The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) announced new rules last week intended to improve the clarity respecting the costs charged by investment advisers. Specifically, as of 2011, firms will need to be upfront with respect to the costs of their services and will no longer be able to embed the cost of their advice in […]

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has published its performance figures for 2009-2010. The figures highlight that the SFO has increased its conviction rate to 91%. Fines against companies have increased to nearly £12 million, from zero the previous year, whilst the sums paid back by defendants to the victims of crime has nearly quadrupled to […]

Swiss money laundering reports hit record high – Swiss authorities sifted through record numbers of suspicious financial deals last year totalling 2.23 billion Swiss francs ($2.1 billion) for possible money-laundering, and most were forwarded to prosecutors. Switzerland, for decades viewed as a safe haven for money of dubious origin, started to clean up its image […]

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said a further four firms could face action over pension switching advice. Six firms have been referred to the enforcement division by the regulator, which resulted in fines for RSM Tenon Financial Services and Financial Ltd over pension switching issues. The FSA said further action is needed on pension switching […]

In a letter sent to Lord Myners, financial services secretary to the Treasury, barristers Pump Court raise concerns that if the Financial Services Bill is rushed into law through the “wash-up” and fails to receive the full scrutiny of the House of Lords there could be “profound constitutional implications.” The law firm focuses on clause […]

Welsh adviser convicted over mortgage fraud – Butler was one of three people convicted in a “lengthy and complex” investigation sparked by a drugs raid in November 2008. In a raid, Gloucestershire police officers uncovered a large number of cannabis plants and seven people were subsequently arrested. Although nobody was charged with offences relating to […]

A financial adviser has been handed a suspended 10-month prison sentence for mortgage fraud following an investigation which began as an illegal drugs probe. Louise Butler, of Barry in South Wales, and accomplice Mark Fowles offered a third individual, John Cope, £5,000 to use his personal details to apply for a mortgage in a bid […]

the following well presented commentary was taken from the RiskMinds 2009 Risk Managers’ Survey. ….It is a truism to say that the better the internal checks and balances in risk management, compliance, internal audit and non-executive oversight (what might be called “the internal regulatory system”), the less additional supervision and enforcement is required by the […]