There has been a flurry of activity in recent months from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), with new duties and obligations on regulated firms and individuals on the horizon. In this article, BCL associate Matt Davies explores areas where the FCA is focusing its attention and provides insight and tips for firms wishing to stay in the regulator’s good books.
In this guide BCL Partner, John Binns provides an introduction to the terms of Financial Conduct Laws and explains the FCA’s approach to crypto assets.
In the following article Richard Sallybanks and Umar Azmeh look at whether recent AML and insider dealing prosecutions herald an increased willingness on the part of the Financial Conduct Authority to use its criminal enforcement powers.
As part of its response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the FCA announced finalised guidance designed to support consumers facing financial hardship and struggling to repay loans. In favour of consumers, lender firms are instructed to avoid repossession up to 1 April 2021 and consider payment holidays exposing lender firms who fail to adhere to enforcement action.
Criminal lawyers are always asked by their clients how long they think an investigation or prosecution into allegedly serious offending will take. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, in a justice system crippled by budget cuts and beset with inefficiencies, the answer would nearly always be measured in years.
In the first part in our series of videos on prominent legal topics for the past year, BCL partner Shula De Jersey discusses how DPAs have been used over the past year and how their use might change in 2020.
For many people who receive or are served with a Crown Court Restraint Order, this will be the first time they have had anything to do with the criminal justice system. In some circumstances it will follow swiftly on from an arrest and/or the execution of a search warrant of their home or business premises, and may have been accompanied by the seizure of cash or property. In others it will simply come alone and without warning, complete with a penal notice to warn the recipient of dire consequences of any failure to comply.
