9 April 2020
Business Plan 2020-21: FCA remains vigilant to potential misconduct
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has this week published its annual Business Plan. Unsurprisingly, the emergence of COVID-19 has significantly impacted the organisation’s ability to set out its strategic focus for the next three years. While the Plan sets out the areas of priority on which it intends to focus in this period, it recognises that it may be months before the FCA is able to focus fully on the activities set out in the Plan and that the issues to be addressed may change significantly over the coming months.
30 March 2020
COVID-19 and the FCA - Scams, short selling and more
The COVID-19 pandemic has already had a significant impact on all aspects of the financial services industry, including on firms, customers, regulators, capital markets and their participants. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) continues to engage closely with the sector as it seeks to respond effectively to the current crisis. This has included releasing a number of statements relating to various matters including scams, short selling, operational and financial resilience, and financial reporting.
27 January 2020
Partner expulsion case offers lessons to LLP firms and their partners
Just before Christmas, the High Court ruled on a dispute regarding the expulsion of a partner from one of the Big Five under the firm’s 2017 LLP Agreement (LLPA).
22 January 2020
Calling out discrimination in banking bonuses
As bonus payout season approaches, what does a successful female banker, trader, analyst or even compliance officer do who fears they have been paid less than their male counterparts?
20 December 2019
Fixing the broken rung – action to improve gender balance
Last month’s Hampton-Alexander Review concerning the improvement of gender balance in FTSE leadership review reports positive, if rather slowly moving, trends but indicates there is much work still to be done. In particular at the very top of organisations (there is a distinct lack of female CEOs) and ensure businesses have strong pipelines of talent to enable progress to continue. The narrative seems to be less about the glass ceiling and more about, in the words of the also recently published McKinsey and Company report “Women in the Workplace 2019”, a need to “fix the broken rung”.
