctions Regime
Almost six years after the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act was introduced, the U.K. government has published a strategy paper that outlines its focus points and unveils potential changes to the regime, such as a new humanitarian exception for financial sanctions, highlighting the rapid transformation of the U.K. sanctions landscape, says Josef Rybacki at WilmerHale.
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A Look At Environment Agency's New Economic Crime Unit
Sophie Wood at Kingsley Napley explains how the Environment Agency’s newly established Economic Crime Unit will pursue criminal money flows from environmental offenses, and discusses the unit’s civil powers, including the ability to administer account freezing and forfeiture orders, says Sophie Wood at Kingsley Napley.
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Opinion
UK Whistleblowers Flock To The US For Good Reason
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office director recently brought renewed attention to the differences between the U.K. and U.S. whistleblower regimes — differences that may make reporting to U.S. agencies a better and safer option for U.K. whistleblowers, and show why U.K. whistleblower laws need to be improved, say Benjamin Calitri and Kate Reeves at Kohn Kohn.
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4 Legal Privilege Lessons From Dechert Disclosure Ruling
The Court of Appeal's recent decision in Al Sadeq v. Dechert LLP, finding that evidence may have been incorrectly withheld, provides welcome clarification of the scope of legal professional privilege, including the application of the iniquity exception, says Tim Knight at Travers Smith.
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BT Case May Shape UK Class Action Landscape
The first opt-out collective action trial commenced in Le Patourel v. BT in the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal last month, regarding BT's abuse of dominance by overcharging millions of customers, will likely provide clarification on damages and funder returns in collective actions, which could significantly affect the class action regime, say lawyers at RPC.
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Key Points From EC Economic Security Screening Initiatives
Lawyers at Herbert Smith analyze the European Commission's five recently announced initiatives aimed at de-risking the EU's trade and investment links with third countries, including the implementation of mandatory screening mechanisms and extending coverage to investments made by EU companies that are controlled subsidiaries of non-EU investors.
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Following The Road Map Toward Quantum Security
With the Financial Conduct Authority’s recent publication of a white paper on a quantum-secure financial sector, firms should begin to consider the quantum transition early — before the process is driven by regulatory obligations — with the goal of developing a cybersecurity architecture that is agile while also allowing for quantum security, say lawyers at Cleary.
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Why EU Ruling On Beneficial Ownership May Affect The UK
Following the EU judgment in Sovim v. Luxembourg that public access to beneficial ownership information conflicts with data protection rights, several British overseas territories and dependencies have recently reversed their commitment to introduce unrestricted access, and challenges to the U.K.’s liberal stance may be on the cards, says Rupert Cullen at Allectus Law.
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Key Changes In FRC Code Aim To Promote Good Governance
The focus of the recently published Financial Reporting Council Corporate Governance Code on risk management and internal controls is to ensure the competitiveness of the U.K. listing regime while not compromising on governance standards, and issuers may wish to consider updating their policies in order to follow best practice, say lawyers at Debevoise.
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Ruling In FCA Case Offers Tips On Flexible Work Requests
In Wilson v. Financial Conduct Authority, the Employment Tribunal recently found that the regulator's rejection of a remote work request was justified, highlighting for employers factors that affect flexible work request outcomes, while emphasizing that individual inquiries should be considered on the specific facts, say Frances Rollin, Ella Tunnell and Kerry Garcia at Stevens & Bolton.
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Breaking Down The New UK Pension Funding Regs
Recently published U.K. pension regulations, proposing major changes to funding and investing in defined benefit pension schemes, raise implementation considerations for trustees, including the importance of the employer covenant, say Charles Magoffin and Elizabeth Bullock at Freshfields.
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Predicting DeFi Regulations At Home And Abroad In 2024
Though decentralized finance has advocates on both sides of the Atlantic in figures like U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, DeFi in 2024 seems likely to be folded into existing regulatory frameworks in the U.K. and EU, while anti-crypto scrutiny may discourage DeFi’s growth in the U.S., say Daniel Csefalvay and Eric Martin at BCLP.