The UK’s consultation on deregulating commercial agents could have knock-on impacts on payment services and create regulatory divergence from the EU.

By Christian McDermott, Brett Carr, and Grace Erskine

On 16 May 2024, the UK government launched a consultation into the deregulation of the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 (the Commercial Agents Regulations). The Commercial Agents Regulations implemented Council Directive 86/653/EEC (the Commercial Agents Directive) and defined certain pro-agent terms of engagement between businesses and their self-employed commercial agents who are authorised to negotiate the sale or purchase of goods on their behalf.

The stated purpose of the consultation is to ensure that the Commercial Agents Regulations serve the needs of UK businesses post-Brexit, and to remove the legal complexities resulting from the interaction of the Commercial Agents Regulations with the English legal system’s rules on agency and contract law. The UK government’s current proposal is for existing contracts under the Commercial Agents Regulations to remain in force until termination or expiry, and to prevent new contracts from being subject to the Commercial Agents Regulations.

In addition to affecting relationships between UK agents and their principals, the proposals could also have knock-on effects for the payments sector, which we explore in this post.

Professional investors will benefit from increased exposure to cryptoassets via traditional financial instruments, though retail investors’ exposure remains limited.

By Stuart Davis, Gabriel Lakeman, and Ivan Pizeta*

In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency, regulatory clarity is essential for both investors and market participants. In March this year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) made a significant announcement regarding listing cryptoasset-backed Exchange Traded Notes (cETNs) in the UK. This decision marks an important step towards greater regulatory clarity in the crypto industry and presents new opportunities for professional investors.

What Is the FCA’s Updated Position?

Traditionally, cryptoassets have posed challenges for regulators due to their decentralised and often volatile nature. However, now that cryptoassets have a more established trading history, the FCA determined that exchanges and professional investors should be able to understand whether cETNs meet their specific risk appetite. Consequently, the FCA updated its position and allowed the Recognised Investment Exchanges (RIEs) to create a UK listed market segment for cETNs. Notably, these products will be available exclusively to professional investors such as authorised investment firms and regulated credit institutions — the ban on the sale of cETNs to retail consumers remains in place.

Despite this approval, the FCA requires that stringent controls remain a prerequisite for exchanges seeking to list cETNs. These controls ensure cryptoasset trading remains orderly, that professional investors are adequately protected, and that the market segment is accessible to professional investors only. Additionally, cETNs must meet all requirements of the UK Listing Regime to maintain transparency and accountability, including provisions on prospectuses and ongoing disclosure.

What Does This Mean for Cryptoasset Regulation in the UK?

The FCA’s decision opens the door to further exploration of cryptoasset regulation. As RIEs consider creating new UK listed market segments, the FCA will assess applications on a case-by-case basis, ensuring adequate protection for professional investors. Moreover, RIEs must ensure that they fully understand the risks of admitting crypto-linked instruments to trading, and that their admission to trading criteria and trading controls will adequately mitigate those risks.

While the FCA is allowing exposure to cryptoassets through cETNs only to professional investors with certain protections in place, the regulator maintains that cETNs and cryptocurrency derivatives are unsuitable for retail consumers because of the potential harm they present. This stance introduces tension between limiting retail investors’ exposure to cETNs and crypto derivatives in order to protect those retail investors, and allowing those same retail investors exposure to cryptoassets via spot trades through cryptoasset businesses registered with the FCA under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017.

With the FCA catching up on global regulatory developments and introducing further regulatory clarity, it will be interesting to observe future progress on retail investors’ exposure to cryptoassets and the complete ban on sale of cETNs and crypto derivatives to retail investors.

Latham & Watkins will continue to monitor regulatory developments in the cryptoassets industry.

* Admitted to practice in New York only.

The Legal Statement applies areas of insolvency law to digital assets, providing valuable guidance on the approach English courts will take.

By Bruce Bell, Stuart Davis, Gabriel Lakeman, Jessica Walker, and Tim Bennett

In October 2023, the UK’s Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT), which is made up of senior judges, lawyers, a law commissioner, and the Financial Conduct Authority as an observer, issued a consultation on the treatment of digital assets in an English insolvency. This has resulted

As regulatory thinking evolves, firms must ensure that any current or planned use of AI complies with regulatory expectations.

By Fiona M. Maclean, Becky Critchley, Gabriel Lakeman, Gary Whitehead, and Charlotte Collins

As financial services firms digest FS2/23, the joint Feedback Statement on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning issued by the FCA, Bank of England, and PRA (the regulators), and the UK government hosts the AI Safety Summit, we take stock of the government and the regulators’ thinking on AI to date, discuss what compliance considerations firms should be taking into account now, and look at what is coming next.

The FCA recently highlighted that we are reaching a tipping point whereby the UK government and sectoral regulators need to decide how to regulate and oversee the use of AI. Financial services firms will need to track developments closely to understand the impact they may have. However, the regulators have already set out how numerous areas of existing regulation are relevant to firms’ use of AI, so firms also need to ensure that any current use of AI is compliant with the existing regulatory framework.

A new publication from the UK’s financial regulator signals to firms that they should take steps to manage risks in the use of AI.

By Stuart Davis, Fiona M. Maclean, Gabriel Lakeman, and Imaan Nazir

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its latest board minutes highlighting its increasing focus on artificial intelligence (AI), in which it “raised the question of how one could ‘foresee harm’ (under the new Consumer Duty), and also give customers appropriate disclosure, in the context of the operation of AI”. This publication indicates that AI continues to be a key area of attention within the FCA. It also demonstrates that the FCA believes its existing powers and rules already impose substantive requirements on regulated firms considering deploying AI in their services.

Regulator clarifies that existing FCA rules will continue to apply but will also reflect the evolving landscape of financial promotions on social media.

By Nicola Higgs, Stuart Davis, Fiona Maclean, Gabriel Lakeman, and Gary Whitehead

On 17 July 2023, the FCA published a guidance consultation (GC23/2) relating to financial promotions on social media.

Acknowledging that social media is “being used by many consumer as a go-to source of information”, the FCA is updating its existing guidance on social media and customer communications to take into account the changing landscape of social media. The existing guidance, FG15/4: Social Media and Customer Communications, will be retired once the new guidance is finalised.

A consultation that will remain open until 11 April 2023 offers further clarity on the proposals to regulate buy-now-pay-later products.

By Rob Moulton, Becky Critchley, Ella McGinn, and Dianne Bell

On 14 February 2023, HM Treasury published its consultation and accompanying draft legislation on the regulation of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) lending. The consultation follows the proposals in HM Treasury’s prior publications released in October 2021 and June 2022, since the government announced its intention to bring currently unregulated

HM Treasury has confirmed that it will bring certain unregulated cryptoassets within scope of the financial promotions regime.

By Stuart Davis, Rob Moulton, and Charlotte Collins

On 18 January 2022, the UK government confirmed its intention to bring the promotion of certain cryptoassets into scope of regulation. HM Treasury has been considering for some time whether, and if so how, to bring unregulated cryptoassets within the regulatory perimeter, having originally consulted on these proposals in 2020.

An FCA report evaluates the chequered implementation of technology change and identifies risks and best practices to help firms better navigate this change.

By Andrew C. Moyle, Alain Traill, and Jagveen S. Tyndall

Of the nearly 1,000 “material incidents” reported to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2019, 17% were caused by change-related activity. It was against this backdrop that, on 5 February 2021, the FCA set out the findings of its review entitled Implementing Technology Change regarding the execution of technology change within the financial services sector (the Report). While the Report focuses on the UK, its findings apply equally to financial services organisations implementing technology change across all geographies.