Compliance & Ethics

According to Ofgem, OVO Energy had policies designed to identify and protect vulnerable customers using prepayment meters. The problem was what happened after those policies were written. In case after case examined by the regulator, key checks were missed, customer interactions were not properly recorded, and safeguards intended to protect vulnerable households were not consistently carried out.

The Hellenic Competition Commission has fined VF Hellas €954,485 after concluding the company used its contracts with retailers to shut off some of the most important routes consumers use to find products online. The restrictions covered brands including Vans, Eastpak, and The North Face and applied not only to school supplies but also to clothing and footwear.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has reached a $1.05 million settlement with consulting giant FTI Consulting over apparent violations of U.S. sanctions targeting Russia's financial sector, concluding that the firm indirectly extended prohibited debt to Russian state-owned lender VTB Bank on multiple occasions.

The European Commission has fined Temu €200 million for violating the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), concluding that the online marketplace failed to properly assess and address the risks posed by illegal products offered through its platform.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said this week that firms have made meaningful progress in strengthening sanctions controls since February 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered an unprecedented expansion of sanctions requirements and compliance expectations across the financial sector.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's battle with state regulators over prediction markets has reached Rhode Island, the latest front in what is becoming one of the most consequential jurisdictional disputes in modern financial regulation. The CFTC moved to intervene in litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, seeking to stop the state from applying its gambling laws against a CFTC-registered designated contract market.

One of the details buried in Sweden’s enforcement notice against Norion Bank is that the regulator specifically examined customers that were legal entities, not just individuals or companies. That distinction tends to matter. Corporate structures are where anti-money laundering programs become less about identity verification and more about whether a bank actually understands who is sitting behind the paperwork.