30 November 2015
First deferred prosecution agreement approved
The first Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) was approved today by Sir Brian Leveson, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division. The agreement is with Standard Bank Plc (now known as ICBC Standard Bank Plc) and relates to the activities of a subsidiary in Tanzania. As well as being the first ever DPA, the case also breaks new ground since it is the first case in which a company has been brought before the courts for an offence under Section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010, which penalises a failure by a company to prevent corruption.
11 November 2015
FCA seeks views on the new Market Abuse regime (MAR)
Market Abuse Regulation (Regulation 596/2014) (MAR) sets out a new regime for tackling unlawful behaviour” in financial markets. This EU Regulation will apply from 3 July 2016 and covers insider dealing, market manipulation and the improper disclosure of inside information.
6 November 2015
The financial industry gets a warm reception from the FCA and PRA – but individuals may still be left in the cold
Tracey McDermott, Acting Chief Executive of the FCA, and Andrew Bailey, Chief Executive Officer of the PRA spoke at the City Banquet at Mansion House on 22 October. Both used their speeches to reflect on the work done by their respective agencies, and to outline priorities for the future.
16 October 2015
Holding individuals to account in financial services - unexpected shift in burden of proof
The mission to improve accountability for individuals working in financial services is still in full swing as the Treasury introduced the Bank of England Financial Services Bill on 15th October. One of the key provisions is the extension of the Senior Managers and Certification regimes (SM&CR), introduced under the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 (due to come into force in March 2016 for the majority of the banking sector), to cover all investment companies, insurers, asset managers and consumer credit firms by 2018. The Treasury argues that extending the SM&CR across the whole financial services industry will create a fairer, more consistent and rigorous regime for all financial services firms – taking the number of Senior Managers in firms under scrutiny to 60 000 plus.
Julie Matheson and Louise Hodges look at what the changes may mean and highlight a number of questions that remain unanswered.
14 October 2015
European regulation of insider dealing and market manipulation: build up to the new market abuse regime from 2016
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has recently published its final technical standards on, inter alia, the Market Abuse Regulation (Regulation 596/2014) (MAR). The technical standards include proposed “regulatory technical standards” (RTS) and “implementing technical standards” (ITS). The RTS and ITS have now been passed to the European Commission, which has three months to decide whether to accept the final standards.