UK: first use of the Special Administration Regime

MF Global UK Limited has become the first investment bank to enter the Special Administration Regime (SAR) introduced by the Investment Bank Special Administration Regulations 2011, under Section 233 of the Banking Act (2009). The SAR was introduced in response to the weaknesses revealed in the UK's insolvency regime following the collapse of Lehman Bros. One of the duties of the administrator under the SAR is to ensure the return of client assets as soon as is reasonably practicable. See here for further background information and here for a statement from the Financial Services Authority.

The G20 High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, at their meeting last month, endorsed the High Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection developed by the OECD Committee on Financial Markets in collaboration with others. The Principles are available here (pdf).

UK: England and Wales: the court's discretion under section 996 of the Companies Act (2006)

Judgment was given last Friday in F&C Alternative Investments (Holdings) Ltd v Barthelemy [2011] EWHC 2807 (Ch). Amongst the matters was discussed was the scope of section 996 of the Companies Act (2006), under which the court is given the power to make an order on such terms as it sees fit in respect of unfairly prejudicial conduct. The trial judge stated that the discretion under section 996 was "very wide" and could include an order that a party should write to the Financial Services Authority to undo the effect of its unfairly prejudicial behaviour in pursuing an investigation.

Ireland: the Central Bank's revised consumer protection code

The Central Bank has published a revised edition of its consumer protection code: see here (pdf). The code takes effect on 1 January 2012 and applies to regulated entities (e.g., banks, insurance companies and intermediaries). In the view of the Central Bank, the revised code represents the most significant strengthening of consumer protection since the code was first published in 2006.

UK: the interpretation of commercial contracts - Rainy Sky judgment due this week

The Supreme Court has announced that it will hand down its judgment in Rainy Sky S. A. v Kookmin Bank this Wednesday: see here. According to the Supreme Court's summary of the case, it concerns the "proper role and application of considerations of business common sense when interpreting commercial contracts. In particular, whether such considerations form part of a single interpretative process or whether they are only to be applied as a second stage of analysis, after a textual analysis of the contract, and then only to exclude an absurd or irrational construction or to facilitate a choice between otherwise equally balanced textual constructions".

Update (2 November 2011): see this blog post for the judgment.