Second reading of Financial Services Bill

The Financial Services Bill was presented for its second reading in Parliament on Monday, 30 November.  Hansard reports that the Chancellor, Alistair Darling was questioned on the absence of consumer protection provisions in the Bill, particularly as regards pre-payment of goods.  Mr Darling replied that he was conscious more consumer legislation is needed but that he [...]

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Retail Distribution Review – independence, clarity and fairness

The Financial Services Authority began consultation earlier this summer (2009) on changes it proposes to its Retail Distribution Review.  The emphasis is on independence, clarity and fairness in the relationship between adviser and investor.  My firm, CMS Cameron McKenna are holding a briefing on RDR and on the FSA after the credit crunch: (how ARROW, Supervision, [...]

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Some recent issues

At a recent “round table”, I gave an overview of legal developments of interest to bank lawyers. Here is a summary:
Regulatory Reform
Is a perfect maelstrom of activity for obvious reasons, as banks are being handed birch twigs to beat themselves penitentially for not counting the pennies. Events have been moving faster than I can blog, [...]

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Equality Bill

The Government introduced the Equality Bill to the House of Commons on 27 April 2009.  The Bill is to strengthen existing equality law and introduce new measures against discrimination. The Bill makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone aged 18 or over when providing services, which will include the provision of financial services.  The second [...]

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Consultation on the Consumer Credit Directive

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform have begun the consultation on proposing the transposition of Directive 2008/48 (Consumer Credit Directive) into UK law. The Directive must be implemented by June 2010. It introduces: 

a duty on the lender to provide adequate explanations about the credit on offer to the consumer; 
an obligation on the lender [...]

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s 75 CCA appeal has started in House of Lords

The appeal to the House of Lords on the applicability of s  75 Consumer Credit Act 1974 to overseas transactions has started, on 2 October 2007.  The issue is whether credit card issuers are jointly liable with overseas suppliers if the consumer has a valid claim for misrepresentation or breach of contract by the supplier, [...]

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Home Credit Market Investigation Order 2007

The Home Credit Market Investigation Order 2007 will come into force on 4 October 2007.  The Order, which is made under sections 138 and 161 of the Enterprise Act 2002, contains provisions relating to the sharing of data on customers’ payment records, publication of prices, provision of information in client statements and rebates for early [...]

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PPI market investigation

More activity to report from the Competition Commission. It has published an issues statement as part of its investigation into the market for the supply of payment protection insurance in the UK. The issues statement identifies the specific questions and areas the CC believes are relevant in deciding whether any feature of the market for [...]

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Credit card interest calculations: super-complaint

The OFT has received a super-complaint from Which? relating to credit card interest rate calculation methods. The consumer campaign body has asked the OFT to look at concerns relating to the number of different methods used to calculate interest rates for credit cards. The OFT will fast track this complaint and announce within 90 days [...]

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Personal Accounts: A New Way to Save

A White Paper has been issued by the Department for Work and Pensions .  This is part of the Government’s strategy to help people to help themselves by encouraging good savings habits for one’s own pension provision.  The Executive Summary weighs in at a hefty 40 pages; designed for the time-rich executive. 
The main point of [...]

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