Four years after Brexit, the U.K. and EU announced a “reset” that will ease barriers to importing and exporting food, drink, and agricultural produce. It may also harmonize rules around carbon emissions trading systems, simplifying compliance for multinational organizations that are large emitters, and enable more young people to gain work visas.
Ruth Prickett
Ruth Prickett graduated from Cambridge University with a BA hons in History and has specialized in business and finance journalism for the past 20 years. She was editor of Financial Management, the magazine for the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, for many years before relaunching and editing Audit & Risk magazine for the Chartered IIA. She has written for a wide range of specialist business titles and drafted white papers and reports for clients including HSBC and Vodafone.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
UK’s Failure to Prevent Fraud law may expose firms to unlimited fines and prosecution, says Moody’s compliance risk expert
Fraud now accounts for around 40% of all crime in the U.K., posing a major problem for banks and consumers. Ted Datta, head of industry practice for financial crime compliance at Moody’s, warns that the risk is growing fast.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
U.K. reins in crypto firms to combat ‘scandal’ of freewheeling finfluencers
Up to 25,000 people a year in the U.K. are illegally promoting financial products or offering financial advice on social media, but none have yet appeared in court, according to the first Treasury Select Committee meeting on the subject of so-called “finfluencers.” Regulated financial services firms must comply with strict guidelines when they promote their products on social media and may be put at risk by unauthorised finfluencers.
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Why tight controls matter for financial content on social media, says FPC’s O’Shaughnessy
Financial Planning Corporation is a regulated financial planning firm founded 40 years ago, gaining coveted Chartered status in 2008. As the U.K. financial regulator, the FCA promises to clamp down on unregulated “finfluencers” on social media. Moira O’Shaughnessy, managing partner and head of risk and compliance at FPC, explains why her firm takes a deliberately cautious approach to social media communications.
Posted inTechnology
Calls for audit reforms intensify after hackers attack Harrods and other top UK retailers
Cyberattacks on major UK retailers, including Marks & Spencer, Harrods and Co-op, left the companies scrambling to reassure customers and staff about stolen data, pushing issues of cybersecurity and cyber resilience back into the national debate. Now the question is whether compliance managers should expect more technology regulations, or will legislators focus on corporate governance, internal controls and resilience.
Posted inEurope
Q&A: Symphony general counsel Corinna Mitchell on regulators’ push for supply chain resilience
Secure, resilient communications and trading platforms are critical both to financial services firms and to governments that know their economies depend upon them, says Corinna Mitchell, General Counsel at FS digital communications provider Symphony. That’s why her company is investing more in managing rapidly evolving compliance demands from multiple regulators across international borders.
Posted inRegulatory Policy
Why the benefits of bilingual digital accessibility go beyond compliance
Bilingual accessibility and security are key issues for Graham Rivers-Brown, digital transformation director responsible for internal and client compliance at digital transformation consultancy Empyrean Digital. He explains why being based in Wales has helped his company develop compliance expertise that gives it an unusual competitive advantage.
Posted inEthics & Culture
Directors should be more accountable for failure, while also taking more risks, says U.K. regulator
Director accountability is back in the spotlight in the U.K., even as the government pushes for regulatory simplification to cut red tape and drive growth. This raises questions about how boards can be encouraged to take risks to grow their businesses while also being held more accountable for governance failings. As regulators and auditors debate where the line between accountability and ambition should fall, what should compliance managers be advising boards, and what changes are already in progress?
Posted inEurope
AI regulation: U.K. sits on regulatory fence between U.S. and E.U.
The U.K. has pressed pause on artificial intelligence regulation as its government comes under twin pressures from those who fear the growing power of unregulated AI and the overriding need to generate growth. The postponement of long-expected legislation means that the U.K. is left sitting on the fence between federal deregulation policies in the U.S. and the EU’s ground-breaking AI Act. What does this mean for organizations that want consistency and clarity?
Posted inFinancial Services
U.K. aims to streamline regulation to boost economic growth as markets fall
The U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has promised a “radical action plan” to cut the cost of regulation to businesses by a quarter and boost economic growth. Now the Cabinet Office has written to government departments requiring them to justify every quango, with the presumption that these semipublic administrative bodies will be axed or folded back into government departments. The changes are being pushed forward faster because of concerns that President Donald Trump’s imposition of trading tariffs could trigger a global recession.
