At Browne Jacobson, our multi-disciplinary team acts for lenders, brokers, merchants and other credit intermediaries. We work collaboratively and closely with compliance and legal and risk teams on customer-facing issues.
We stand out for the ways in which we advise on the scope and effects of the regulatory regime. This includes financial promotions, applications for authorisation, exemptions, and activities excluded from the regime.
Our in-depth knowledge of the sector means our work is varied. Clients include debt adjusters, administrators, collectors and counsellors, established institutions and participants as well as newcomers to FS markets.
With a great understanding of distribution networks being an essential feature of the consumer credit market, we have extensive experience in advising on introducer and appointed representative arrangements, including governance and risk management systems and controls, such as training and reporting.
We are skilled at making the impossible possible. For reporting and broader operational activity, IT, data and digital issues are vital in consumer credit.
Putting our expertise into play, we’ve successfully advised on the negotiation of IT and payment service contracts embedded in distribution agreements. We also help you troubleshoot, on the regulatory issues to which they can give rise, such as credit information and references, and account information services.
Working with you to reduce the unexpected, our risk management work includes advising on merchant terms and merchant acquirer activities, especially their interaction with equipment hire and related service agreements.
Advised on a strategic project to distribute, as an appointed representative, credit products alongside sales of goods. This was a significant new departure for the client and other associated businesses and involved extensive work on policies and procedures, including contractual governance and IT systems and controls, and customer-facing documents.
Helped our client manage its legal and regulatory risk exposure following the discovery that a number of legacy subsidiaries it had acquired had been unwittingly supplying credit to small businesses that fell within the category of ‘relevant recipient of credit’ under regulatory rules.
This situation raised the risk of a breach of the ‘general prohibition under FS legislation, potentially enforceable through a range of civil and even criminal liability. We advised the client through an internal investigation and regulatory disclosure exercise, enabling the business to take corrective action without adverse consequences for its operations.
The outcome of the Employment Tribunal claim brought by Gulnaz Raja against Starling Bank Limited (1) (Starling), and Matthew Newman (2) was reported last month.
This article is the second in a series to help firms take a practical approach to complying with the ‘cross-cutting rules’ within the new ‘Consumer Duty’ (CD) framework. The article summarises what it seems the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seeking to achieve from the applicable rules (section 2 below) and potential complications arising from legal considerations (section 3).
Claims arising from interest-only mortgages have been farmed in volume. Many such claims to date have sought to drive a narrative that interest-only mortgages are an inherently toxic product and brokers were negligent simply for suggesting them. Taylor is a helpful recalibration, focussing instead on what the monies raised by the mortgage product were being used for and whether the client understood the inherent risks.
Created at the end of the Brexit transition period, Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law that consists of EU-derived legislation retained in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This was never intended to be a permanent arrangement as parliament promised to deal with retained EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (the “Bill”).
This article is the first in a series aimed to help firms get to grips on a practical basis with the ‘cross-cutting rules’ within the new ‘Consumer Duty’ framework.
The Chancellor’s recent mini-budget provided a significant announcement for business as it was confirmed that the off-payroll working rules (known as “IR35”) put in place for public and private sector businesses from 2017 and 2021 will be scrapped from April 2023.
Bridget Tatham, a specialist defendant insurance lawyer at Browne Jacobson has been honoured at this year’s Birmingham Black Lawyer (BBL) Excellence Awards, having been named Lawyer of the Year. Bridget was also shortlisted for BBL’s Diversity Champion 2022.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has released a report setting out the impact of new and changing regulations arising from the pandemic on small businesses across the UK.
Browne Jacobson has announced its financial results for 2021-22 with revenues up 11 per cent year-on-year to £94m, up from £85m. It marks the 13th consecutive year of growth with a 59 per cent increase in revenues since 2015 (£59m).
As has been widely reported this week, some 3,000 UK workers are taking part in a six month trial to assess the viability of a four-day working week without any reduction in their normal pay.
In anticipation of the adoption of the Building Safety Bill, our specialist compliance and regulatory team will give an overview of the measures proposed in the Bill.
Financial crime is an increasing threat to all organisations. The modes of facilitating fraud have become easier. Being a victim of fraud as an organisation risks significant financial consequences, but also serious reputational harm and loss of stakeholder confidence.
In March the government proposed a number of changes to the Building Safety Bill. The new amendments propose additional protection for leaseholders to prevent them from being charged for cladding work if they own up to three properties.
The Presidents of the Employment Tribunals England and Wales and Scotland have issued a new road map for 2022-23, providing an update on the resourcing challenges faced by employment tribunals and the steps put in place to address these.
Earlier this year, the government recommended that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) bring "competitiveness" back into its regulatory agenda. In a letter to the FCA, the government stated that it wanted the UK to be "globally competitive" while encouraging the FCA to "promote competition" in financial services.
In Nissan v Passi, the High Court recently considered the issue of an employee retaining confidential documents belonging to his former employer in the context of the employer’s application for an injunction seeking the return of such documents from the employee.
Browne Jacobson’s national corporate tech lawyers have advised specialist insurtech business Laka on its $12m series A investment round. The cash injection will allow Laka to expand its operations across Europe and support its new retail partners based in Belgium, France and Germany.
As you probably know by now, the acronym 'ESG' stands for environmental, social and governance. Although the investment community initially coined the term, it has grown into a larger concept that can be applied more broadly to any business or practice.
Browne Jacobson has appointed Graham Ball as the new head of its banking and finance team in Manchester following a period of sustained growth for the firm’s national banking practice.
In this article, Jeremy Irving examines the form and nature of greenwashing as submitted in the June 2021 International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) report.
How greenwashing can be prevented, or how the risk of being accused of ‘greenwashing’ can be forestalled by effective compliance.
The Financial Conduct Authority has highlighted that non-financial misconduct, which of itself constitutes a breach of principles and rules, has the potential to be an indicator or driver of wider conduct risk – behaviour within firms influences the behaviour of those firms towards customers and other third parties.
UK financial services and other firms will be aware of the growing legal and regulatory pressures they face in respect of climate-related financial risk management, especially in the form of current or prospective disclosures, However, regulators are developing a wider set of expectations and standards in respect of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors.
