The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has published its Q3 2025 Prudential Data Report, documenting regulatory developments across major jurisdictions alongside European globally systemically important banks' capital and liquidity positions. The report reveals that the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee has reduced its Tier 1 capital benchmark from 14% to 13% of risk-weighted assets. In the EU, the European Central Bank's simplification task force has proposed reducing capital stack elements, revising the role and design of Additional Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruments, and aligning minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities and total loss-absorbing capacity frameworks. The ECB has indicated a preference for a capital-neutral approach despite Eurozone banks currently maintaining the highest risk-based Tier 1 capital ratio among major banking jurisdictions. The report notes that regulators in the EU, US, UK, and Australia are advancing initiatives to simplify prudential frameworks, including streamlining capital stacks and revising stress test influences on capital surcharges. European G-SIBs maintained a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 14.4% in Q3 2025, with AT1 issuance reaching €8.22bn during the quarter.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), Commodity Markets Council Europe, Energy Traders Europe and FIA have submitted a joint response on to the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA)'s consultation CP26/8, supporting an increase in the commodity derivatives clearing threshold under UK European Market Infrastructure Regulation from €3bn to €6bn rather than the proposed €5bn. They argued that the threshold, which has not been reviewed for over a decade, has materially diminished in real terms due to inflation, sustained increases in commodity prices, expanded market participation and heightened volatility, and no longer reflects current market conditions or risks. The response explained that firms typically manage activity well below the formal threshold to avoid the costs and liquidity pressures associated with mandatory clearing and margining, meaning the effective threshold is significantly lower in practice and may create procyclical effects during periods of market stress. The organisations emphasised the distinct characteristics of commodity derivatives markets, which are closely linked to physical production and commercial risk management, and warned that an inadequately calibrated threshold risks constraining hedging activity, reducing liquidity and undermining UK competitiveness. They concluded that a higher interim threshold is necessary to support proportionate regulation and market functioning while HM Treasury undertakes its broader review of the UK EMIR clearing framework, and that the threshold should not be reduced below €6bn.

The Housing Ombudsman Service has found severe maladministration for how Peabody responded to reports of anti-social behaviour and noise nuisance for a significant period of time, which caused a resident and her terminally ill husband to end their tenancy. The husband, who died during the case, had been caused stress and anxiety due to the anti-social behaviour and noise nuisance. The resident’s ongoing reports of nuisance went unanswered for months on end, causing her to terminate the tenancy and rent another property to care for her terminally ill husband. Peabody’s inaction meant that it did not consider the guidance on supporting victims and witnesses as outlined in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (ABCPA 2014), or as described in the landlord’s own policies and procedures. As a result, the landlord has introduced specialist community safety teams to work with residents and communities on any anti-social behaviour issues and has created a dedicated complaints team. The Chief Executive at the landlord has been ordered to apologise to the resident personally, pay £2,000 in compensation, and review how it manages anti-social behavior.

TMT analysis: The claimant obtained £60,000 in general damages and £37,041.61 in special damages after suing her former partner for the misuse of private information and the intentional infliction of injury. The defendant had covertly recorded intimate images of the claimant and uploaded them to the internet, apparently for financial gain. The discovery of the images caused the claimant to suffer an emotional breakdown and develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the point that it caused a personality change. In addition to general damages for this distress/injury, the court awarded damages for consequential financial loss, including loss flowing from her immediate termination of the relationship on discovery of the conduct (including temporary accommodation costs, an aborted holiday and money spent on furniture for the couple’s home) as well as past and future healthcare costs and the estimated cost of removing material from the internet. It is believed that this is the first reported occasion in which the court has undertaken a full assessment of damages in a revenge porn/image-based abuse claim. Written by Iain Wilson, managing partner/head of Media and Communications Law at Brett Wilson LLP.

Ofgem has launched a call for input on draft special licence conditions for long-duration electricity storage (LDES) projects under the cap-and-floor scheme, seeking stakeholder views ahead of a statutory consultation expected in summer 2026. The proposed conditions would be implemented through modifications to the standard electricity generation licence and are intended to establish the operational framework for LDES projects awarded support under the regime. The draft addresses areas including revenue calculation methodologies, availability requirements, treatment of construction cost overruns, financial resilience provisions, and governance of the cap-and-floor financial models. Ofgem states that it is particularly seeking views on key policy areas such as the approach to setting floor levels, the treatment of market-related costs and optimiser fees, availability requirements for storage assets, and controls on structured transactions and revenue maximisation. Ofgem is also seeking evidence on developing policy issues, including obligations during system stress events, cybersecurity expectations, governance of algorithmic optimisation, and the potential consumer impacts of repetitive re-trading in electricity markets. The call for input closes on 20 April 2026.

