Compliance Monitor

Almost a quarter of UK adults are considered to have "low financial resilience" and millions are slipping behind on bill and loan payments. With lenders having been ordered by the FCA "to make changes to improve the way they treat their customers", Neasa MacErlean explores how firms can meet regulatory expectations.

Financial services regulation is about encouraging or discouraging certain behaviours. While regulators tend to rely on inspections and enforcement to ensure requirements are met, these measures can be costly and often only address issues after failings have occurred. Proactive firms and their compliance officers are now turning to behavioural science insights to assist their regulatory programmes. Mario Menz shows how the EAST framework, developed by the UK Government's former 'nudge unit', can be utilised to improve employee compliance.

After years of anticipation, the Financial Services and Markets Bill - underpinned by the regulatory priorities announced by the Government as part of the Edinburgh Reforms - will finally create the detail for how the UK will regulate those who issue, trade and distribute cryptoassets. Emma Radmore examines HM Treasury's consultation on the future regulatory regime for cryptoassets and related initiatives.

Following a review of firms' progress the regulator has flagged areas "where firms may need to improve their implementation approach" and what to focus on in the final run-up. Denis O'Connor reports.

Charlotte Hill and Mila Pencheva consider a recent International Monetary Fund paper on effective policies for cryptoassets, as well as key regulatory developments in the United Kingdom already taking some of the IMF's recommended elements forward.

The regulator is grappling with a backlog of approved persons applications, while employers are playing an amplified role as arbiters of fitness and propriety issues under the SMCR. The stakes have never been higher for financial services employees to avoid possible misconduct both in and outside of work, write James Alleyne and Natasha Forman.

With the impact of mass payment protection insurance claims and the Covid-19 pandemic on the wane, the Ombudsman may finally find itself in a stretch of 'business as usual'. Adam Samuel analyses the statistics.

Provisional fines have been given to Banque Havilland and three former employees for disseminating a document that contained "manipulative trading strategies" regarding Qatari bonds.

The Financial Conduct Authority has censured the former Lighthouse Advisory Services for "serious failings" in its advice to 1,567 customers looking to transfer out of defined benefit pension schemes between 1 April 2015 and 30 April 2019.

Rules introduced to help borrowers in financial difficulty during the Covid crisis are on course to be made permanent by spring next year.

The United Kingdom's largest banks are being encouraged to improve their communication with the 11 per cent of the population who are deaf or hard of hearing.