<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

Our ESG timeline sets out recent and expected UK and EU legal and regulatory developments relating to ESG and wider sustainable business topics. The timeline can be filtered according to your business type or the relevant ESG theme.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

The UK Government has today announced a package of reforms to UK financial services regulation. It mostly consists of promises to consult on specific areas for reform over the next couple of years.

On 18 November 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a consultation on the text of proposed draft guidelines relating to the use of ESG or sustainability related terms in funds' names (the Draft Guidelines).

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

In this podcast Jonathan Gilmour, Peter Hughes, John Lee and Adam Schnider consider the implications of the recent collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. They discuss some of the key issues that could arise from the insolvency of FTX or other crypto investment firms more generally, including priority of claims, proprietary rights in crypto-assets, tracing and recovery of crypto-assets, and cross-border insolvency issues.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

Private Equity & Financial Sponsors Partner George Weavil and Financial Services & Markets Senior Counsel Henriika Hara have featured in the latest edition of Private Equity International's Impact Investing Report discussing the private equity model and how it is suited to impact investing. 

Having previously been expected earlier this year, the FCA has now published its consultation paper on the proposed new sustainability disclosure requirements (SDR) regime and a set of consumer-friendly sustainability labels. This is, in effect, the UK's answer to the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (EU SFDR), although the proposed UK regime goes further in terms of having formal product labels and is bolstered by rules already in force that require many firms to report climate-related risks and opportunities in accordance with the TCFD guidelines (covered in our 2022 New Year Briefing).

The UK Government is proposing greater regulatory oversight of financial services outsourcings involving "Critical Third Parties" (CTPs). If implemented, these changes will result in CTPs – some of which may not regard themselves as part of the finance sector - being regulated directly by financial services supervisory authorities. This would represent a major shift in approach.

The FCA has published PS22/10, its policy statement on strengthening the financial promotion rules. This sets out feedback to the January 2022 consultation paper, its final rules and final non-handbook Guidance for firms approving financial promotions.

The High Court has ruled in favour of a spread betting firm that exercised its sole discretion in closing out a client's trading position during a period of significant market volatility.

The UK's departure from the European Union has not led to all EU-derived law being jettisoned; on the contrary, a significant proportion of it has been kept and the UK now has a new category of "retained EU law". This briefing explains what retained EU law is and why it's important.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

The FCA has now published PS22/9, its policy statement on a new Consumer Duty. This sets out feedback to the December 2021 consultation paper (which we covered in our New Year Briefing), and the final rules. Alongside the new rules, the FCA has also published FG22/5, final non-Handbook Guidance for firms on the Consumer Duty (Finalised Guidance). Potentially, a great many firms will be in scope and this will include some firms which would not consider themselves "retail".

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

In July 2022, the FCA published its review of the climate-related disclosures of premium listed commercial companies, for the first time since the rule mandating such disclosures was introduced for a wider range of listed issuers on 1 January 2022.