<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

We recently held our third webinar in the series "Sustainability and alternative asset managers: the new normal".

In the third of a series of articles looking at how Brexit is working out for the UK, we consider the geographic impact and how that might affect future decisions by businesses to invest in the UK.

Two climate change related cases made global headlines in recent weeks: a Dutch case, brought by a group of activists, against Royal Dutch Shell that imposed carbon emission limits on the oil producing multinational and an Australian case that found the Minister for the Environment had a duty to protect young people from the effects of climate change. In this article, we look at these decisions in their wider legal context, and consider how the law may continue to develop in this area, including in the UK.

Key employment and business immigration developments for employers.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, asset managers have found that many members of their workforce (of varying degrees of seniority) have been working for an extended period from abroad, rather than in the UK office. Post-Covid, some of these individuals have expressed a wish to spend all of their time, or a proportion of their time, working from abroad.

In recent weeks, rumours have started to circulate that President Biden's administration is set to depart from the US government's current approach to the use of sanctions. While the administration's review of US sanctions policy remains ongoing, details of a new softer approach, which is expected to be formally outlined when the review is published at the end of the summer, were described by a number of current and former administration officials in a series of high-level meetings held in the US Congress.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

The regulatory technical standards supplementing the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (EU SFDR)—which had been expected to apply from 1 January 2022—will be delayed by six months until 1 July 2022.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has hinted that new sustainability reporting requirements are on the horizon for pension schemes, financial services firms and their investment products.

On 1 July, which marks the 10th anniversary of the UK's Bribery Act coming into force, the Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") secured court approval for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement ("DPA") with Amec Foster Wheeler Energy Limited ("AFWEL"). This latest DPA concludes yet another significant multi-year corruption probe and highlights the importance of continued ABC compliance measures for multinational organisations.

Following Brexit and the Hill Review, the Treasury is looking to carry out a radical overhaul of the rules governing public offers of securities and prospectuses in the UK. Even to the staunchest remainer, the proposals appear to remove some of the less logical constraints imposed by the EU Prospectus Regulation, minimising legislation and allowing the FCA freedom to act more nimbly in deciding when a prospectus is actually necessary, and when investors are adequately protected by market information or other means.

On 6 July 2021, the European Commission adopted a package of measures intended to help improve the flow of money towards financing the transition to a sustainable economy.

On 16 June, the UK Government announced that the existing moratorium on landlords exercising forfeiture for non-payment of rents would be extended to March 2022. At the same time, they announced an extension to the end of September 2021 of the current restriction against the use of statutory demands and/or winding up petitions in respect of arrears of rent, unless those arrears were not as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The OECD yesterday announced that 130 countries (representing more than 90% of global GDP) have joined a new two pillar plan "to reform international taxation rules and ensure that multinational enterprises pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate". This announcement follows last month's agreement on the issue by the G7 (for more information please click here) and contains further details of the new rules, including setting out an ambitious timetable culminating in implementation in 2023.

On 24 June 2021, the UK's Climate Change Committee ('CCC') delivered a report on the UK's progress in reducing emissions and adapting to climate change. This report followed the CCC's damning climate risk report (read our briefing here) just a week earlier.

It is sometimes suggested that the courts only intervene based on the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA) where there is inequality of bargaining power. But a recent case provides a reminder that UCTA can also apply where a contractual provision is regarded as particularly destructive of one party's rights – even where there is no obvious imbalance between the parties.

In a welcome move, the European Commission has formally approved an adequacy decision for the UK on data protection. However, as we explain below, this may not be the end of the story as regards the post-Brexit treatment of EU personal data – and there is still unfinished business in a number of other important areas beyond data protection.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published PS21/6: Implementation of Investment Firms Prudential Regime.

Earlier this month, the UK's first so-called "direct listing" of a technology company was announced: London-based money transfer Fintech company Wise intends to go public on the LSE's main market without the traditional route of an IPO process. Although the US has seen direct listings of some high profile companies such as Spotify and Slack, this is a significant move for the UK, whose government has been trying to make its markets more attractive for fast-growing tech businesses.