Compliance & Ethics

Three times, CACEIS UK checked the Financial Services Register. Three times, it was presented with information showing that WealthTek lacked permission to hold certain client assets. Nothing happened that altered the course of the relationship. According to an enforcement action the UK's Financial Conduct Authority published Thursday, concluding that the asset servicing bank failed to respond appropriately to repeated warning signs while acting as WealthTek's sub-custodian.

A clock counting down to the end of a sale carries an implicit promise—buy now or the opportunity disappears. The Italian Competition Authority says Deghi made that promise over and over again without ever intending to keep it. The regulator has fined the Italian home furnishings and e-commerce retailer €2.0 million ($2.3 million) after concluding that the company systematically misled consumers by presenting discounts as fleeting when they were anything but.

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has imposed a financial penalty of approximately $5.4 million (AED 20 million) on a branch of a foreign bank after examinations identified significant and repeated deficiencies in its anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, sanctions, and illegal organizations compliance framework.

The Securities and Exchange Commission spent the past several weeks figuring out how to return money to investors. The agency advanced distribution efforts in three separate enforcement matters involving United Parcel Service, American Electric Power, and Andeavor, together representing $84 million in civil penalties that the SEC intends to distribute through Fair Funds established under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

More than 51,000 ticket buyers will receive refunds after Britain's competition watchdog concluded that StubHub UK illegally withheld mandatory fees until the final stage of the checkout process, a practice regulators have spent the past year trying to stamp out across online commerce.

Australia's communications regulator has found that SBS breached gambling advertising rules during its broadcast of the Tour de France after airing a Crown advertisement that described the company as a "premier casino resort." At first glance, the advertisement appeared to sit comfortably within an exception that allows broadcasters to air promotions focused on dining and entertainment facilities at venues where gambling takes place. The commercial featured Crown's restaurants, entertainment offerings and accommodation.

The simultaneous arrival of a new capital-market authority, a rewritten companies law, and stricter governance and audit rules is transforming UAE corporate governance from a compliance exercise into a demonstrable system of control.