Compliance Monitor

Many governing bodies would prefer not to think about wind-down planning - indeed, it ranks as the area firms most struggle with. Ian Morton and Jackie Domanska discuss company structure, liquidity and contingency issues firms need to consider as part of their operational resilience requirements.

With financial services at the hub of the fight against illicit finance, Generative AI unlocks new possibilities to accelerate efficiency in tackling this vast and complex challenge. James Grant sets out use cases, risks and how to manage them.

In its first decision on the consequences for financial instruments of LIBOR's cessation, the High Court has ruled that Standard Chartered may unilaterally apply a SOFR-based replacement rate in a case involving dividends on preference shares. This is a significant bellwether for challenges to the transition of financial instruments from LIBOR to alternative rates without investor consent, write Mike Logie and Philip Linton.

"Of making many books there is no end," sighed the writer of Ecclesiastes. Adam Samuel fears that the regulator's well-intentioned elaborations on applying the Consumer Duty in various contexts could engender a lot of compliance verbiage without significantly improving consumer outcomes.

The regulator has brought successful prosecutions against two men from south London who were running a crypto investment scam.

The FCA has fined and banned the bankrupt owner of a Birmingham-based insurance broker, now in liquidation, for diverting funds for insurance premiums to buy expensive company cars and pay salaries even though he knew that these payments resulted in a "significant" shortfall in the business's assets.

Metro Bank has received a £16.7 million penalty for anti-money laundering (AML) inadequacies resulting from the design of its reconciliation systems and other IT issues.

The two partners in a Coventry firm advising the medical and dental sector have been banned and fined for taking money out of their partnership the day after the FCA imposed an asset requirement.