Welcome to the March 2008 edition of our Financial Services Briefing.

Articles

This edition of the briefing contains the following articles:-

Part II – George Walker’s analysis of the principal UK, EU and international regulatory developments that have taken place over the last two months.

Part III – an article by George Walker on legal and regulatory aspects of the Northern Rock Saga.

Part IV – Hannah Clark examines the FSA’s latest guidance on treating customer’s fairly in the context of the management of Authorised Investment Funds.

Part V – an article by Martin Day on the FSA’s recent disciplinary case against HFC Bank.

Part VI – Susan Gordon of Deacons, Hong Kong examines the marketing of non-Hong Kong investment funds to the public in Hong Kong.

Part VII – Claudia Rooney a member of the Farrer & Co employment team looks at whistle-blowing legislation in the financial sector and the significance of a recent Court of Appeal decision.

Part VIII – Martin Day and Hannah Clark look at the FSA’s new rules requiring firms to record telephone and other electronic communications.

Our Spring Seminars

As our regular readers will know we run a seminar programme on topical issues in the Spring and Autumn of each year.

Continuing on the theme of the various investment fund products, and the pros and cons, and tax treatment of each, begun at our seminars last November on Authorised Investment Funds, the remainder of our Spring 2008 programme comprises:

On Tuesday 15^th April in London and on Monday 21^st April in Edinburgh:

Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes;

and on Tuesday 1^st July in London and on Monday 23^rd June in Edinburgh:

FSA Authorised Funds Update and Review.

All seminars take place at 5.30pm in London (at Farrer & Co's 66 Lincoln's Inn Fields offices), or in Edinburgh at 5pm at The Balmoral Hotel, Princes Street.

We hope you find this Briefing useful.

Jonathan Bayliss

Grania Baird

Financial Services Team