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The new code aims to avoid customers being penalised for fraudsters’ actions.

By Andrea Monks and Nell Perks

Estimates indicate that fraudsters stole £1.2 billion from UK bank accounts in 2018 — a 16% increase on the previous year. UK Finance has described fraud as a “major threat to the UK”, and has confirmed that the finance industry is committed to tackling the issue. However, developments in banking that have led to quick and easy payment methods, combined with increasingly sophisticated cyber scams, mean that fraudsters continue to flourish.

There has been a particularly significant increase in authorised push payment (APP) fraud, in which a customer is tricked into making a payment to another account that is controlled by a criminal. Historically, victims of this sort of fraud have struggled to retrieve their money — only 23% of losses were returned last year.

CONSOB notice 8/2019 details the requirements under the Italian investor compensation scheme applicable to UK banks and investment firms operating in Italy.

By Antonio Coletti and Isabella Porchia

On 29 March 2019, the Italian Securities Commission (CONSOB) issued a notice detailing the terms and requirements applicable to UK banks and investment firms operating in Italy in connection with the Italian compensation scheme (Fondo Nazionale di Garanzia or the Italian ICS) pursuant to Article 8 of the Brexit Law Decree…

The instructions clarify the requirements applicable to banking and financial intermediaries under the Brexit Law Decree.

By Antonio Coletti and Isabella Porchia

On 28 March 2019, the Italian central bank (Bank of Italy) published two notices detailing the requirements for Italian banks and financial intermediaries operating in the UK, and for UK banks and financial intermediaries operating in Italy, respectively, further to Brexit Law Decree No. 22 of 25 March 2019. The decree lays down a temporary regime for regulated…

European regulators’ openness to PE investors is presenting attractive banking sector opportunities, but such opportunities require careful regulatory planning and local issue navigation.

By Carl Fernandes, Hans-Jürgen Luett, David Walker, Tom Evans, and Catherine Campbell

Ten years ago, a PE investment in a European bank would have been a rare occurrence. However, more recently, PE firms have deployed capital in the banking sector, encouraged by changing regulatory perceptions of PE bidders. Apollo, together with parallel investors, acquired the former German subsidiary of KBC Bank NV, which since then has completed several add-on acquisitions, kicking off a series of German bank deals. PE firms including Cerberus, JC Flowers, and Blackstone have also completed bank buyouts, as European regulators become more open to financial sponsors — a trend we see continuing in 2019.

What Is Driving European Bank Transactions?

Click for larger image.

Disposal requests from the European Commission — as a consequence of breaching subsidy regulations — and regulatory reform have produced deal opportunities. The emergence of new growth markets has drawn the interest of PE, underlined by Blackstone’s €1 billion deal for Baltic lender Luminor. New technology and digital products have also attracted interest, as demonstrated by Cerberus’ acquisition of French consumer business GE Money Bank. Further, control of non-performing loans has meant less unpredictable downside risk for acquirers, but potential upside through enhanced operational efficiency (e.g., adopting FinTech) and exploiting scalability (e.g., through consolidation). As ever, distressed situations also present opportunities.

From August 2019, certain existing FCA rules and guidance will extend to payment service providers and e-money issuers in a signal that the FCA wants a consistent approach to consumer protection.

By Rob Moulton, Brett Carr, and Frida Montenius

The FCA has published a Policy Statement extending certain rules and guidance to the payment services and e-money sectors, following a Consultation Paper published in August 2018. The extensions concern the FCA’s Principles for Businesses (Principles) and the Banking Conduct of Business Sourcebook (BCOBS), along with new guidance concerning the communication and marketing of currency transfer services. The FCA has made these changes, aimed at payment institutions (PIs), electronic money institutions (EMIs), and registered account information service providers (RAISPs), with a hope to protect consumers by providing a clear and consistent set of rules that firms must abide by.

Background

The motivation behind the extensions is to standardise the current regulatory approach in order to better align customer expectations of firm behaviour and customer treatment, with the aim of protecting the interests of consumers. The FCA has noted that some firms have been guilty of bad practices, and the extension of rules is a step to foster an environment that prevents consumer harm. With consistent standards that apply equally to all firms — notably including a fast-evolving, ever-changing payments landscape — the new extensions are intended to enhance competition by allowing consumers to make more informed choices while ensuring that consumers are adequately protected by clamping down on misleading communications and other harmful practices.

