“Regulating the UK as a Global Financial Centre in the Post-Brexit Landscape” 26/04/2021
Nausicaa Delfas, the Executive Director of International, Interim Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Executive Committee at the FCA delivered a speech at the City & Financial Global’s Future of UK Financial Services Regulation Virtual Summit in April 2021 where she outlined the approach of the FCA in the post-Brexit landscape.
The key take-away’s from the Speech:
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The FCA are fully committed to maintaining open and fair UK markets and will continue to regulate in the interests of consumers, competition and market integrity.
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Whilst the UK markets are open to our global partners, firms serving UK customers and businesses will need to meet consistently high standards.
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There is a need for strong supervisory co-operation between regulators across jurisdictions.
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The FCA will continue to work with its international colleagues to shape global standards, to work towards regulatory convergence and cooperation on cross border issues.
Ms. Delfas confirmed that the UK remains very much open for business on the global stage. The FCA appreciate that there are opportunities available in this “autonomous” environment however they need to take a cautious approach and the new freedoms must be tempered by accounting for the interests of our EU counterparts.
More detail on the speech can be found at “The importance of purposeful Anti-Money Laundering Controls” 01/04/2021
Mark Steward, the Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight for the FCA delivered a speech at the AML and ABL Forum in 2021 where he highlighted the importance of Firms to ensure effective AML Controls are in place.
Mr. Steward noted that:
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two of the biggest FCA sanctions in the last 12 months related to failures to address financial crime and anti-money laundering (AML) risks resulting in a combined firm of approximately £135 million; and
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the FCA currently has 42 investigations ongoing into firms and individuals involving, for example, systems and controls over politically exposed persons, customers with significant cash intensive operations, correspondent banking and trade finance, and transaction monitoring.
Based on the above there is no despite that ensuring Firm’s have effective AML controls in place is a “hot topic” for the FCA and as a result prudent Firm’s will assess their own systems to ensure their AML infrastructure is fit for purpose.
More detail on the speech can be found at https://www.fca.org.uk/news/speeches/importance-purposeful-anti-money-laundering-controls.