The past decade, with its unprecedented surge in financial activity and financial crises, has been one of increased awareness on the part of both regulatory authorities and market participants of the potential of payment systems for propagating and amplifying financial shocks, especially in a...

The great attractions of the Internet are its flexibility and its international reach and, some might say, its anarchic nature. However, a company planning advertising or trading on the Internet must not assume that it is not regulated. This is simply not true. This paper focuses primarily on...

The UK is undergoing a revolution in the structure of financial regulation that is being closely watched — but not necessarily emulated — around the world. The motivation for change was clear and, by and large, implementation is taking place in an admirably transparent way. But there must be...

The audit function is an essential part of the regulatory structure which supports the integrity of our capital markets. There is a recognised expectations gap which surrounds the audit function, as many users of audited financial statements have different expectations of the audit function from...

In unveiling its proposals for the tax‐favoured Individual Savings Account (ISA) in December 1997 the Government has left regulatory issues alone at this stage saying that once it has decided on the form of the ISA, it will then consider the appropriate regulatory environment for it, and, if...

This paper considers the issues facing banks who become engaged in litigation and the strategies and procedures available to obtain the most effective solutions. How these will be affected by the reforms in civil procedure proposed by Lord Woolf are also discussed.

Organising a compliance function in a widely‐diverse group such as HSBC appears a formidable challenge. This paper describes some of the more basic steps taken within HSBC to achieve a coordinated approach, both in terms of the structure of the compliance function and the framework within...

Most account opening agreements used by US brokerage firms contain a standard predispute arbitration clause requiring customers to submit all disputes relating to the account to arbitration conducted according to the rules of a self‐regulatory organisation. Brokerage firms also routinely place...