In April 2021, the European Investment Bank (EIB) issued its first ever notes in digital form on the Ethereum public blockchain. This was a milestone transaction in several respects: as a true financing using a blockchain register rather than a proof of concept; through the use of Central Bank Digital Currency at issue; and through the development of documentation to address the new technology. This article summarises the key features of the issuance and its relevance to future digital bond issuances.
13 June 2024This article will discuss the new service and its eligibility criteria, the formalities of bringing a complaint, and also how complaints will be determined. Comparisons will be drawn against the Financial Ombudsman Service as we touch upon the relationship between the two schemes. We will finally consider the appeals procedure and the potentially litigious issues that may arise after a final appeal.
13 June 2024The European payments ecosystem is currently undergoing significant changes, due to the emergence of new technologies, new market participants as well as an evolving regulatory environment. To keep abreast with these changes and their potential implications and challenges whilst ensuring a continued smooth functioning of the payment system, the Eurosystem had launched until end December 2020 a public consultation1 on a new holistic and forward-looking harmonised oversight framework for electronic payment instruments, schemes and arrangements (PISA).
13 June 2024In this article the authors review the current status of the various “legislative fixes” for dealing with agreements which refer to USD LIBOR but which cannot be actively amended to remove those references before the benchmark ceases to exist.
13 June 2024In this article the author highlights cases where third-party activists seek to harness the securities markets through exploitation of investment manager ESG policies, to weaponise their own political agendas. In circumstances where the information they disseminate (before and after trades) is erroneous, biased, or demonstrably influenced by material interest, he argues the need for urgent regulatory focus to prevent market manipulation and protect market integrity.
13 June 2024In this article, the authors explain the Law Commission’s provisional proposals for legislative reform to provide that certain trade documents in electronic form have the same effect as paper trade documents.
13 June 2024In this article, we discuss that in relation to making sustainability disclosures, if companies are able to unpick and rationalise the alphabet soup of standards, requirements and frameworks, many will find a set that suits their particular business model or industry. However, as the number of different reporting frameworks increases this is fostering confusion, lack of comparability and reporting fatigue. Greater global convergence may help to alleviate these issues.
13 June 2024Authorised push payment fraud (APP fraud) is a form of fraud where the victim is induced to initiate a fraudulent transaction. Despite this type of fraud costing customers nearly £1/2bn a year, English law does not offer a clear and co-ordinated response. This article examines the implications of the recent cases including I.F.T S.A.L Offshore v Barclays Bank PLC, Singularis Holdings Ltd v Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Ltd and Philipp v Barclays Bank UK Plc, in order to identify the prospects for defrauded customers seeking to recover damages against the banks through whom their funds were paid away.
13 June 2024This article examines the rules that now apply in relation to the enforcement of English court judgments in the EU and goes on to consider, by reference to Italy, Germany and Spain, what this means for enforcement of judgments in practice. We highlight that these are the rules that apply as at the date of this article but are potentially subject to change (for example if the UK joins the Lugano Convention 2007 (Lugano Convention), as discussed further below).
13 June 2024The effect upon private law contractual rights of public law illegality has long been a source of confusion and controversy, particularly in the context of disputes between banks and public bodies over complex derivatives. The issue divided the Court of Appeal in Credit Suisse v Allerdale [1997] QB 306 and although the view of Hobhouse LJ in that case has been endorsed in Charles Terence Estates Ltd v Cornwall Council [2012] EWCA Civ 1439, this was only obiter. Foxton J in School Facility Management Ltd v Governors of Body of Christ the King [2020] EWHC 1118 (Comm) has now decided how far public law illegality can provide a defence of incapacity but his logic when applied to a foreign entity is more consistent with Etherton LJ’s dissent in Haugesund v Depfa [2010] EWCA Civ 579 than with the majority decision.
13 June 2024