The latest EU public opinion survey, conducted in late February 2019, highlights continued strong support for the European Union. The European Parliament’s Spring 2019 Eurobarometer, measuring public attitudes to the EU three months ahead of the European elections, reveals that despite the various internal and external challenges to the EU of the past years, the European sense of togetherness does not seem to have weakened.

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The FCA has published a Feedback Statement summarising the responses received to its Discussion Paper – ‘A duty of care and potential alternative approaches’ – published in July 2018, and setting out next steps. As a result of the feedback the FCA received and its early analysis, it has identified options for change that are most likely to address potential deficiencies in consumer protection.
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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) wants people to support their elderly relatives or neighbours if they are receiving nuisance marketing calls. The appeal came as a company selling funeral plans was fined £80,000 for making unlawful marketing calls to people who had made it explicitly clear they didn’t want to receive them. The ICO launched an investigation after a national newspaper had reported allegations of illegal practices at a call centre in Cheshire, run by a company which at the time was called Plan My Funeral Avalon Ltd. Continue reading…

How is mortgage credit affected by the introduction of a tool of macro-prudential policy? The Chilean banking supervisor raised required loan loss provisions for mortgage credit risk. Bank for International Settlements (BIS) argues that financial institutions responded by raising their acceptable borrowing standards on borrowers, enhancing the quality of their portfolio, but also contracting their supply of mortgage credit. BIS reach this conclusion by developing a stylized imperfect information model which BIS use to guide our empirical analysis.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Prosper Funding LLC will pay a $3 million penalty for miscalculating and materially overstating annualized net returns to retail and other investors. San Francisco-based Prosper is a marketplace lender that, through its website, offers and sells securities linked to the performance of its consumer credit loans. According to the SEC’s order, from approximately July 2015 until May 2017, Prosper excluded certain non-performing charged off loans from its calculation of annualized net returns that it reported to investors.

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The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) today released its Strategy and Work Plan, 2019-2023. Titled Elevating Ethics in a Dynamic and Uncertain World, the publication describes the board’s strategy and priorities toward the setting of high-quality, future-ready ethics standards for professional accountants that are widely adopted around the world.
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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Bounty (UK) Limited £400,000 for illegally sharing personal information belonging to more than 14 million people. An ICO investigation found that Bounty, a pregnancy and parenting club, collected personal information for the purpose of membership registration through its website and mobile app, merchandise pack claim cards and directly from new mothers at hospital bedsides.

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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is warning General Insurance (GI) firms about manufacturing, sales and distribution approaches that can lead to customers purchasing inappropriate products, paying excessive prices or receiving poor service. The recently implemented Insurance Distribution Directive requires that all firms in the GI distribution chain act in accordance with the best interests of the customer. The recently implemented Senior Manager and Certification Regime is designed to make Senior Managers accountable for the actions of their firms.

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If a United States – China purchasing agreement goes through – Taiwan and Malaysia will suffer the most in the near term – South Korea and Japan also have a lot to lose, according to a Goldman Sachs report. It will be effecting the Semiconductor exporters in Asia are esspecialy, if China decides to import more American products to ease trade tensions. Taiwan would lose more than 1% of its GDP, while Malaysia would lose about 0.7%, according to the report’s estimates, based on the assumption that China’s “shopping list” will amount to $125 billion of American imports annually. South Korea and Japan could also lose $8 billion each.

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After more than 7 years, Julian Assange (Wikileaks co-founder) stay at the Ecuadorian embassy in London ends. With the cooperation from Ecuador, where Assange had sought political refuge, London police arrested Assange. The London police took Assange into custody for failing to surrender to a warrant, that was issued by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, back in 2012. according to the Associated Press, Assanges arrest was also related to a United States (US) extradition warrant. The US charged Assange with conspiracy to commit computer hacking for his ‘alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States’.
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