The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is currently assessing applications for authorisation from all debt management firms with interim permission. Firms that were previously regulated by the Office of Fair Trading have been operating with interim permission since responsibility for consumer credit transferred to the FCA on 1 April 2014. There are approximately 400,000 people on commercial debt management plans in the UK.

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Today, KYCnet announced that they have joined the Equiniti Group. The Equiniti Group plc is a leading provider of technology led solutions to clients with complex and regulated administration needs.
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The Senior Managers Regime for the banking sector and the Senior Insurance Managers Regime both come into force today. The new regimes will hold individuals working at all levels within relevant firms to appropriate standards of conduct and ensure that senior managers are held to account for misconduct that falls within their area of responsibility. 
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Arjen van Berkum

Recently I wrote a blog on the top 15 jobs most likely to disappear. Quite a few readers asked me why bankers were not on that list. A valid and logical question. Technology is changing fast and the possibilities tech solutions bring us are innumerable, but still the world is not ready yet for an economic paradigm without bankers. Unfortunately, I might add. Fintech has set in the unbundling of banking, but are not making banks obsolete (yet). Is it in the first place because money exists? Because our payment infrastructure is too complex to disrupt? Here’s why it will take longer for banker jobs to become extinct.

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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published a report setting out its findings from its thematic review of the fair treatment of long-standing customers in life insurance as announced in its Business Plan 2014/15. Continue reading…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Michael Ross Curtler, a former trader at Deutsche Bank AG, from the UK financial services industry for lacking honesty and integrity following a criminal conviction for fraud in the US.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today announced that it will pilot the publication of general insurance ‘scorecards’ on a small number of products. The FCA will collect data from firms and publish it in an easily accessible format on its website. Any interested parties including consumer groups will be able to use the information to compare both products and firms.

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Velocimetrics today announces the release of advanced functionality that will considerably enhance its client’s abilities to improve the way in which they assess market data quality.

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The Financial Stability Board (FSB) today published a letter from Mark Carney, Chair of the FSB, which was sent to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in advance of their meeting in Shanghai on 26‑27 February.
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by Andy Scherpenberg

More and more financial institutions are attempting to tackle the issue of fraud, which is taking on new forms and ever larger proportions at a rapid pace. Phishing has been replaced by aggressive ‘vishing’ (voice phishing), which has hoaxed corporates such as Michelin into transferring millions to ill-intentioned parties. The modus operandi has shifted from cyber thugs attempting site takeover to online fraudsters using unsuspecting mule accounts or organized collusions with people who hand over their accounts to be used as transfer accounts while levying a fee for the service.
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