Enforcement action
Set out below are thoughts from Allen & Overy’s market leading investigations team on issues relating to enforcement action taken by the FCA, as well as other regulators in the UK and overseas.
Market abuse controls: Global approaches vs. local requirements – which one wins?
08 February 2018 - Sarah Hitchins
The UK FCA recently imposed a financial penalty of just over £1 million on an online brokerage firm for failing to have adequate controls to identify and report potential market abuse. Each of the FCA’s findings can be traced back to one root cause: reliance on a global approach to identifying and reporting market abuse, › Read More
The SEC Enforcement Landscape: What to Watch in 2018
12 January 2018 - Kurt Wolfe
Last year was something of a transitional year at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) and changes are now taking shape that will figure prominently on the SEC enforcement landscape in the coming year. Among them are the influence of new leadership, new enforcement priorities and programs, and new case law. › Read More
09 January 2018 - Sarah Hitchins
In a judgment handed down just before Christmas, the UK Court of Appeal took the opportunity to remind the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) that the more serious the allegation it makes about the conduct of a subject, the more cogent the evidence must be in order to overcome the ‘inherent improbability’ that it › Read More
Revisiting cooperation with the Hong Kong SFC: A carrot not a stick?
04 January 2018 - Matt Bower
At the end of last year, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (the SFC) published updated guidance on cooperation (the Guidance) in disciplinary, civil court and Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT) proceedings. Much of the guidance is neither new nor will surprise the market. However, formal discounts for early settlement will be welcomed, while its › Read More
07 December 2017 - Alexander Calthrop
On November 29, 2017, the U.S. Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, announced the Department of Justice’s new FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy. The Policy is similar to the FCPA Pilot Program announced last year (discussed here), but goes further in the potential rewards it offers companies that self-disclose FCPA-related misconduct. Rosenstein said he hoped the Policy › Read More