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The UK Government has published its much anticipated Financial Services and Markets Bill (the Bill), previously touted by the former Chancellor as "Big Bang 2.0". The Bill as introduced may or may not be that, but it certainly includes a large number of substantial measures that will effect a major overhaul of the UK's regulatory framework for financial services.
Since the Supreme Court's rulings in Vedanta Resources Plc v Lungowe [2019] UKSC 20 ("Vedanta") and HRH Emere Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell [2021] UKSC 3 ("Okpabi"), much has been written about the potential impact these decisions may have on UK-domiciled businesses with foreign operations and, in particular, how they will assist claimants who wish to initiate large-scale group litigation.
In AIC Ltd v Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria [2022] UKSC 16 the Supreme Court has re-stated the principles to be applied when a judge is asked to revisit a judgment or final order before it has been sealed by the Court, where there has been a change in relevant circumstances in the meantime.
Since the Government introduced the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (the "Act") in March this year, there has been uncertainty as to how overseas entities (or those who deal with them) should prepare for the introduction of the new Overseas Entities Register (the "Register"). Some of those questions have now been answered, as we explain below.
The EU's Platform on Sustainable Finance ("PSF") – an expert group established to advise the European Commission – recently published a helpful draft report on so-called "minimum safeguards" ("MS") under sustainable finance legislation.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
This briefing was updated on 22 July 2022
20 July is 'L-day' – the day on which the government publishes the first draft of legislation to be included in the finance bill 2022-23.
Welcome to our series of podcasts focusing on international employment law.
Key employment and business immigration developments for employers.
On 31 May 2022, the Government published its Response to the March 2021 consultation on Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has recently published its response to the consultation on data protection reform (which we previously wrote about here). For those disappointed by the lack of detail in the Queen's Speech on the Data Reform Bill, this response provides a clearer picture of UK data protection reforms to come – which measures the UK Government is taking forward, which it is dropping and which it needs to consider further. For the detail, we'll need to wait for the text of the draft Bill itself.
The two-pillar corporate tax reform plan forms part of the OECD's project tackling base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). Whilst Pillar One – which aims to align taxing rights more closely with the location of customers – will only apply initially to MNEs with annual global turnover above €20bn, Pillar Two is expected to have a wider impact on businesses.
Last month, the UK Government set out its legislative programme for this Parliament in the Queen's Speech. In this briefing, we look at some of the proposals relevant to business which have had less media attention.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recommended legislating to impose a positive obligation on consumer-facing businesses to disclose information about the environmental impact of their products. It has also recommended changes designed to make it easier to enforce consumer law against companies making misleading environmental claims, to allow orders to be made requiring businesses to make redress payments for environmental harm and to increase supply chain transparency.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
On 31 May 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a supervisory briefing (the Supervisory Briefing) addressed to EU national competent authorities (regulators) to promote "common supervisory practices" on the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and other pieces of EU legislation concerning financial sustainability. This was closely followed on 2 June 2022 by a publication of the European Supervisory Authorities – one of which is ESMA - (ESAs) which sets out clarifications (the ESA Clarifications) on the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) under SFDR.
On 15 March 2022, the UK's new Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act (the "ECA") received Royal Assent. The legislation contained a number of important provisions, including the introduction of a new 'Register of Overseas Entities' and reforms to unexplained wealth orders.
On 26 May, the FCA published a discussion paper setting out its response to feedback received regarding the structure of the UK listing regime. The feedback was in response to the FCA's Primary Markets Effectiveness Review.