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The purpose of this paper is, first, to empirically examine whether the appointment of females (board gender diversity) to the corporate boards of UK financial institutions can improve firm value, and second, to examine whether having females on the boards of UK financial institutions can impact firm value during the pre-/post-global financial crisis periods.

The paper uses secondary data obtained from DataStream covering 63 financial institutions over a period of 12 years. A number of additional statistical estimations, including random effects and fixed effects, are conducted to test the robustness of the findings.

The outcome of this empirical research shows that the presence of females on the corporate boards of UK financial institutions has a positive and statistically significant relationship with firm value. The authors’ evidence reveals a positive and statistically significant impact on the firm’s value prior to the financial crisis, that is, during the pre-crisis period (2000-2006), meaning that women contributed significantly to the firm’s value. However, after the financial crisis, the presence of females on the board had no significant effect on the firm’s value. A reasonable explanation may be that, whilst the financial crisis was over in the period 2009-2011, the entire UK economy was still experiencing an economic downturn, and financial firms were no exception, irrespective of whether there was female representation on any corporate board. Overall, the findings are consistent with the prior studies.

The results have practical implications for governments, policy-makers and regulatory authorities, by indicating the importance of women to corporate success.

Despite several research projects on board gender diversity (BGD), this research is unique compared to the previous empirical studies, primarily because it is the first-time research of this nature is empirically ascertaining BGD and firm value in UK financial institutions, also during the pre-/post-financial crisis era. This paper contributes to the corporate governance literature by offering new insights on board diversity and firms’ value relationship. Overall, the results help fill any gaps on gender diversity and firm value in UK financial institutions.

This study aims to examine the direct relationship between board gender diversity (BGD) and financial performance and the moderating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the said relationship.

Using data collected from the Thomson Reuters Eikon ASSET4 database from 42 UK financial institutions listed in the ESG index for the period 2005–2019, this study used multivariate regression analysis on panel data to test the effect of BGD on financial performance and estimate the moderating effect of CSR between them. Moreover, to control the endogeneity problem, the authors conducted an additional analysis by testing the dynamic dimension of the data set through the generalized moment method.

The empirical results show that BGD is positively related to financial performance and that BGD increases firm performance with the moderating effect of CSR. Regarding the endogeneity problem, the existence of continuity between financial institution performances over time is demonstrated.

The current paper sheds light on the importance of BGD in improving firm performance and the moderating role of CSR in strengthening the relationship between BGD and firm performance, thereby contributing to the agency theory, the resource dependency theory and the stakeholder theory. Therefore, regulators and policymakers in the UK can use the outcomes of this study to enforce the representation of female directors on boards to enhance the financial performance of financial institutions. Moreover, the findings could be useful for regulatory bodies to encourage financial institutions to practice CSR activities and disclose them in their annual reports.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating the moderating role of CSR on the relationship between BGD and financial performance in the context of the financial sector. It is also the first study documenting that CSR reinforces the relationship between gender-diverse boards and financial institutions' performance. This study fills a research gap as it expands the existing literature that has generally focused on the impact of BGD on financial performance and has not reached similar results.

Customer due diligence measures that are employed in the United Kingdom (UK) to detect and combat money laundering are discussed. The UK adopted a progressive regulatory and enforcement framework to combat money laundering which relies, inter alia, on the use of customer due diligence measures to regulate and curb the occurrence of money laundering activities in its financial institutions and financial markets. However, other regulatory measures that could have contributed to the effective combating money laundering in the UK will not be explored in detail since the article is focused on the reliance and use of customer due diligence measures to curb money laundering activities. Accordingly, the strength, flaws and weaknesses of the UK anti-money laundering regulatory and enforcement framework are examined. Lastly, possible recommendations to address such flaws and weaknesses are provided.

The paper discusses customer due diligence measures that are used in the UK to detect and combat money laundering.

It is hoped that policymakers and other relevant persons will use the recommendations provided in the paper to enhance the curbing of money laundering in the UK.

The paper does not provide empirical research.

The study is useful to all policymakers, lawyers, law students and regulatory bodies in the UK.

The study seeks to curb money laundering in the UK society globally.

The study is original research on the use of customer due diligence measures to detect and combat money laundering in the UK.

This paper aims to examine the impact of audit committee (AC) adoption on the financial value of financial institutions in the UK and also to examine the impact of the establishment of an AC on firm value during the pre/post-global financial crisis era.

The paper embarks on a theoretical and empirical literature review on AC adoption and its impact on a firm’s financial value. The paper uses data from 63 financial institutions and covers a 12-year period.

The empirical results indicate that the adoption of an AC by financial institutions has a positive and statistically significant impact on firm value. The results from the pre-crisis period also indicate that the adoption of an AC makes a positive and significant contribution to firm value. However, there is no impact on firm value during the post-crisis period. The results suggest that the entire UK economy experienced an economic downturn after the financial crisis (2009-2011), and financial firms were no exception.

This study helps to fill research gaps on the relationships between ACs and firm value as they exist in UK financial institutions. These findings are important for policymakers and regulators.

