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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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SM& CR MLex understands that the UK finance ministry is holding back the release of its review of the SM& CR, even though regulators have cleared the next steps. The regime has been on supervisors’ agendas for months, and the industry had expected movement on a planned consultation around the time of the Mansion House Speech in November 2024. That consultation is intended to ease the framework, reflecting its costs and administrative burdens. People familiar with the situation told MLex that regulators are set to publish a commitment to consult on softening the regime. The ministry’s pause may stem from a need to check whether the proposals align with the government’s growth plan. The SM& CR is a set of regulations designed to......
Britain’s finance ministry has submitted an application to the Supreme Court seeking to intervene during the three-day hearing on a significant car finance mis-selling judgment, warning that an outcome in favour of consumers could undermine the UK’s regulatory framework and damage its reputation. In April 2024, the Supreme Court is due to examine a judgment of the Court of Appeal, which in October 2024 determined that commissions paid by car‑finance lenders to brokers without the customers’ consent were unlawful......
Innsworth Capital has launched arbitration proceedings against Walter Merricks According to an application to approve the settlement of the collective group action against Mastercard in the UK competition court, formally published on 23 January 2025, Innsworth alleges the class representative has 'not acted with best endeavours to secure its return'. Innsworth’s choice to commence arbitration proceedings against Walter Merricks was confirmed after the investor criticised his decision to settle the case. The application, released shortly before a scheduled February 2025 hearing at that time, notes that Mastercard could contribute £10m towards the costs arising from Merricks’ ongoing dispute with Innsworth in arbitration. In a witness statement issued alongside the settlement application, Merricks said he believed it was 'in the best interest of the class' to accept the offer made and that the agreement was 'just and reasonable'. Merricks also added that...
Lalone cautions that DORA’s reach remains unclear for UK alternative investment fund managers with EU clients, including hedge funds, private equity, and real estate investment funds. He highlights the growing challenges in DORA-linked contract negotiations between financial entities and their service providers. With regulators able to impose unlimited fines when EU businesses err, the financial and reputational exposure is significant. What is DORA? DORA obliges financial entities to put in place a governance and risk management framework to withstand disruptions to digital and data services arising from third parties, such as cyberattacks. Accordingly, entities must ensure contracts with information and communication technology ( ICT) providers satisfy defined standards. In scope entities include investment firms Trading venues such as exchanges Fund managers Cryptoasset service companies Formally, DORA applies only to EU financial entities. However, group-wide systems and controls can ‘bleed through’ borders and...
Dunne v Financial Conduct Authority [2024] UKUT 416 ( TCC) What are the practical implications of this case? The Tribunal’s ruling underscores that, absent cogent proof, publication will be presumed. For material to qualify as sufficiently cogent and attract real weight, it should come from suitably qualified experts; bare assertions by the Applicant or other individuals will not suffice. The Tribunal further emphasised that witness statements not tested through cross-examination carry diminished evidential value. In the absence of a proper reason why a party cannot participate in proceedings or give oral evidence, an Applicant and any supporting expert should be prepared and willing to give live testimony at the hearing to ensure the evidence is afforded the weight it deserves. What was the background? Ms Dunne provided pension transfer advice as an appointed representative of FSML, trading as HDIFA. She and FSML used a...
In this issue: UK, EU and international regulators and bodies Authorisation, approval and supervision Prudential requirements Operational resilience Complaints, compensation and claims management Investigations, enforcement and discipline Regulation of capital markets Dispute resolution for financial services lawyers Sustainable finance and ESG Banks and mutuals Investment funds and asset management Consumer credit, mortgage and home finance Regulation of insurance Payment services and systems Fintech and cryptoassets Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Intraday news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary UK, EU and international regulators and bodies Chancellor launches industry forums to shape UK financial services growth and competitiveness strategy HM Treasury has confirmed that, as part of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ programme for a Financial Services Growth and...
Rules, policy or guidance about NFM New rules, policy or guidance on NFM are expected sometime in 2025, following the FCA’s NFM survey report issued in the final quarter of 2024. That report indicated marked rises in NFM between 2021 and 2023 in bullying and harassment. Oversight of NFM by the FCA, the PRA, the Bo E and other financial services regulators prompts philosophical and jurisprudential debate about how far the state can and should, as principal, delegate the stewardship, governance and enforcement of wide societal ethical matters, such as the treatment of women at work. Questions prompted by regulatory involvement in NFM within financial services include: is it truly the remit of a financial services regulator to monitor general conduct, for example, behaviour at an office party, that does not squarely sit within the scope of providing financial services?...
