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Nine months into the Consumer Duty - key considerations
Embedding the Consumer Duty is not a "once and done" exercise, the Financial Conduct Authority has stressed. With the first board report on customer outcomes as well as implementation for closed products and services due by 31 July, Sumitra Subramanian highlights vital areas for firms' ongoing attention.
Online Published Date:
01 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
FCA rejects British Steel members' complaint but offers £150ea for delay
The regulator is making an ex-gratia payment of £150 per person to 354 people who sent a joint complaint to chief executive Nikhil Rathi over its handling of transfers out of the British Steel Pension Scheme.
Online Published Date:
01 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
DLT Sandbox to open in autumn for trading venues and settlement services
Applications are to open this summer for firms offering trading venues and settlement services that want to take part in a five-yearDigital Securities Sandbox.
Online Published Date:
01 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
FCA consults on 8.75% fee-hike for 2024/25
The FCA is consulting on increasing its minimum, flat-rate and application fees by 8.75 per cent for the current financial year, after holding them flat in 2023/24.
Online Published Date:
01 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
Debt advice helps half of borrowers as 7.4m struggle with cost of living
Firms in the lending, consumer credit and mortgages sector are being reminded of the new rules and guidance taking effect on 4 November - as data shows that nearly half of people who seek help with problem debt have been assisted by the advice they receive.
Online Published Date:
01 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
Regulator sets digital priorities on Open Finance, digital ID and data-sharing
Nikhil Rathi, the FCA chief executive, has addressed fears that "progress has stalled" on Open Banking and Open Finance by stating that the regulator wants "to push on with Open Finance" by "opening up data further, including across sectors".
Online Published Date:
01 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
Synthetic data offers path to digital transformation
Innovative financial services technologies are looking to share and process vast amounts of data while maintaining stringent privacy standards - and use of synthetic data may provide a way to fulfil both of these imperatives. Charlotte Witherington and Daniel Hirschfield review the FCA's work on synthetic data and the findings of a new report.
Online Published Date:
01 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
Retirement income advice review fails nearly half of files
A deep dive into retirement income advice by the Financial Conduct Authority has exposed numerous concerns - in particular, an appalling standard of record-keeping. Advisers need to focus not only on the acquisition of technical knowledge, but also on compliance, urges Adam Samuel.
Online Published Date:
02 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
Supreme Court rules PPI claim was in time to challenge hidden 95% fees
A litigant has won the remaining reimbursement of the payment protection insurance she paid and interest, after she discovered that the cost of the insurance itself was only five per cent of the premium. The Court ruled the claim was in time because the limitation period began when she found out about the commission, in 2018. A further 26,000 similar cases are waiting in the wings, reports Denis O'Connor.
Online Published Date:
03 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
Transparent, or injurious? Proposals to publicise investigations
A radical shake-up to enforcement procedure is being consulted on by the regulator, which could see probes into firms regularly made public at an early stage. Michael Lewis and Emma Radmore look at the drivers, the proposals, safeguards and possible consequences.
Online Published Date:
03 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
Tentative steps into crypto exchange-traded products
Regulators are still broadly cautious in their approach to digital assets, but the adoption of regimes for crypto exchange-traded products is picking up around the globe. Bryan Tan and Brett Hillis review developments in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Online Published Date:
03 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 8 - 12 April 2024
Shard CEO fined and banned for misleading a client's auditors and accountants
The founder and former CEO of a City-based firm of asset managers has been banned and fined £120,300 by the FCA after the provision of incorrect information to auditors of a corporate client.
Online Published Date:
08 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 9 - 08 May 2024
Trio charged with fraud after victims' pension funds squandered on high-risk CFDs
The FCA has charged two men and a woman with fraud amidallegationsof false statements that individuals whose retirement savings were placed in high-risk contract for difference (CFD) schemes qualified as professional investors; many victims saw their "pension funds almost entirely lost".
Online Published Date:
15 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 9 - 08 May 2024
Reality TV stars among finfluencers charged for promoting unauthorised FX scheme
Nine 'finfluencers' - including former participants ofLove IslandandCelebrity Big Brother- have been charged by the FCA in relation to the social media promotion of an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme for which they could receive a fine and/or up to two years' imprisonment. They are due to appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court on 13 June.
Online Published Date:
16 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 9 - 08 May 2024
Citigroup fined £62m after Compliance "repeatedly" raised control weaknesses
The international broker-dealer wing of Citigroup has been fined £61.6 million - after cooperation discounts of 30 per cent - for failures in its systems and controls that were demonstrated over 14 minutes of trading on Bank Holiday Monday in May 2022.
Online Published Date:
22 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 9 - 08 May 2024
Compliance team actions led to 50% cut in HSBC's TCF fine
A £6.3 million fine levied on HSBC was halved from £12.6m after compliance officers found poor practice across the lending product range and reported it "promptly" to the FCA.
Online Published Date:
23 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 9 - 08 May 2024
FCA backs down on evidence as two disciplinary claims referred to Tribunal
Disciplinary decisions by the regulator to fine and ban two individuals in the pensions investments sector have been delayed 21 months by discussions over the evidence, and have been referred by the men involved to the Upper Tribunal.
Online Published Date:
24 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 9 - 08 May 2024
GAP market reboots as four providers accept lower commission rates
The first four firms have re-entered the GAP (Guaranteed Asset Protection) market after two months in which this whole sector of motor insurance was put on pause by the FCA for not providing fair value.
Online Published Date:
27 May 2024
Appeared in issue:
Vol 36 No 9 - 08 May 2024