Author Archives: ETE

The Bank of England (Bank), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) (the Authorities) have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which sets out the high-level framework that we use to cooperate with one another in relation to payment systems in the UK. The Financial Services (Banking […]

Two FCA investigations involving unauthorised debt and claims management activities have resulted in arrests. The FCA, with the support of West Midlands Police, the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit and Police Scotland, has recently conducted 2 operations to search 7 addresses across the West Midlands, Cambridgeshire, Stirling and Cumbernauld. Two individuals were arrested in Birmingham […]

The Federal Court today found that collapsed contracts for difference (CFD) issuer, Union Standard International Group Pty Ltd (USG) and two of its former corporate authorised representatives, BrightAU Capital Pty Ltd (trading as TradeFred) and Maxi EFX Global AU Pty Ltd (trading as EuropeFX), engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct as well as a raft of […]

ASIC has suspended the Australian financial services (AFS) licence of Equtise Pty Ltd (Equitise) until 10 February 2025. The AFS licence was suspended because Equitise is under external administration. On 31 October 2024, Equitise was placed into voluntary administration. Mohammad Mirzan Bin Mansoor and Damien Mark Hodgkinson of Olvera Advisors Pty Ltd were appointed as […]

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today launched a consultation on draft Guidelines related to the Internal Control Framework for some of its supervised entities. The proposed draft Guidelines build on the Internal Control Guidelines currently in place for Credit Rating Agencies and extend them to […]

Colbourne & Company (FRN: 125003) is a sole trader and is authorised and regulated by the FCA. The firm has a range of permissions which include: assisting in administration of insurance arranging deals in investments making arrangements advising (ex Pension Transfers/Opt outs) advising on P2P agreements On 23 June 2022, we placed restrictions on Colbourne […]

Collateral offered peer-to-peer style investments. Its directors were able to fraudulently change details about the firms’ public entry on the FCA’s interim permission register. This change made it look like the firm held interim permission from the FCA to undertake consumer credit activities, which were granted to firms who transferred from the OFT to the […]

The FCA has set out plans to simplify the information supplied to investors to boost confidence and drive investment. Under the current rules, introduced across Europe when the UK was in the EU, people buying investments like investment funds are supplied with standardised documents covering prescribed information. In practice these documents were often complex, unclear, […]

The extension will help prevent disorderly, inconsistent and inefficient outcomes for consumers and firms. We have extended the time firms have to respond to complaints about motor finance agreements not involving a discretionary commission arrangement (DCA). Firms now have until after 4 December 2025 to provide a final response to non-DCAs, in line with the […]

Ausfinancial Pty Ltd, trading as Swoosh Finance (Swoosh), allegedly breached its responsible lending obligations when providing credit contracts to 11 consumers, according to civil penalty proceedings filed by ASIC in the Federal Court. ASIC also alleges that Swoosh breached its design and distribution obligations by failing to review its target market determinations and continuing to […]