On 2 July 2015, the UK’s financial regulatory, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), published its annual report and accounts 2014/15. Overview The annual report highlighted several areas in which the FCA has been active over the past 12 months, including: The use by the FCA of its new consumer credit powers The launch of ‘Project Innovate’ … Continue Reading
As of April 1, 2015, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has acquired new functions and powers in relation to competition including powers under the Enterprise Act 2002 (the 2002 Act) to conduct market studies and make references to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and powers under the Competition Act 1998 (the 1998 Act) to … Continue Reading
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its Occasional Paper No. 9, setting out the results of the FCA’s research into how well customers understood structured products. The answer, according to the report, is not very well. The report found that, while investors’ expectations of growth in the FTSE were in line with the … Continue Reading
This post was written by Joelle E.K. Laszlo. As competition for contracts with U.S. federal government agencies increases, companies that seek to maintain or increase their government sales may set their sights on states instead. Indeed, this may already be happening: for one thing, more than 500 people attended the “How to Market to State Governments” … Continue Reading
This post was written by Cody Roberts, Gunjan Talati and David Cohen. The government is a frequent litigant as both a plaintiff and defendant on a variety of matters at any given time. Like many other litigants, the government sometimes finds itself needing litigation support. Litigation support contractors fill that need and, because of a … Continue Reading
This post was written by Terence Healy and Amy J. Greer. Mary Jo White promised Congress she would pursue a “bold and unrelenting” enforcement program as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Six months into her tenure, we should take her at her word. In public remarks this week, White reiterated her desire for … Continue Reading
The Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) recently announced its intention to carry out a thematic investigation of the policies and procedures that investment banks have in place to prevent their staff and agents from paying or receiving bribes. Click here for the full speech. This coincides with the coming into force of the Bribery Act 2010 … Continue Reading
The waiting is over! At last the UK Ministry of Justice has published guidance about procedures which commercial organisations can put into place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing. The Act will now come into force on 1 July 2011. The guidance offers non-prescriptive procedures and commentary on the scope of the Act. … Continue Reading
Two former directors of engineering firm Mabey & Johnson received custodial sentences today, having been found guilty earlier this month of inflating the prices paid under humanitarian contracts to provide steel bridges to ensure that kickbacks of over Euros 420,000 could be paid to Saddam Hussein’s government. The directors, Charles Forsyth and David Mabey, who … Continue Reading
This post was also written by Simon Hart. In advance of the much anticipated consultation in the United Kingdom on the creation of the proposed Economic Crime Agency (“ECA”), which is due to take place this spring, the Home Office announced this week that it plans to take a greater role in the fight against … Continue Reading
