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International Edition

Financial regulation: A little spare change

The creation of a new agency to tackle white-collar crime raises awkward questions about funding, argue Norton Rose's Charles Evans and Dorian Drew
5 minute read

International Edition

Financial regulation: The Fed's master craftsman

The New York Federal Reserve Bank general counsel Thomas Baxter helped engineer the bailouts that kept the bottom from falling out of the economy. Sue Reisinger reports
10 minute read

International Edition

End of FSA is an opportunity to influence global reform

After a period of 'will they, won't they?', the Chancellor finally ended the speculation over the Financial Services Authority's (FSA's) fate in his Mansion House speech. The announcement spelled the end of the tripartite regulation system as well as the FSA, whose responsibilities will be shared out among newly-created bodies after its planned demise in 2012. The new Government has opted for a 'twin peaks' model of regulation, whereby conduct of business and prudential regulation will be supervised by separate bodies.
3 minute read

International Edition

Financial regulation: Hunting the hunter

The FSA is to be broken up as part of a huge shake-up of regulation by the new Government - despite strong misgivings from City professionals. Alex Aldridge charts the watchdog's rise and fall and looks at the new bodies that will replace it
35 minute read

International Edition

Who really won in Goldman's settlement with the SEC?

Legal experts will argue over who got the best deal - Goldman Sachs or the regulators - in the record fraud settlement announced last Thursday (15 July). But one thing seems certain - the investing public didn't. The lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) went into negotiations seeking a record penalty, perhaps as high as $1bn (£654m), according to Wall Street reports. It also wanted Goldman to plead guilty to at least one count of failure to disclose material information to investors in one of its subprime mortgage deals, sources said.
4 minute read

International Edition

Goldman reaches record $550m settlement with SEC

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550m (£366m) to settle fraud charges brought against the bank by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), writes The American Lawyer. The SEC on Thursday (15 July) confirmed the terms of its agreement with Goldman with the bank to pay $300m (£200m) in fines to the Treasury Department and another $250m (£166m) in restitution to investors.
3 minute read

International Edition

Fried Frank partner tapped by Obama to head up oil industry regulation overhaul

Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson partner Michael Bromwich has been appointed by US President Barack Obama to lead an overhaul of oil industry regulation in the wake of the BP disaster, reports The Am Law Daily. The appointment comes after Obama called on BP to "pay for the damage their company has caused" in his first national address from the Oval Office.
2 minute read

International Edition

International firms in London: Business without borders

The ever-increasing volume of cross-border business activity by clients, the evolving regulatory landscape and London's pre-eminence as a centre for dispute resolution has meant that many law firms have had to tailor the nature of the legal expertise they offer clients correspondingly. Law firms find themselves increasingly needing to ensure they can serve their clients not just in the home jurisdiction where the client relationship first originated, but in those jurisdictions where they establish a presence or where their business extends. Notwithstanding the recent economic woes felt in all corners of the globe, this trend for globalisation shows no signs of abating and international law firms have responded to clients' needs accordingly.
6 minute read

International Edition

Comment: Bribery Act 2010 paves the way for tougher action

Radical anti-bribery legislation passed in the dying days of the last administration gives the UK one of the toughest legislative frameworks in the world for tackling corrupt payments made here and abroad. The Bribery Act 2010 targets corporate behaviour in particular by introducing a new offence of failing to prevent bribery. The Act also creates new general offences of bribing and receiving bribes linked to 'improper performance' and a new specific offence of bribing a foreign public official. Until recently no company had been successfully prosecuted in the UK for corruption-related offences. Stung by a barrage of international criticism, the UK authorities responded by reaching agreements under which companies pleaded guilty either to bribery or related offences in return for lighter penalties. Recent high-profile prosecutions in Germany and the US of blue-chip companies including Siemens, Daimler and BAE have also placed bribery firmly on board agendas. The stakes are high - fines that can reach astronomical proportions, the threat of permanent exclusion from public sector contracts and prison for individuals directly involved.
4 minute read

International Edition

CC takes lead role as FSA hands out record £33m fine to JP Morgan

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has handed out a record £33.32m fine to JP Morgan in the latest sign of a tougher regulatory stance from the City watchdog. The penalty, which was announced today (3 June), was handed out after JP Morgan failed to protect client money by keeping it with its own money for almost seven years between 2002 and 2009 following the merger of JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan.
4 minute read

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