UK: Supreme Court judgment next week - proprietary claims and priority

The UK Supreme Court has announced that it will hand down its judgment in CPS v Aquila Advisory Ltd [2021] UKSC 49 on 3 November next week. The issues before the court, to quote directly from the summary provided, were these: "Where a proprietary claim is brought by a company against its directors to recover proceeds of crime received in breach of fiduciary duty: (1) Can that proprietary claim be asserted in priority to a confiscation order obtained by the Crown Prosecution Service? (2) Can the illegality of the directors be attributed to the company in circumstances where the company suffered no loss and stood to profit from the crime?"

UK: PRA report - climate change and the regulatory capital framework

The Prudential Regulation Authority has published a report exploring the links between climate change and the regulatory capital framework.  The report concludes that regulatory capital has a role to play in dealing with the consequences - the financial risks - of climate change, but notes that further work design and evaluation work is required.  In this regard, the PRA plans to publish a call for research and host a conference. The aim is to provide more guidance by the end of 2022. A copy of the report, titled Climate Change Adaptation Report 2021 - Climate-related financial risk management and the role of capital requirements, is available here (pdf).

UK: introducing a corporate re-domiciliation regime - consultation launched

The Government has today - on autumn budget day - published a consultation paper seeking views on the introduction of a corporate re-domiciliation regime: see here (pdf). To quote from the consultation paper (at paras. 2.1 and 2.2): "This [new regime] would enable a company to shift its place of incorporation from one jurisdiction to the UK while maintaining the same legal identity ... Re-domiciliation would therefore enable a company to maximise continuity of its operations while enabling it to shift its place of incorporation. Its corporate history, management structure, assets, intellectual and other property rights, contracts, and regulatory approvals will generally remain intact...".

UK: England and Wales: regulatory action by FCA did not require insolvency court permission

Judgment was given today in Financial Conduct Authority v Carillion Plc [2021] EWHC 2871 (Ch). The question before the court was whether regulatory action by the FCA against a company in liquidation, under section 91 and/or section 123 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, constituted "action or proceeding" such that it required the permission of the insolvency court under section 130(2) ("consequences of winding-up order") of the Insolvency Act 1986. The trial judge, Mr Justice Michael Green, held that such permission was not required. 

UK: The Payment and Electronic Money Institution Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2021

The Payment and Electronic Money Institution Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2021 were laid before Parliament a few days ago and come into force on 12 November: see here or here (pdf). The accompanying explanatory memorandum is available here (pdf). The Rules provide further detail for the operation of the special administration procedure established in the Payment and Electronic Money Institution Insolvency Regulations 2021.