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Recording – Lessons learned for asset managers - UK

Recording – Lessons learned for asset managers - UK
  • United Kingdom
  • Coronavirus - Webinars and podcasts
  • Financial services and markets regulation
  • Financial services - Asset managers and funds

30-06-2020

As we start to move out of the more stringent phase of the lockdown, it seems like a good time to take stock and see what we have learned from the pandemic and implementation of business continuity plans in a real life scenario.

As the FCA’s Megan Butler noted in her recent speech, in operational terms the industry has responded well to the onset of the COVID-19 crisis but as asset management firms moved to a remote working model we found that there were a number of recurrent themes where firms, despite detailed contingency and business continuity plans, needed advice.  The FCA has flagged that it will be placing particular emphasis on operational resilience (particularly in light of its operational resilience consultation paper late last year, CP19/32: Building operational resilience: impact tolerances for important business services) and financial resilience, so it makes sense for firms to review how their own planning stood up to the tests the last few months have brought and take steps to remediate any identified issues.

These are the common themes:

  • Effectiveness of business continuity plans
  • Document disclosures and accuracy (e.g. notices and risk warnings)
  • Communications with investors
  • e-Dealing
  • Governance issues
  • Holding shareholder meetings
  • Deferred redemptions
  • Insurance
  • Force majeure
  • Recording of calls
  • Contracts not contemplating the inability to access a physical location
  • Fair value pricing
  • Dilution
  • Suspensions
  • Liquidity management
  • Definition of dealing day
  • Payments of dividends
  • Client money and client assets
  • Cyber risk
  • GDPR
  • e-Signatures

Podcast: COVID-19 – Lessons learned for asset managers

Principal Associates Hannah Jones and Katie Taylor discuss some of these themes and how they can be approached and remediated in our latest podcast, "Lessons learned during COVID-19: Practical and operational consequences in financial services".

Listen to the podcast >

How Eversheds Sutherland can help

The Financial Services team has experience of advising on all the above issues and how to remediate the appropriate documents, contracts and policies and procedures.

If you would like to discuss any of these with the team, please contact your usual Eversheds Sutherland contact.

Michaela Walker, Product Group Head
Julian Brown, Partner
Craig Rogers, Partner
Hannah Jones, Principal Associate
Katie Taylor, Principal Associate

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