Purpose – This paper aims to report and comment on a successful High Court challenge by financial advisory firms via the financial Ombudsman. Design/methodology/approach – The paper's approach is to outline the facts and explain the decision. Findings – Although the industry will welcome...

Purpose – Bank regulators across the world have recently lifted restrictions on where banks can operate and what type of activities they can perform. Following the deregulation of the sector, bank mergers and acquisitions have grown substantially. The purpose of this paper is to outline bank...

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to document the controls that presently exist in relation to domestic corruption, the need for reform of the law, in relation to both domestic and international corruption and the challenges that are faced by the UK Government in relation to enforcement of the...

Purpose – In the UK, there is a strong government commitment to the compulsory use of annuities to manage the “decumulation” of assets in defined contribution pension schemes. Almost all annuity rates are determined by reference to the gender of the individual involved. This has the...

Purpose – This paper aims to draw on the potential behavioural implications of the new (economic) measurement attributes initiated recently by the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) in their efforts to reflect more relevant, “true” underlying economic values as opposed to...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a risk-based approach to anti-money laundering (AML) systems. Design/methodology/approach – The paper covers the areas of: customer due diligence, customer acceptance, risk management and implementation. Findings – Regulators and financial...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation of effective risk-based anti-money laundering (AML)/combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) systems of control in order to properly address the risks facing the financial services industry. It seeks to argue that most...

Purpose – This paper aims to trace the evolution of Indian financial market structure and regulation, in the broad dialectic sense and to suggest a consolidated, holistic regulatory model. Design/methodology/approach – The paper sketches the evolution of Indian financial market structure and...

Purpose – The growth of the commodities markets and the increasing investment by non-traditional market participants, such as pension and hedge funds, has come to the attention of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which has shown growing concern over the risks and challenges faced by all...

Purpose – The debate over the possible extension of transparency regulation in Europe to include sovereign bonds has opened up a number of other issues in need of serious consideration. One such issue is the appropriateness of the entire infrastructure supporting the trading of European...