Whilst the latest Dear CEO letter to the Payments portfolio has garnered much interest, there are a couple of ‘highlights’ that have largely slipped below the radar. One of these is a...
Following hot on the heels of the FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi’s letter to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, we see the FCA doubling down on its commitment to growth and commitment in the...
The last quarter of 2024 was dominated by coverage on APP Fraud and the FCA’s Safeguarding Consultation Paper. On the latter, we hope we have, in our recent webinar on the subject,...
Payment Services Compliance Newsletter October 2024 Welcome to the latest edition of our compliance newsletter aimed at Payments firms, including EMIs, PIs, AISPs, PISPs and prospective applicant firms. This newsletter contains a...
No, this is not a legal case that you had missed. However, in this article I will be delving into the shared, but separate, responsibility of both HM Revenue & Customs (‘HMRC’)...
Payment Services Compliance Newsletter June 2024 Welcome to the latest edition of our compliance newsletter aimed at Payments firms, including EMIs, PIs, AISPs, PISPs and prospective applicant firms. This newsletter contains a...
Rumours last week that Chris Hemsley, the Managing Director of the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) would be leaving his role, were confirmed yesterday with an official statement from the PSR saying Hemsley...
As part of our review of the FCA’s ‘Transformation Programme’ back in 2022, we analysed the increasingly challenging authorisations process, and why the FCA was creating a ‘more robust gateway’. Indeed, in...
Payment Services Compliance Newsletter Welcome to the latest edition of our compliance newsletter aimed at payments firms, including EMIs, PIs, AISPs, PISPs and prospective applicant firms. This newsletter contains a round-up of...
The FCA recently reported on what happened to the 1,191 solo-regulated firms that entered the Temporary Permissions Regime: 212 firms secured full UK authorisation, 875 firms did not seek full UK authorisation...
Payment Services Regulatory Newsletter: November 2023 Welcome to November’s issue of our Payment Services Newsletter. This newsletter contains a round-up of regulatory articles that provide the latest insight into compliance issues and...
Whilst much of the focus of the recent joint statement from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE) on the ‘Cross-authority roadmap on...
The FCA has recently updated its guidance page for firms that are currently in the temporary permissions regime (TPR). Firms in the TPR were reminded that if they do not intend to seek full...
In March of this year, we held a webinar that looked at the FCA gateway, which processes all applications and authorisations, to examine how the transformations that we are seeing take place internally...
Following on from our series of articles on new firm authorisations, and our popular webinar on the FCA Authorisations ‘gateway’ function, this article looks at two of those other regulatory transactions –...
Filter by sector: All Wealth Management Wholesale Investment Firms Capital Markets Payment Services & Cryptoassets Insurance, Mortgages & Claims Asset Management Hedge Funds Corporate Finance Brokers Private Markets Broker Dealers Portfolio Management...
Filter by sector: All Wealth Management Wholesale Investment Firms Capital Markets Payment Services & Cryptoassets Insurance, Mortgages & Claims Asset Management Hedge Funds Corporate Finance Brokers Private Markets Broker Dealers Portfolio Management...
Filter by sector: All Wealth Management Wholesale Investment Firms Capital Markets Payment Services & Cryptoassets Insurance, Mortgages & Claims Asset Management Hedge Funds Corporate Finance Brokers Private Markets Broker Dealers Portfolio Management...
The past 18 months have seen a number of changes at the FCA, some might argue it has been their (prolonged) annus horribilis and although this article asks what went wrong, many...
When the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published their 2021/22 Business Plan on 15 July 2021 the Chief Executive Officer, Nikhil Rathim, promised a consultation into the decision-making procedures as part of its...
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Business Plan for 2021/22 made clear the FCA’s intent to apply a more intensive assessment with greater scrutiny of financial information and business models. As John Burns...
On 9th July 2021 it will be a year since the FCA published their ‘Dear CEO’ letter to e-money and payments firms. Within this letter was a requirement for all E-Money Institutions,...
The latest missive from the FCA’s Payments Supervision department has hit e-money firms’ virtual letterboxes. This ‘Dear CEO’ letter is certainly a curious thing. What is curious is how narrow the letter...
Below we summarise some of the key questions which will have to be addressed when considering an application. There are potentially many other questions and we are on hand to offer...
There are eight application steps for EEA firms. It’s important that firms submit an articulate and complete application to the FCA (and, if dual-regulated, to the PRA) at the first time of asking,...
The UK is set to leave the European Union on the 31st December 2020, after this date passporting will no longer exist and international firms will need to seek full authorisation in...
Increasingly, we are seeing enquiries from firms wishing to become licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide the payment services of ‘account information services’ (AISP) and ‘payment initiation services’ (PISP)....
On 10 January 2020 businesses that were conducting cryptoasset activity in the UK became subject to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, as...
Payment and e-money institutions navigating the EEA after the transition period ends At the time of writing, the hope of a UK/EU trade deal upon expiry of the Brexit transition period hangs...
Whilst commentary on the FCA’s updated guidance for payments firms in July focussed mainly on safeguarding and prudential requirements, there was a further, implicit, message for firms that seems to have passed...
The passporting regime will cease to continue when the transition period for the UK leaving the European Union (EU) ends on 31 December 2020. From that moment, European Economic Area (EEA) firms...
As COVID-19 continues its hold over the globe discussions on Brexit have, understandably, been relegated in importance. But, the UK stance continues to be fairly dogmatic, insisting that the transition phase will...
Often touted as an ‘AML Compliance Audit’ or something similar, an external financial crime assurance review provides payment firms with an independent opinion on the adequacy of their policies and procedures, and...
Even during these challenging times, compliance with the regulations is as important as ever for payment services firms. The advent of PSD2, GDPR and 5MLD has come alongside two other important developments....
From the 10th January 2020, the FCA became the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) supervisor of UK cryptoasset businesses under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the...
The past 12 months has seen unprecedented Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) supervisory activity in the payments sector. Payment firms ignore this increased regulatory threat at their peril. A high proportion of firms...