Publication
Ireland
On 31 October 2023, the Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (the “Act”), which establishes a new foreign direct investment ("FDI") screening regime in Ireland, was enacted.
United Kingdom | Publication | March 2024
The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has partly upheld a complaint by a member of a DB public sector scheme who alleged that the administrator had provided incorrect information about his lifetime allowance (LTA) which led him to opt out of the scheme.
In early 2016, the administrator wrote to the member informing him that he "may be affected" by a reduction in the LTA coming into effect in April 2016. The letter was sent following an incorrect overstatement of the member’s pension benefits provided by the employer. The member claimed that the letter led him to believe that the value of his benefits was approaching his LTA and as a result, he decided to opt out of paying contributions. A year later, after discovering that the value of his benefits was unlikely to breach the LTA, he opted back in. However, by this time, he had lost the ability to make further contributions into his added years contract under the scheme's rules.
The Ombudsman held that the administrator was not responsible for the provision of incorrect information by the employer. Neither did the administrator provide any incorrect information about the LTA in its 2016 letter. The letter did not say that the member was close to, or in excess of, the LTA, nor did it recommend any specific action. Ultimately, it was the member's responsibility to establish his LTA position and the administrator was not responsible for the financial consequences of the member's decision to opt out.
However, the Ombudsman did find that the administrator had made other errors constituting maladministration, including taking around nine months to respond to the member's complaint and overpaying the member's lump sum. Consequently, the administrator was ordered to pay the member £1,000 for the serious distress and inconvenience caused.
Generally, employers should avoid giving members financial advice. Where there are major changes in the law which could affect members, information should be provided without going into detail on how benefits could be affected. The member bears the ultimate responsibility for determining how changes affect them personally.
Read the Determination.
Publication
On 31 October 2023, the Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (the “Act”), which establishes a new foreign direct investment ("FDI") screening regime in Ireland, was enacted.
Publication
The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation, or FSR, is intended to prevent or remedy distortions of the EU internal market caused by “foreign” – meaning non-EU – subsidies benefitting companies active in the EU.
Publication
The conventional wisdom is that ‘securitisation caused the great financial crisis’ (GFC). A further piece of conventional wisdom is that this was due to the misalignment of incentives between securitisation originators and securitisation investors . This conventional wisdom in turn drove much of the regulation of securitisation we now have.
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest legal news, information and events . . .
© Norton Rose Fulbright LLP 2023