On 17 January 2025, the High Court authorised an order for the white-collar anti-fraud authority, marking the first occasion the SFO has attempted to exercise a power brought in seven years earlier to pursue the contaminated wealth and holdings of corrupt elites in practical application to date. Yet instead of deploying the order to chase oligarchs' holdings, the SFO used it to obtain financial details concerning a property owned by Timothy Schools' former wife in order to inform ongoing inquiries. The lawyer received a 14-year sentence in 2022, having been found guilty of fraud for siphoning off millions of pounds earmarked for a legal aid fund improperly. The SFO considers this the first instance of a UWO being pursued post-conviction to restrain potentially tainted assets and compel accounts of the provenance of the property and acquisition. Securing the order...
Which? urges FCA investigation into Consumer Duty breaches On 16 January 2025, Which? called on the FCA to probe potential breaches of the Consumer Duty within the sector. It argued that the difficulties originate from a flawed sales process, where insurers are not adequately clarifying complex terms and policy exclusions. Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which?, condemned the situation, noting that excessive numbers of people are having claims refused and suffering dreadful treatment from insurance firms. She added that the FCA has both the authority and the responsibility to intervene to safeguard consumers. She also stated, “ The regulator must show”......
The British Insurance Brokers’ Association ( BIBA) announced on 15 January 2025 that legacy rules should be scaled back where they duplicate the new Consumer Duty for firms. It also argued that the Consumer Duty ought to be adjusted so it no longer captures large commercial policyholders, BIBA added. These requests featured in BIBA’s 2025 ‘manifesto’, setting out its key political lobbying aims for the coming year, unveiled at an event in Parliament on 15 January 2025. BIBA said: ‘ We have a golden opportunity, via the regulator’s Secondary International Competitiveness and Growth Objective, to align with the government’s......
In this issue: UK, EU and international regulators and bodies Financial crime and sanctions Complaints, compensation and claims management Investigations, enforcement and discipline Regulation of capital markets Regulation of derivatives Sustainable finance and ESG Investment funds and asset management Consumer credit, mortgage and home finance Regulation of insurance Payment services and systems Fintech and cryptoassets Regulation of AI in FS Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Intraday news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary UK, EU and international regulators and bodies BIS Innovation Hub publishes 2025-2026 work programme The BIS Innovation Hub (the Hub) has issued its 2025–26 work programme, also providing an update on its purpose and recent work. The Hub’s role is to encourage...
The government made clear that it would tailor AI oversight to serve the UK's needs and set up a new AI champion for financial services to work alongside the state on this agenda. Recognising that regulatory models vary worldwide, the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said in a speech delivered at University College London, where he referred to the UK's post- Brexit freedom from EU legacy rules, that the country can steer its own regulatory path. He added that, in setting rules for AI affecting financial services and other industries, the nation will back innovation while ensuring the framework is right and carefully and tightly designed. Before imposing regulation, he said, the UK will test and learn about AI in practice so that any measures are proportionate and firmly rooted in science. The government will appoint AI champions in......
Prosecuting oligarchs Prosecuting oligarchs is only one gauge of how effective Britain’s sanctions regime has been, which has made their lives ‘more difficult in the UK’, according to Celestino Calabrese, the deputy head of illicit finance at the National Crime Agency ( NCA). Action for sanctions breaches has taken time to bite, notably, yet curbs on finance have stripped oligarchs of wealth and mobility while stopping their facilitators from moving assets beyond the authorities’ reach, Calabrese told Law360 in an interview. Britain’s success in tracing holdings and securing cooperation from the regulated sector overall is ‘why there seems to be a relatively low level of criminal enforcement activity’. As a result, indeed, it is ‘extremely difficult for designated parties to circumvent financial sanctions controls’, Calabrese said. ‘ The people that we’re looking at are very serious, and they’re looking at us and what we’re doing’, here, he...
Sam Woods, who heads the Prudential Regulation Authority ( PRA), indicated these measures would sit at the top of the agenda in the reply to the government’s November 2024 letter on growth priorities. Addressing the Financial Services Regulation Committee, he explained that plans to lighten banks’ reporting obligations would mirror a recent step taken for insurers. He noted that, under the Solvency UK reforms, insurance reporting has already been trimmed by one‑third, and the PRA will now examine how far it can pare back banks’ requirements, adding that concrete proposals will arrive this year. Woods also confirmed the PRA intends to table a yet‑to‑be‑disclosed proposal for insurers concerning the so‑called matching adjustment investment accelerator, which has not been made public so far......
