26 Mar, 2024 Trends in fintech: our EU predictions for 2024 By Natalie Pettinger Kearney Eva Schneider Alicia Hildner Daniel Klingenbrunn Jimena Gonzalez Victor Garcia Lopez +3 more... Show less As we did in 2021, 2022, 2023 we have crowdsourced some fintech predictions for the year ahead from the EU Freshfields Fintech team,...
03 Jan, 2024 Mind the UK ‘advice gap’: Considering the Advice Guidance Boundary Review By Elisabeth Overland Christopher Bernard Billy Liu On 8 December 2023, HM Treasury (HMT) and the FCA published a joint policy paper (DP23/5) on the Advice Guidance Boundary Review (the...
19 Nov, 2023 Investing like the pros – indirect investments by retail investors in investment funds for (semi-)professionals under BaFin’s scrutiny By Theresa Kreft Jan Struckmann Both the desire for higher yields and the low interest rate environment of the past years has seen retail investors’ focus increasingly...
09 Aug, 2023 The FCA publishes its Action Plan on Cash Savings By James Smethurst Emilio Salice Emily Smith Elana Pagano +1 more... Show less On 31 July 2023, the FCA published its Cash Savings Market Review 2023. In order to combat high inflation in the UK (currently at 7.9%)...
21 Jul, 2023 Understanding the definition of investment advice under MiFID – ESMA revises 13-year-old guidance By Marius Raetz Alicia Hildner It has been a while since the CESR guidelines on “Understanding the definition of advice under MiFID” were published. To be precise, 13...
07 Jul, 2023 Feels like MiFID III? - The Commission Proposal on the EU Retail Investment Strategy and what it means for firms By Marius Raetz Falko Glasow Alicia Hildner Alexander Glos +1 more... Show less In the heated discussion around the ban on payment for order flow, the proposal on the Retail Investment Package (the Proposal), adopted...
25 May, 2023 The UK FCA’s latest Financial Lives Survey spotlights the rise in vulnerable customers By Piers Reynolds Emilio Salice Shania Bhageerutty Rebecca Freedman +1 more... Show less The FCA’s focus on vulnerable customers is longstanding. In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing cost of living crisis,...
11 May, 2023 Are UK retail banks capitalising on customer inertia on savings rates? The FCA makes its approach known in advance of the consumer duty By Piers Reynolds Emilio Salice Shania Bhageerutty Although the FCA’s new Consumer Duty is not yet in force, the regulatory environment is already shifting. For example, the FCA has stated...
10 Jan, 2023 Retail Financial Services: Five Key Themes on the FCA’s Agenda By Piers Reynolds Emilio Salice Rebecca Freedman Olivia Reynolds +1 more... Show less The issue front and centre of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) 2022 Annual Public Meeting was the cost of living crisis. At that...
30 Sep, 2022 The UK FCA’s latest ‘Dear CEO’ letter: insurers, consumers, SMEs and the cost of living crisis By Kevin Whibley The anticipated cost of living crisis is here, and yesterday’s ‘Dear CEO’ letter to insurers confirms the FCA’s return to a theme it...
15 Dec, 2021 New Consumer Duty to be introduced to shift mindset of UK financial services firms By Anthea Bowater Piers Reynolds Christine Simpson In May this year we reported on the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) initial proposals for a Consumer Duty for financial services...
10 Nov, 2021 New European crowdfunding regime: finally opening up to a truly European crowd? By Jan Struckmann Alexander Glos Nikita Grätsch More than six years after the European Commission outlined its proposals for building a capital markets union in its Green Paper, an...