Last week, the Financial Conduct Authority published an update on its work to address issues raised in the Citizens Advice ‘super-complaint’. What has the financial regulator done to tackle the failings outlined in the complaint?

What was the Citizens Advice super-complaint about?

The super-complai..

That’s the upshot of a new report by the Financial Reporting Council, released this week.

The report, which forms the Council’s annual review of the UK Corporate Governance Code, says that companies need to improve governance practices and reporting if they are to ‘demonstrate their positive impact ..

The Financial Conduct Authority has fined claims management firm Professional Personal Claims Limited £70,000 for misleading consumers through its websites and printed materials.

The decision, published by the FCA on 17 December 2019, is the first claims management company case closed by the regulat..

This year, the Financial Conduct Authority issued fines totalling £391.8m – up more than 550% on last year’s total.

This is according to research by law firm RPC, quoted in a City a.m. article.

What has driven the increase in fines?

The largest fines issued this year follow a crackdown on the mis-se..

On 9 December, the Senior Managers and Certification Regime was extended. It now covers 47,000 firms.

If your firm is one of these, what do you need to know and what do you need to do?

What is the SMCR?

The regulator published its final rules on the extension of the regime in the summer. At the ti..

Information from the FCA this week shows that a fifth of UK fund managers have made errors in transaction reporting under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II regulation.

The data was obtained by compliance consultants Duff & Phelps after a Freedom of Information request. It sho..

Our blog last month on How to implement a culture of compliance proved really popular. Creating compliant cultures is clearly still top of mind for many firms, with the need to embed an ethos of good governance never far from the priority list.

We’ve therefore decided to revisit the topic of complia..

The FCA’s Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) rules sit at the heart of the regulator’s requirements.

With its focus on consumer outcomes, the ethos of TCF is central to the Financial Conduct Authority’s work to ensure a fair deal for consumers.

Fair treatment means ensuring your promotions aren’t unfai..

This week, the Financial Conduct Authority announced a ban on the mass marketing of speculative mini-bonds to retail customers.

Why has the regulator taken this step, and what implications does it have for Compliance teams?

UK growth in so-called ‘challenger’ banks is being held back by a lack of trust, research out this week has shown.

Research by technology firm Fujitsu found that while challenger banks have ‘all the ingredients for success’, the ‘public’s trust in technology is a significant barrier to widespread a..

Regulatory compliance is the raison-d’etre of your team. Ensuring that your firm avoids breaches and the penalties that accompany them is essential if you are to protect your reputation, brand and integrity.

While short-term and superficial exercises can have a temporary impact, if you really want t..

In a speech last week, the FCA’s Nick Cook, Director of Innovation, talked about the regulator’s approach to innovation and technological change.

In the speech, given to a conference of financial services Chief Data Officers, Cook said that the Authority ‘must adapt’ to keep pace with technology-led..

The second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive came into force on 3 January 2018. It promised widescale changed to financial services marketing – among them changes to client reporting, governance and costs.

Nearly two years after the legislation came into effect, we look at what has changed...

Last month, the Financial Conduct Authority published a Notice of Undertaking from the Co-operative Bank, detailing a change the bank had made to its mortgage offer document.

The change came about in response to concerns raised by the FCA regarding the clarity of one of the terms in the document.

Last week (17 October), the Financial Conduct Authority released its latest complaints data. The data always gives a good insight into the issues firms are pulled up about, and has lessons for any firm wanting to improve its own approach to compliance.

Here, we take a look at the new data and what i..