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UK securities fraud litigation gains momentum: Autonomy and G4S
This article examines two recent decisions in securities fraud cases: (i) ACL Netherlands v Lynch [2022] EWHC 1178 (Ch) (Autonomy); and (ii) Allianz Global Investors GmbH v G4S Limited [2022] EWHC 1081. The former considered such important questions as what published information is caught by s 90A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), how statements in such information are to be construed, what constitutes the requisite guilty knowledge and how reliance is to be proved. In the latter case, the court held that so-called “person discharging managerial responsibility” (PDMR) status in these claims is limited to English law concepts of directorship but emphasised the potential elasticity of de facto directorship in particular.
20 March 2024Brass in pocket: the developing benchmark for establishing “consumer” status
In this article Nora Beausang considers recent case law relating to the interpretation of “consumer” for the purposes of special jurisdictional rules (Recast Brussels Regulation and its predecessors), considers whether this interpretation has wider application to other regulatory protections applying to consumers and argues for the limitation of this more expansive interpretation.
20 March 2024Blockchain interoperability: connecting decentralised infrastructure for traditional finance
In this article, Tom Marshall explains the meaning of interoperability in the context of blockchains, existing infrastructure and why and how traditional finance is getting involved.
20 March 2024Protection of securities under custody in Spain
There is no scope for trusts under current Spanish law; they neither exist nor are recognised in the jurisdiction. Incorporating them into Spanish law would require a substantial transformation of Spanish property law. At the same time, it is not even truly clear whether trusts are indeed a bulletproof solution in the context of safeguarding securities under custody. In any case, Spanish law provides for a set of measures designed to safeguard securities held under custody, particularly traded securities held under custody by an entity participating in Iberclear, the Spanish central securities depository.
20 March 2024Anything but equity! Structuring considerations for a debt for equity swap
There are several regulatory and practical reasons why some creditors may not be able or willing to take up an allocation of equity post-restructuring. In this article the authors explore some of those reasons and provide some potential structuring solutions.
20 March 2024Pre-hedging versus front-running: six of one, and half a dozen of the other?
Institutions which provide market liquidity, such as banks, are in possession of very valuable confidential client data – their trading intentions. Trading intentions can generate revenue for the bank with little or no risk. This requires the bank to trade for its own account using the client’s confidential information before it trades for the client. This behaviour is generally given two labels: “front-running”, which is considered to be illegitimate, and “trading-ahead”, which is thought to be legitimate. However, their effects are often identical which should imply that their legitimacy should also be the same.
20 March 2024Supervisory tone sharpens further following ECB’s conclusions on its Desk Mapping Review
In this article, Dr Michael Huertas considers the impact on non-EU headquartered banking entities of the findings of the ECB-SSM’s Desk Mapping Review (Review). The Review assesses the governance and risk management capabilities of the EU operations of such non-EU headquartered entities.
20 March 2024Cryptoassets as property under English Law: surveying the present lie of the land
In this article, Amy Held draws attention to two ways in which fundamental principles of English property law are being distorted in the present discourse on crytpoassets. First, English law is not really prescriptive as to what “things” fall within the scope of property law or “can be property”, but, rather, is concerned with rights in relation to things. The statement, therefore, that cryptoassets “are property” lacks any real meaning. Second, English law has no real concept of “ownership” as distinct from “possession”. Given that English law tends to focus on the latter, it remains unclear what it means for anyone to assert that they are the “owner” of a cryptoasset, how “ownership” is proved and established, and how the right of “ownership” is vindicated in a dispute.
20 March 2024Capacity: is the question of hedging or speculation mis-stated?
The question of legal capacity to act in purported hedging transactions inherently assumes that all transactions are binary: either hedges or speculations. In this article, Hanif Virji explains how the reality is more complex – going beyond even a one-dimensional spectrum to a multi-dimensional one.
19 March 2024The vexed and litigious question of “unallowable purpose”
In this article, David Milne KC considers the recent decisions in “unallowable purpose” cases, many of which have arisen in loan relationships, and explains why mere knowledge of the tax advantage by the directors of the taxpayer company should not of itself deny the tax relief.
19 March 2024
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