05/10/2012
FSA fines Martin Currie £3.5m over client conflict
This is the largest fine ever imposed by the FSA in a conflict of interest case.
Tax
05/09/2012
LawInContext launches Global Anti-Corruption / Anti-Bribery e-learning training courses
The global e-learning program includes industry focused content for the financial services industry sector and is fully customizable for a particular institution.
05/09/2012
Payne Hicks Beach boosts private client team
He brings with him a knowledge of tax, trust and estate planning for wealthy individuals, as well as their advisers and trustees, both domestically and internationally.
05/09/2012
Ex-Dresdner Kleinwort bankers win bonus battle
The failure of Dresdner Kleinwort to pay bonus deals as stated in December “was wrongful and in breach of express and implied terms”, the claimants had argued.
05/08/2012
Stolen HSBC data allowed by Paris court in tax probe
Arlette Ricci disputed the validity of using the data, stolen by a former HSBC employee and seized from his home in 2009, in pursuing her for allegedly hiding wealth in HSBC accounts in Switzerland to evade taxes, AFP said, citing Jean- Marc Fedida, her l
05/07/2012
Puerto Rico Is No Paradise for UBS Customers
When Congress passed the Investment Company Act of 1940 to prevent abuses of mutual-fund shareholders, it exempted Puerto Rico.
05/07/2012
UBS's Weber Sees Germany Approving Swiss Tax Treaty
Germany and Switzerland last month signed an amended tax treaty including a withholding tax to end a decades-long dispute over tax evasion.
05/07/2012
Swiss bank Pictet gave data to U.S. in tax probe
Pictet said in a statement the data handover took place in November 2010 via the Swiss tax office, which had received a request for assistance from its U.S. counterparts.
05/04/2012
Vernon Healy Files Another $800,000 in Claims Against UBS
The promised principal protection constituted a gross deception because the Lehman notes represented nothing more than unsecured loans by the investors to a financially faltering Lehman, according to the claims.
05/04/2012
HSBC’s Swiss Wealth Unit May Face ‘Significant’ U.S. Fine
HSBC Holdings Plc’s Swiss private bank said fines and penalties relating to a tax-evasion probe by the U.S. as it published figures showing clients outflows in the second half of last year. The terms or timing of a resolution to the Department of J
05/04/2012
HSBC Bank USA is suspected of giving free rein to money launderers
The extent of that failure is laid out in confidential documents reviewed by Reuters that originate from investigations of HSBC's U.S. operations by two U.S. Attorneys' offices.
05/04/2012
Scottish law firm set to make private client redundancies
Following a strategic review four support staff and two lawyers in the private client team are at risk of losing their jobs.
05/03/2012
UBS: Our internal fraud controls are now fixed
At the end of last year, the Swiss bank revealed that it had identified two monitoring controls that were lacking at the end of December 2010, when London-based Adoboli allegedly placed the unauthorised trades.
05/03/2012
Squire Sanders promotes London finance litigation specialist to the partnership
Gareth Timms, who joined the firm in 2005, has over 12 years of experience working for Asset Based Lenders on contentious issues. He regularly represents banks, invoice discounting companies and other financial institutions handling claims from complex fr
05/01/2012
FSB publishes interim report on securities lending and repos
The report released today is an Interim Report of the FSB Workstream on Securities Lending and Repos and is preliminary to its work to develop policy recommendations in this area.
05/01/2012
FSA fines wealth firm £26k for 'serious' failings
The FSA found that Christchurch’s Compliance Officer, Thornberry, failed to ensure that client money and assets were managed appropriately.
04/30/2012
Swiss-U.S. tax dispute is a challenge, ZKB chief tells SZ
The delivery of information on bank employees to the U.S. will be regarded as a “constructive contribution,” the Zurich- based newspaper cited Scholl as saying.
04/30/2012
HSBC’s Geneva Bank Gave Employee Names to U.S., Le Temps Reports
The firm notified staff and created a telephone hotline for client advisers to check whether they are on the list, the Swiss newspaper said.
04/30/2012
Rand Paul Seeks to Block Tax Treaty Change on Swiss Accounts
Senator Rand Paul is blocking an amendment to a U.S.-Swiss tax treaty, slowing Switzerland’s handover of data on thousands of Americans with bank accounts hidden from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
04/26/2012
CA freezes bank accounts of Pinay wife of British in £700M fraud case
The CA's freeze order was in response to an ex-parte petition filed by Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Agency, from which the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) sought assistance.