In this issue: UK, EU and international regulators and bodies Acountability, culture and social governance Authorisation, approval and supervision Prudential requirements Financial crime and sanctions Investigations, enforcement and discipline Dispute resolution for financial services lawyers Banks and mutuals EU Mi FID II Consumer credit, mortgage and home finance Regulation of insurance FSMA regulated pensions activity Payment services and systems Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Intraday news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary UK, EU and international regulators and bodies Regulation to prioritise UK growth over risk-aversion in 2025 Law360, London: Financial watchdogs have vowed, firmly in line with new government objectives, to elevate economic growth above risk-aversion in 2025 — a recalibration that might cut across the recent stress on...
This News Analysis reviews the principal Banking & Finance shifts in 2024, with an emphasis on those influencing lending transactions, and sets out what’s ahead in these areas for 2025. A digest of the key 2024 cases relevant to finance lawyers can be found in Banking & Finance 2024 case round up, while the year’s developments across the debt capital markets—covering debt securities and derivatives—are explored in Banking & Finance—debt capital markets, derivatives and securitisation 2024 key developments round-up and looking forward to 2025. Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 What were the key developments in 2024? The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 ( ECCTA 2023) received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. It aims to deliver a broad set of reforms to improve corporate transparency and the reliability of information held at Companies House. Selected provisions under ECCTA 2023 commenced on 4 March 2024....
The data Between July and September 2024, the FOS logged 73,692 new complaints. The equivalent period in 2023 brought 46,716 cases—a 58% rise in total complaints. The FOS sets out the five most complained-about products, comparing Q2 2024 with the same quarter in 2023: credit cards—22,366 complaints, versus 4,505 hire purchase for car finance—11,817 complaints, versus 4,622 current accounts—9,186 complaints, versus 7,880 car or motorcycle insurance—3,386 complaints, versus 4,036 electronic money—2,196 complaints, versus 1,340 Complaint volumes have reached record highs overall and for particular products, with several categories showing sharp year-on-year jumps. The largest increases concern credit cards and hire purchase agreements, up 496% and 255% respectively. Complaints about current accounts, although growing less steeply, have still hit their highest quarterly level on record. There has also been a notable rise in fraud and scam matters. The FOS has indicated that a substantial share of complaints relate to fraud and scams. In the...
R (on the application of Elliott Associates Lp and another company v The London Metal Exchange and another company [2024] EWCA Civ 1168 What are the practical implications of this case? In what the Court of Appeal termed an 'ultimately straightforward case', this judgment underlines the breadth of latitude afforded to regulators and decision-makers, especially amid exceptional circumstances of this nature. The Court noted the situation was a 'once in a generation event'; permitting the trades to stand would have posed a real threat to the international metals market. It emphasised that the defendants were required to act with urgency, did so on information sufficient to decide, and were justified in rejecting the option of letting the trades stand as that would have breached their regulatory obligations. The ruling confirms that expert decision-makers will be granted discretion to take similar steps where a rational and...
This guidance serves as an extensive resource setting out the FCA’s expectations and processes for pinpointing controllers, lodging change-in-control notices, and evaluating planned acquisitions or increases in control. Its overarching purpose is to help firms and individuals engaged in acquiring or expanding control of UK-incorporated authorised firms (including banks, investment firms and insurers) to grasp the applicable regulatory obligations and steps, thereby supporting a resilient and transparent financial system. It further signals heightened regulatory attention in the UK to transactions featuring private equity purchasers. Background to the UK change-in-control regime Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ( FSMA), anyone proposing to obtain control, whether directly or indirectly, of a UK-authorised firm must notify the relevant regulator—either the FCA or the Prudential Regulation Authority ( PRA), depending on which body has authorised the firm—and secure approval before completing the...
On 2 January 2025, Rachel Kent recorded, in a report concerning a December 2024 complaint, that the complainant cited a 2022 employment tribunal judgment highlighting worries within the FCA about the possible harms posed by the peer-to-peer lending sector at issue. That ruling suggested the regulator had been slow to respond, and, Kent said, the issue had appeared in the press at the time. Peer-to-peer ( P2P) lending is a form of crowdfunding that matches individual lenders with borrowers seeking finance. The complaint, dated 11 December 2024 and relying on that judgment, concerned an investment the complainant made in 2016 with an anonymised lender identified as firm X. The complainant suffered heavy losses owing to bad debt and loan defaults......
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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