The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is consulting on a new framework code of practice for the use of personal data in political campaigning. The framework code will serve both as helpful guidance in its own right as well as having the potential to become a statutory code of practice if the relevant legislation is introduced. The framework code does not introduce new requirements for campaigners but seeks to explain and clarify data protection and electronic marketing laws as they already stand. It also seeks to provide practical guidance and useful examples on ways campaigners could comply with their obligations whilst carrying out common political campaigning activities.

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by Elina Karpacheva

Innovation is surely a good thing. FinTech makes access to finance fast, easy and accessible which is of great benefit to individuals, households and businesses. However, the increased speed of initiating transactions, the borderless movement of money flows, and anonymity may be exploited for ill-gotten gains. FinTech might be used for terrorist financing, money laundering, fraud, tax evasion, market abuse, and overall undermine the stability of financial system. From this angle, FinTech companies have enormous responsibility towards the society to prevent fraudulent behaviour. Governments around the world have started recognising risks associated with technologically enabled financial innovation. In effect, we see the increased level of regulation with enforcement against the FinTech being one of the priorities. The need of FinTech companies to establish compliance expertise to prevent, detect, and response to financial crime has become apparent. 
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) are joining forces again this summer to warn the public about fraudsters targeting people’s retirement savings. This warning comes as new research suggests that 42% of pension savers, which would equate over 5 million people across the UK, could be at risk of falling for at least one of six common tactics used by pension scammers.
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Malaysia filed criminal charges against Richard Gnobbe, a top executive at Goldman Sachs and 16 other former and current Goldman Sachs bankers. The charges escalate the legal challenges for Goldman, which has come under scrutiny for its role in a multibillion-dollar international fraud scandal that led to the ouster of Najib Razak as Malaysia’s prime minister.

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The European Central Bank (ECB) will undertake a comprehensive assessment of five Croatian banks. This exercise, which will comprise an asset quality review (AQR) and a stress test, follows Croatia’s submission of a request in May 2019 seeking to establish close cooperation between the ECB and Hrvatska narodna banka. A comprehensive assessment is required as part of the process of establishing close cooperation between the ECB and the national competent authority of an EU Member State whose currency is not the euro.
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The FCA published Final Guidance which sets out the cryptoasset activities it regulates. This is in response to the FCA’s consultation published earlier this year. The Guidance will help firms understand whether their cryptoasset activities fall under FCA regulation. This will allow firms to have a better understanding of whether they need to be authorised and what they need to do to ensure they are compliant.
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The Federal Reserve Board on Monday announced that the Federal Reserve Banks will develop a new round-the-clock real-time payment and settlement service, called the FedNow℠ Service, to support faster payments in the United States. The rapid evolution of technology presents a pivotal opportunity for the Federal Reserve and the payment industry to modernize the nation’s payment system and establish a safe and efficient foundation for the future.

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The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) inform national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies (collectively, banks) of sound fraud risk management principles. Fraud risk management principles can be implemented in a variety of ways and may not always be structured within a formal fraud risk management program. Regardless of the structure, fraud risk management should be commensurate with the bank’s risk profile. Banks with significant and far-reaching retail-oriented business activities should have well-documented fraud risk management programs with appropriate monitoring, measurements and reporting, and mitigation.

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Forward guidance, i.e. communication by a central bank about the likely future path of interest rates, usually reduces uncertainty. But it matters how this is done in practice, because forward guidance with a short time horizon can raise uncertainty. This occurs if the forward guidance impairs the aggregation of private information in financial markets, thus making market prices less informative. Central banks often make statements about the likely future path of interest rates by providing so-called forward guidance. Forward guidance is especially used if the central bank can no longer cut policy rates because they are already as low as possible (i.e. they have reached their lower bound). Continue reading…