Legal & Regulation

The UK Court of Appeal has today handed down judgment in a case which considers the circumstances in which an individual who enters into a members' agreement in a limited liability partnership may be considered to be an employee. Jonathan Exten-Wright, employment partner, DLA Piper explains… »

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Integrated Financial Arrangements plc (Integrated Financial) for failings in relation to its protection of client money. Integrated Financial offers one of the UK's largest wrap platforms, Transact. »

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued guidance to warn that traded life policy investments (TLPIs) are high risk, toxic products that are generally unsuitable for the majority of UK retail investors and should therefore not be promoted to them. »

By Commissioner Scott D O’Malia - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission”) has confirmed that our Division of Enforcement is investigating MF Global, Inc. (“MF Global”) for possible violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) and/or Commission regulations. I fully support the Commission’s efforts to conduct a thorough investigation to determine what happened with the customer funds, how we can return all customer funds as soon as possible, and punish any wrongdoing. »

Munib Ali, director at PwC, on the European Commission’s (EC) release of the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II proposals… »

Monique Melis, a Member at financial advisory firm Kinetic Partners, on the sentencing of Raj Rajaratnam to 11 years in prison for insider trading… »

The Swiss Funds Association SFA supports the primary objectives of the partial revision of the Swiss Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (CISA). As part of the revision processes, it has submitted specific proposals for improvements aimed at safeguarding the competitiveness of Switzerland as an asset management location. »

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Corinth, Texas man with securities fraud for soliciting more than USD3.45 million from several thousand deaf investors in an investment scheme that the SEC halted last year. »

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it simultaneously filed 10 enforcement actions in Federal District Courts in Illinois, New York, Utah, and Wyoming, alleging that 11 entities are illegally soliciting members of the public to engage in foreign currency (forex) transactions and are operating without being registered with the CFTC. These cases follow on the CFTC’s January 26, 2011 filings against 14 other entities for similar violations. »

Anne Dolan, a chartered secretary with Walkers Management Services in the Cayman Islands, argues that it is telling that in the recent case regarding the collapsed Macro Fixed Income Fund, which resulted in a USD111m judgement against the fund’s independent directors, significant weight was given to documentary evidence of board meetings and the way in which these meetings were conducted. »