This week's edition of Financial Services weekly highlights includes: FCA to launch Mastercard, PayPal and Visa competition law investigations; ESMA issues call for evidence on market structure of EU equity markets; ISDA publishes framework for counterparty credit risk internal models; plus dates for your diary.

This week's edition of Financial Services weekly highlights includes: FCA publishes five portfolio strategy letters; ESAs publish report on 2024 dry run exercise for DORA reporting; Cross-border payments: FSB issues recommendations on frictions in data flows and consistency in regulation between bank and non-bank PSPs; plus dates for your diary over the coming week.

The3million has published a report detailing eVisa related problems submitted via the eVisa problems website from April to June 2025 (Q2). The website was created by the 3million and the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association in June 2024 for people to self-report eVisa problems. The most affected immigration status groups were individuals with refugee status/ humanitarian protection (18.5%) and those holding indefinite leave to remain with biometric residence permits (18%). The most frequently reported issue—accounting for 36% of submissions in Q2 2025—was the inability to link identity documents such as renewed passports to existing eVisas. This was often due to technical faults or missing hyperlinks on the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) update details page, and represents a sharp rise from 15% in Q1 2025. The second most common issue, affecting 21.2% of respondents, was the inability to view their eVisa despite having completed account setup, with many users receiving persistent error messages and no resolution from the Home Office. This problem peaked in Q4 2024 and remained significant in Q2 2025. Additionally, 12.9% of respondents in Q2 2025 reported that their eVisa displayed incorrect details such as name, photo or status type, a notable decrease from its peak of 26.8% in Q1 2025. Other frequently reported issues included difficulties completing UKVI account setup and creating an account, alongside a range of miscellaneous problems. In Q2 2025, 71.8% of respondents contacted the Home Office by phone, webchat or email but could not resolve their eVisa issues, often describing a circular process with no live support. eVisa-related issues directly impacted people leading to to travel disruptions (35.7%), employment barriers (13%) and increased stress (over 5%). Many called for physical proof of status, citing the unreliability of digital-only systems in urgent situations.

This week's edition of PI & Clinical Negligence weekly highlights includes an analysis of a ruling on liability under the Animals Act, the introduction of Jess’s rule aimed at avoiding GP delays in diagnosis and a look at the impact of the Hague Convention 2019 on personal injury claims. We also cover commentary on the future of UK product liability and an important case on who is able to carry out regulated legal work under the Legal Services Act 2007, which impacts all practitioners. In addition, we have our usual round-up of other news, cases, webinars and New Law Journal articles of interest.

This week's edition of PI & Clinical Negligence weekly highlights includes a news analysis of how advances in neurotechnology may impact the personal injury and clinical negligence industry, a case in which QOCS protection was reinstated by the Court of Appeal in a ‘mixed’ claim and a case analysis where the Court of Appeal again considered whether the police held a duty of care to protect the public from third party harm, following on from the Supreme Court decision in Tindall. We also bring you details of the updated guidance published by HMCTS for the Damages Claims pilot scheme under CPR PD 51ZB. In addition, we have our usual roundup of other news, cases and New Law Journal articles of interest.

What are CCPs and what do they do? A central counterparty (CCP) is a type of financial institution (also known as a clearing house) which facilitates the clearing of both over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives and exchange-traded derivatives (ETDs). CCPs are classed as financial market Infrastructures (FMIs). A derivative is a type of financial instrument whose value is determined by reference to (and so derived from) an underlying asset, index, rate, reference point or risk (referred to as the underlying asset or underlying). Derivatives are bi-lateral contracts which involve the transfer of all or part of the risk and reward associated with the underlying from one party to another without the immediate transfer of the underlying itself. The terms of OTC derivatives are agreed directly between the parties (or in some cases arranged through a broker). OTC derivatives can be distinguished from derivatives (usually futures or options) which are traded on public exchanges (exchange traded derivatives or ETDs). The terms of ETDs are specified by the exchanges on which they are traded, not by the parties. ETDs are, generally,

This week's edition of PI & Clinical Negligence weekly highlights includes the 18th edition of the Judicial College Guidelines, now available in Key Resources on the PI & Clinical Negligence practical guidance home page. The new guidelines reflect inflationary increases to award brackets and include revisions to the epilepsy and sexual and/or physical abuse sections and introduce a new section on miscarriage. We also cover further analysis of the Court of Appeal’s decision overturning Mazur alongside revised civil legal aid means-testing guidelines from the Legal Aid Agency. In addition, we have our usual round-up of other news, cases and webinars.