The EBA’s draft guidelines on outsourcing will impact cloud outsourcing and institutions’ deployment of FinTech.

By Fiona Maclean, Charlotte Collins, and Terese Saplys

On 4 September 2018, a wide audience of interested individuals gathered at Canary Wharf for a public hearing (Public Consultation) to listen to what the European Banking Authority (EBA) had to say in relation to its long-awaited Draft Guidelines on Outsourcing (Draft Guidelines). The Draft Guidelines, which review the existing CEBS Guidelines on Outsourcing published in 2006 (CEBS Guidelines), are the EBA’s opportunity to refresh its recommendations on outsourcing to align more closely with the technical, political, and operational landscape banks face today. The attendees at the Public Consultation raised a number of questions which have, no doubt, given the EBA considerable food for thought. This blog post identifies and explores the key themes of the day. Beyond the key themes identified below, the Public Consultation included discussions of the issues of internal audit, reporting and registration, and supervisory oversight.

Scope

The extension of scope of the Draft Guidelines, as compared to the scope of the CEBS Guidelines, was a particular area of focus during the Public Consultation.

The Draft Guidelines describe their subject matter as “specify[ing] the internal governance arrangements that institutions … should implement when they outsource functions and in particular with regard to the outsourcing of critical and important functions” (paragraph 5 of the Draft Guidelines). The term “critical and important functions” is consistent with the wording used in MiFID II and includes functions which, if a defect or failure were to occur, would materially impair the continuing compliance of the firm’s activities and obligations. In this regard, the Draft Guidelines align with the CEBS Guidelines which described the requirements for “material outsourcing,” a term defined in a similar manner. However, while the CEBS Guidelines noted that “there should be no restrictions on the outsourcing of non-material activities of an outsourcing institution” (Guideline 5), the Draft Guidelines extend to all outsourcing, unless expressly stated otherwise. Many attendees at the Public Consultation noted that this scope was unduly onerous and would become administratively burdensome for firms to manage.

Notably, the broadening of the addressees of the Draft Guidelines (In-scope Entities), to include payment institutions (subject to the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)) and electronic money institutions (subject to the e-money Directive), was not discussed in detail at the Public Consultation. However, an attendee raised a question as to the applicability of the Draft Guidelines to industry utilities. The EBA confirmed they had not yet considered this point and advised that they would reflect and clarify the position in the final guidelines.

By Alan Avery, Christopher Kandel, Markus Krüger and Axel Schiemann

On 23 November 2016, the European Central Bank (ECB) published its draft guidance to banks on leveraged lending, launching a public consultation period that runs until 27 January 2017. The draft guidance is very similar to leveraged lending guidance issued by the US federal banking agencies in 2013, which has had a significant impact on the leveraged lending market in the US. There are some significant differences between that ECB’s guidance and the US guidance that could raise issues of competitive equality between US, European and other banks. Below we highlight some of the important differences between the US guidance and the ECB’s draft guidance. 

By Gail Crawford and Christian McDermott

The recent cyberattack on Tesco Bank’s IT systems has prompted Rt Hon. Andrew Tyrie MP, Chairman of the Treasury Committee, to call on regulators to take action against vulnerable bank IT systems:

“Making sure that banks improve their IT systems, and their resilience to cybercrime, is also a responsibility of regulators. We will raise this issue with them again shortly. We can’t carry on like this.”

The call follows earlier correspondence on this topic between Andrew Tyrie, various major UK banks, the FCA and the PRA.

By Andrea Novarese, Marcello Bragliani, Antonio Distefano and Davide Rallo

The so called “Banks Decree” Decree (Law Decree no. 59/2016, hereinafter the “Decree”), published on the Official Gazette and converted into Law no. 199/2016, has recently entered into force.

The main purpose of the Decree is to grant a partial reimbursement to investors of few local banks that were resolved in November 2015. However, the Decree has also introduced additional innovations which represent a further significant step in the Government’s effort of streamlining the credit recovery activities and implementing a more creditor-friendly environment.