Research Briefing
The credit crisis:a timeline
This Briefing Paper provides a brief summary of the financial crisis, or credit crunch, of 2008 followed by a lengthy timeline of individual events.
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Research Briefing
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
This note outlines the background to and scope of the financial services compensation scheme (FSCS). Significant changes were made to the scheme in the summer of 2007 following the emergence of financial difficulties at the Northern Rock bank and in October 2008 following continued difficulties in the UK banking sector.
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Research Briefing
European responses to the financial crisis
Summarises responses from individual European governments and from the EU.
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Research Briefing
The regulation of sale and rent back agreements
All firms undertaking sale and rent back agreements now have to be authorised by the FSA, so giving consumers greater protection. A key feature of the full regime will be that all consumers who undertake a sale and rent back agreement will have a guaranteed minimum tenancy of five years.
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Research Briefing
EU financial services legislation
This Paper is a summary of many of the financial services legislative initiatives announced by the EU in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008/9.
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Research Briefing
Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Bill [HL] [Bill No. 79 of 2009-10]
The purpose of the Bill is to amend existing legislation governing the relationship between insurers and claimants, with specific regard to 'third parties', to make it easier and less expensive to claim compensation from insolvent defendants. Current legislation dictates that claimants must establish an insolvent defendant's liability before bringing a separate claim against their insurer. The Bill would enable claimants to sue the insolvent defendant's insurer directly, without having to sue the wrongdoer first. The Bill's provisions are largely uncontroversial, and have widespread support from the majority of stakeholders.
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Research Briefing
Co-operative & Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Bill [HL] Bill No. 50
The Bill requires new industrial and provident societies (other than credit unions) to be registered as co-operative or community benefit societies, re-names the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, and applies the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 to industrial and provident societies. The Bill also gives the Treasury powers to apply company law on the investigation of companies, company names and dissolution and restoration to the register, to industrial and provident societies, and to make provisions for credit unions corresponding to any provisions applying to building societies.
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Research Briefing
Financial Services Bill : Committee Stage Report
This is a report on the Committee Stage of the Bill. The Bill creates a Council for Financial Stability to co-ordinate the responsibilities and action of the Bank of England, Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Treasury with respect to financial stability. It also provides for collective consumer legal action to be taken in cases of multiple claimants against financial companies. The key debate at Committee Stage was on the structure of the regulatory system and the establishment of the Council for Financial Stability. One Government amendment was made to the Bill, which emphasised that the Bill had no retrospective impact upon executive remuneration contracts.
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Research Briefing
Competition and the banking crisis
This note sets out to: provide information on state aid rules and assistance to the financial sector; explain some of the competition concerns relating to the banking crisis; and set out briefly the powers of the competition authorities to address such concerns.
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Research Briefing
Financial Services Bill. Bill 6 2009-10.
This is the third piece of financial services legislation since 2007 to respond to the banking and financial crisis. It does however, include other measures designed to improve the position of financial services customers. It creates a Council for Financial Stability to co-ordinate the responsibilities and action of the Bank, FSA and Treasury with respect to financial stability matters. It enhances and extends the powers of the FSA and gives it new duties. Lastly, amongst other consumer protection measures, it provides for collective consumer legal action to be taken in cases of multiple claimants against financial companies. The Bill applies to the whole of the UK.
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Research Briefing
Financial services regulation – proposals for change
This note summarises the proposals put forward in two documents that address the issue of reforms to the regulation of the financial services sector post credit crunch.
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Research Briefing
Icelandic Bank Default
This note sets out the events surrounding the collapse of several Icelandic banks with branches in the UK. It looks at compensation arrangements and the impact of default on other groups.
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Research Briefing
Bankers’ Pensions (Limits) Bill
Looks at a Private Member's Bill which would enable limits to be placed on the occupational pension entitlement of the director of a bank which has been taken wholly or partly into public ownership.
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Research Briefing
Proposals to reform financial regulation
This Note provides a summary of the reforms recommended in the Turner Review, the European Commission's de Larosiere report, documents produced by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and a range of reports produced by the Financial Stability Forum/Financial Stability Board.
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Research Briefing
Executive Remuneration in UK Banking
This standard note provides an overview of executive compensation in seven of the UK's largest banks. It examines the composition of executive remuneration with a focus on the payment of bonuses and the circumstances in which they are paid
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