Posted
By and

Effective March 1, 2017, first-in-kind regulations issued by the New York Department of Financial Services (New York DFS) will begin to affect a wide array of both depository and non-depository financial institutions. The new regulations will cascade certain requirements upon these financial institutions’ third-party service providers, requiring the financial institutions to take a close look at their vendor relationships.

Who Is Covered?

The new regulations will specifically apply to “Covered Entities,” meaning any financial services firm that operates (or is required to operate) under a “license, registration, charter, certificate, permit, accreditation or similar authorization” by the New York DFS. Just to name a few, this includes banks, credit unions, insurance companies, licensed lenders and loan servicers, money transmitters, and even those operating under New York’s new virtual currency license.

Continue reading

Posted
By

“We will follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American.” While world leaders are pondering what these words from President Trump’s Inaugural Address mean for international trade, a different question looms for U.S. Government contractors—what is on the horizon as far as the Buy American Act and similar protectionist regulations?

To finish reading this article written by our Pillsbury colleagues click here.

Posted
By

Recently our Global Sourcing and Technology Transactions team members published a report for SCL on Issues in Global Sourcing Transactions. Their report focuses on how in an increasingly globalized world, outsourcing contracts often have multi-jurisdictional scope. Before putting pen to paper, lawyers should consider with their clients the most appropriate contract structure for the deal and due consideration should be given to areas in which issues most commonly arise, for example, parent company guarantees, limitations of liability, service level regimes and TUPE.

Click here to read the full article on the SCL website.

Posted
By

UK’s Industrial Strategy announced—new Government contracting approach will favour UK-based firms after Brexit.

  • UK Government spending currently runs circa £278 billion per annum.
  • Government contractors will be given priority when bidding for UK Government work after Brexit.
Continue reading

Posted
By

The FCA has fined Aviva, the UK insurance group, £8.2 million for failing to have appropriate controls over its outsourced service providers. According to the FCA’s press release, the fine would have been even larger at £11.8 million but for a 30% discount due to Aviva for agreeing with the FCA to settle at an early stage.

The case related to a number of FCA Handbook breaches between 1 January 2013 and 2 September 2015, including breaches of Principles 3 and 10, the Outsourcing Chapter of SYSC and the Client Assets Sourcebook (CASS)—rules which apply whenever a firm holds or controls client money or has custody assets as part of its business. Two Aviva group companies, Aviva Pension Trustees UK and Aviva Wrap UK had outsourced the administration of client money and external reconciliations in relation custody assets to third party administrators (TPAs). In what is the first CASS case in relation to oversight failures of outsourcing arrangements, the FCA found that the Aviva companies had “failed to put in place appropriate controls over … [the TPAs] … to which they had outsourced the administration of client money and external reconciliations in relation to custody assets … [resulting] in Aviva failing to sufficiently challenge the internal controls, competence and resources of their TPAs.”

Continue reading

Posted
By

Should what goes out come back in? In a recent guest blog for MRO-Network.com the bringing back in-house of functions that have previously been outsourced. From regaining control of business-critical functions to increased flexibility and simplified purchasing, Mike and Caron examine the benefits and challenges of returning functions to the fold.

 

Posted
By

The UK’s financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has recently published summaries of the responses it received to a Call for Inputs (CfI) on the use of big data in the retail general insurance (GI) sector as well as outlining its responses to the issues raised. Insurance companies, which are increasingly using big data (gleaned from social media, loyalty cards, aggregator sites and other such sources) to determine risk profiles and set premiums, can rest a little easier given that the FCA says that it has decided not to undertake a full market study or make a reference to the Competition and Markets Authority.

Continue reading

Posted
By

If you operate a website which does business with consumers based in the European Union, read on.

In the recent case, Verein für Konsumenteninformation v Amazon EU Sàrl (28 July 2016), brought by Austrian consumer protection body Verein für Konsumenteninformation (VKI), the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) held that Amazon’s standard terms of business were unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive. As such, an injunction was granted forcing Amazon to change its standard terms.

Continue reading

Posted
By

July 7, 2016, saw the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) publish fresh guidance in order to clarify the requirements which apply to the financial services firms it regulates when outsourcing to the cloud. When the FCA talks about the cloud, it is referring to the full range of cloud solutions which have evolved (such as private, public and hybrid cloud) as well as the various “X as a Service” solutions such as IaaS (infrastructure), PaaS (platform) and SaaS (software).

Continue reading

Posted
By

We all know that “cloud computing” is one of the most tired and overused phrases in the technology industry, and it has been for years. Everyone has gone “to the cloud” now, right? Not so fast. When it comes to cloud-based enterprise email, the market has lagged somewhat behind.

A Gartner report published on February 1, 2016, found that “[t]he cloud email market is still in the early stages of adoption with 13 percent of identified publicly listed companies globally using one of the two main cloud email vendors.” Those two leading cloud email vendors are: (a) Microsoft, which offers Microsoft Office 365 and has an 8.5% adoption rate among global companies; and (b) Google, which offers Google Apps for Work and has a 4.7% adoption rate among global companies. There are other providers in this space, including Amazon Web Services and Rackspace, which also provide cloud email solutions.

Continue reading