Incorrect or outdated permissions on the Financial Services (FS) Register can mislead consumers about the level of protection offered by a firm or give credibility to a firm’s unregulated activities. The changes will help to prevent scams and to ensure the FS Register presents a clearer picture of the permissions firms hold. Firms are required to confirm that the information on the FS Register is accurate on an annual basis. The new power, granted to the FCA via the Financial Services Act 2021, will streamline and shorten the process of removing firm permissions. The FCA will be able to start the cancellation process as soon as it considers permissions are not being used, by serving 14 days’ notice on a firm. The FCA will then be able to vary or cancel permissions after 1 month. Continue reading…

Benoît Cœuré, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub,  gave a speech on Friday 10 September 2021 at the Eurofi Financial Forum, Ljubljana. We all experienced how the pandemic accelerated the shift to virtual events, but he was pleased that he could gather in person. Yet the world is not returning to the old normal. Payments are a case in point. The pandemic has accelerated a longer-running move to digital. Mobile and contactless payments are already part of our daily lives; QR codes and “buy now, pay later” options are gaining popularity; gloves, badges and Olympic uniforms with payment functions are being prepared for the Beijing Winter Olympics; and the tech-savvy generation will soon dream about money and payments for the metaverse. Continue reading…

In the morning of 8 September, coordinated searches and witness hearings in Palma de Mallorca (Spain), the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark took place to halt the activities of a criminal group committing large-scale investment fraud, causing damages amounting to over EUR 55 million to a large number of victims across Europe. The action followed a complex, three-year-long investigation, which was led by the Public Prosecution Office (PPO) of Dresden and the State Office of Criminal Investigations of Saxony in Germany and coordinated through Eurojust. Continue reading…

Carolyn Rogers, Secretary General of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, recently delivered a keynote speech at the The Kangaroo Group virtual debate on 8 September 2021. When she received the invitation, the name of the group caught her attention: she had to admit to needing to do a bit of research to find out what possible interest a group interested in kangaroos would have in bank regulation. But she was pleased to discover that the organisation has a lot in common with the Basel Committee. Continue reading…

The European Banking Authority (EBA) recently published its annual update on EU banks’ funding plans, which helps EU supervisors assess the sustainability of banks’ main sources of funding. The results of the funding plans assessment show the impact the pandemic had on EU banks’ funding composition. The plans point to a gradual ‘normalisation’ of banks’ sources of funding over the next three years. This implies in particular a partial replacement of central bank funding with market-based funding. Continue reading…

As of today, the SOMI Foundation makes it possible for all European consumers to check via its SOMI app whether they have become a victim of the Facebook data leak from April this year. It can also reveal which of their personal data is circulating on the Dark Web. In total, personal data of more than 533 million Facebook accounts were leaked in April 2021, including 96.7 million European accounts. After verifying their own data, consumers can participate in the foundation’s legal investigation and possible collective claim against Facebook, which requires collection of evidence of GDPR violation from the data breach. The foundation is offering a total of €10,000 to anyone who can prove with their personal data that Facebook has violated the GDPR. Continue reading…

by Michel Klompmaker

We recently spoke with Arnoud Engelfriet in the heart of Amsterdam about Lynn Legal’s legal tech solution. Lynn Legal is actually a kind of cross between a modern IT company and a legal consultancy. Founders Arnoud Engelfriet and Steven Ras (see photo from left to right) are convinced that legal processes can be organised more intuitively and efficiently thanks to the application of modern technology. Their lawyer bots have already reviewed more than 14,000 NDAs and more than 1,000 data processing agreements since the beginning of 2021. In total, more than 50,000 legal problems have been spotted and resolved. We spoke with Arnoud about the background, the present and the future. Continue reading…

Dietrich Domanski, Secretary General, Financial Stability Board recently delivered a keynote speech at the Asian Banker Finance China 2021 Conference: New Era, new finance and new collaboration. Thank you for inviting me to Finance China 2021. I am sorry I am unable to attend in person, but I am optimistic that we will be able to travel more regularly and meet in person soon. Vaccines are rolling out across the globe, even though at different pace across countries and regions. And while there are mounting signs of global recovery, some risks to financial stability still remain elevated. Economic uncertainty is still high and negative surprises could test the liquidity of financial markets. Continue reading…

The FCA has acted to stop a Cypriot-based firm, BDSwiss Holding Plc, and other members of the BDSwiss Group from offering high risk contracts for differences (CFDs) to UK investors. The BDSwiss Group trades using the brands BDSwiss, Swissmarkets and BDS Trading. The BDSwiss Group used the fact that one of its firms was regulated in the UK to convey legitimacy on the group as a whole. However, 99% of UK consumers taken on by the group traded through the group’s overseas entities. These overseas firms had no authorisation to provide regulated services in the UK, and consumers who traded with the overseas firms lost the protections given to consumers who trade with an authorised firm. In particular, the overseas firms did not comply with the FCA’s restrictions on the marketing and sale of CFDs to retail consumers. Continue reading…