Compliance & Ethics

The Upper Tribunal upheld the FCA's ban on Crispin Odey from financial services after finding he lacked integrity. The finding rested on his removal of Odey Asset Management's executive committee to halt an internal disciplinary process, and on a lack of candour toward the firm, clients, investors, and the FCA. The decision reinforces that the FCA will hold senior individuals personally accountable for governance failures and for how workplace misconduct is handled.

BaFin issued Circular 11/2026 (BA) on September 14, 2026, covering the appointment of trustees at mortgage banks under Sections 7 et seq. of the German Mortgage Bank Act (PfandBG). Trustees oversee the cover pool that backs Pfandbriefe, so the circular is relevant to any institution issuing covered bonds. Only the title and metadata were available for this review, so teams should read the full PDF before acting.

BaFin has a well-founded suspicion that Nexura VG is publicly offering GoldRock Industries Ltd. shares in Germany without the prospectus required under Article 3(1) of the EU Prospectus Regulation. Compliance teams should treat this as a red flag for potential investment fraud or unauthorized securities distribution. The warning calls for screening of client activity, counterparties, and marketing channels for any link to the named entities.

Bundesbank official Michael Theurer argues in a Handelsblatt guest commentary that EU banking rules should be simplified and made more proportionate without lowering resilience standards. He supports cross-border group-level capital and liquidity management and a lighter framework for small, non-complex banks. The commentary signals the supervisory direction ahead of the European Commission's expected legislative proposals by early 2027, so compliance teams should begin planning now.

A Deutsche Bundesbank discussion paper (No. 26/2026) models how imperfect information about the persistence of productivity growth produces waves of optimism and pessimism that distort inflation dynamics and delay central bank responses. It concludes that a more hawkish stance reduces welfare losses and uncertainty. This is a research paper and not binding regulation, but it signals how policy thinking may shape interest rate paths that affect institutional risk planning.

The New York State Comptroller and DFS designated Manhattan Community District 12 (Washington Heights and Inwood) as the state's 60th Banking Development District (BDD) and announced a USD $35 Million state deposit to Ponce Bank's Inwood branch. The action shows how DFS uses the BDD program to steer public deposits and branch investment toward underserved areas. Compliance teams at New York-chartered banks and credit unions should assess eligibility, community reinvestment alignment, and the commitments that come with program participation.

The European Banking Authority has published its latest validation rules update (dated 14/09/2026) along with a new small validation package covering rule deactivations, reactivations, and severity changes. Reporting institutions and their data teams must align taxonomy and Data Point Model (DPM) implementations to avoid validation failures and inconsistent regulatory submissions.