Posted by Chris Arnold and Michaël Heene on 8 April 2021
In the past ten years, the financial services industry has experienced significant change. Customer behaviours have developed significantly. In this report, we look at the changing nature of the Financial Services sector and how collaboration (including through M&A) is increasing between established financial institutions and FinTechs.
Posted by Team Blockchain on 18 June 2021
OTC derivative trading and DeFi platforms share some common attributes, one of them being the ability to trade peer to peer i.e., without the need to use intermediaries. Now that the World Economic Forum is offering guidance, will this hasten greater adoption of DeFi platforms?
Posted by Zoë Jensen, Tony Katz, Puesan Lam, Chris Harvey and Sophie Lessar on 15 June 2021
The FCA first started talking about the introduction of a new duty of care for consumers back in 2018. Now it has published a consultation on its proposals to introduce a new consumer duty principle, together with cross-cutting rules and guidance.
Posted by Michael McKee and Chris Whittaker on 10 June 2021
On 31 May 2021, the Financial Stability Board published a consultative document on Targets for Addressing the Four Challenges of Cross-Border Payments. The Consultation sets out quantitative proposed targets for the payments sector which are designed to ensure cross-border payments are faster, cheaper, more transparent and more inclusive.
Posted by Team Blockchain on 28 May 2021
One of the recurring benefits that Blockchain technology can bring to many businesses is greater transparency. The potential to have greater trust in the Insurance sector as a result of improved transparency could mean there is less uncertainty and less risk, thus leading to lower premiums.
Posted by Michael McKee and Chris Whittaker on 27 May 2021
Even though the rules on SCA officially commenced on 14 September 2019, PSPs have been granted additional time during which the FCA will not take enforcement action whilst PSPs and merchants update their systems to be SCA-compliant. Importantly, PSPs and merchants need to be able to evidence that they are meeting the requirements of the industry roadmap towards SCA compliance.
Posted by Mark Daley on 26 May 2021
ESG issues are very much to the fore this year, and rapidly overtaking LIBOR as the hot topic in finance. So-called sustainability-linked loans and bonds, and even occasionally derivatives, are becoming quite common and it is even possible to discern one or two common positions evolving – although it would be too early to talk of there being a market standard approach.
Posted by Ricardo Plasencia and Anna Maria Agresti on 20 May 2021
In our last post dated 16 April 2021 we mentioned that Spain had started to regulate advertising of crypto-assets. Over the course of the last month there have been very interesting developments in the crypto-asset landscape in Spain.
Posted by Bridget King on 19 May 2021
On 20 November 2020 the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) published a draft declaration relating to crypto assets (including cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum). In terms of this draft declaration, crypto assets would be regarded as a ‘‘financial product‘‘ in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (FAIS Act). The looming question is whether the draft declaration will be adopted and if so, what the consequences will be for participants in the growing crypto trading market.
and then 