European Finance Litigation Review

Our final edition this year considers developments in the finance litigation sphere from nine European jurisdictions, including the Luxleaks case on auto-laundering (which has implications for financial institutions’ suspicious transaction reporting), Belgian anti-money laundering laws, German rulings on state immunity relating to Greek government bonds, Dutch litigation regarding banks’ obligations to check whether their intermediaries are properly licensed and the meaning of ‘consumer’ under Irish law.

Looking ahead to 2017 we consider the new European Account Preservation Order regime, which comes into force on 18 January, and a proposed new UK corporate criminal offence of failing to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion – the UK government has made it clear that it regards financial services as one of the key sectors to be affected by this new offence.

The UK Supreme Court hearing considering whether the UK Government can trigger the formal process of leaving the EU without Parliamentary approval has concluded, and we expect a ruling early in January. The outcome may affect the timing of Brexit, and is further considered here.