This research will encourage firms to establish ACs.

This new finding about the importance of firms having an AC in place is important for policymakers and regulators.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to conduct an empirical study of the effect of AC adoption on UK financial institutions and firm value. Second, no single study has been conducted on the effects of AC adoption and its impact on either the pre- or post-financial crisis periods. This is the first paper to provide such empirical evidence.

Institutional investors—insurance companies, pension funds, investment trust companies and unit trusts—have increased significantly and persistently their ownership of British industry. At the end of 1977 they owned approximately 46 per cent of the ordinary shares in UK quoted companies and in recent years have accounted for over 50 per cent of stock market turnover in UK equities. Their presence in the stock market has been associated with their ability to influence share prices, decide the outcome of takeover battles, and trade outside the London Stock Exchange. As major shareholders in public companies they have been encouraged to participate in managerial decision‐making. For corporate management, the growth of institutional shareholdings provides opportunities to utilise their voting power in takeover situations, encourage their support for the market value of the company, and use financial institutions as sources of new capital.

The purpose of this study is to offer service practitioners evidence about: the factors that financial institutions consider in order to evaluate the impact on the entire company of an eventual decision to eliminate a financial service from the range; the degree of influence that these factors exert on management; and the contextual conditions that shape the above degree of influence.

The research is based on 20 in‐depth interviews with higher echelon managers from an equal number of UK financial institutions and a mail survey of 112 specific elimination case histories from an equal number of UK banks, building societies and insurance companies.

The impact of a financial service's eventual elimination on the relationships of the company with its customers is rated as the most influential evaluation factor. Other influential evaluation factors are the impact on the public image of the financial institution and the impact on the sales and the profitability of other financial services in the range. However, the degree of influence is largely situation specific.

The implications are twofold. First, in managers' attempts to project the impact of a financial service's eventual elimination from the range they may avoid imitating competitors. Second, managers may avoid being mechanistic in evaluating the impact of eventual elimination decisions.

This paper represents the first empirical attempt to shed light on the way in which service companies evaluate the impact of a service's elimination from the range.

Although the focus of this issue is on investment in British industry and hence we are particularly concerned with debt and shares, the transactions and holdings in these cannot be separated from the range of other financial claims, including property, that are available to investors. In consequence this article focuses on an overview of the financial system including in Section 2 a presentation of the flow of funds matrix of the financial claims that make up the system. We also examine more closely the role of the financial institutions that are part of the system by utilising the sources and uses statements for three sectors, non‐bank financial institutions, personal sector and industrial and commercial companies. Then we provide, in Section 3, a discussion of the various financial claims investors can hold. In Section 4 we give a portrayal of the portfolio disposition of each of the major types of financial institution involved in the market for company securities specifically insurance companies (life and general), pension funds, unit and investment trusts, and in Section 4 a market study is performed for ordinary shares, debentures and preference shares for holdings, net acquisitions and purchases/sales. A review of some of the empirical evidence on the financial institutions is presented in Section 5 and Section 6 is by way of a conclusion. The data series extend in the main from 1966 to 1981, though at the time of writing, some 1981 data are still unavailable. In addition, the point needs to be made that the samples have been constantly revised so that care needs to be exercised in the use of the data.

To explain the impact for financial services firms of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union (EU) and to assess the possible options for conducting cross-border financial services between the UK and EU in the future. Key to this is the likely loss of the EU “passport” for financial services that allows a firm licensed in one EU state to offer its services freely throughout all EU states.

Explains the process by which the UK will leave the EU and negotiate future trading arrangements; the key considerations for financial services firms doing cross-border business in the EU; the various options for cross-border business in the future; and the key steps financial services firms should be taking to respond to the vote to leave the EU.

Many issues still remain uncertain and are unlikely to be resolved for a number of years, but long lead times to implement solutions mean that firms should be considering their options now.

Firms should be evaluating their current reliance on EU passports and the alternative options that might be suited to their business, such as the “quasi-passports” available under certain specific EU laws or relocation of part or all of their business.

Legal analysis and practical guidance concerning an unprecedented political development with profound impacts on financial services in Europe, by experts with long-term experience of EU negotiations and financial services gained from working for the British government, regulators and regulated firms.

Reports on part of the findings of a broader exploratory investigation into the service elimination decision making behaviour in the UK financial services sector. The issues tackled in this paper are: the degree of planning for the service elimination decision‐making process; the formality of service elimination procedures; the place of service elimination within the broader range of service range management activities; and the relative importance of the process of service elimination compared to the process of new service development (NSD). The empirical evidence from 20 in‐depth interviews with marketing directors and managers suggests that UK financial institutions: do not always follow a planned service elimination decision‐making process; have largely informal service elimination procedures; tend to see service elimination activities as ad hoc rather than as a part of service range management activities; and favour the process of NSD considerably more than the process of service elimination. Concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the findings and by suggesting future research directions.

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) are having a major impact on banking (FinTech), health (HealthTech), law (RegTech) and other sectors such as charitable fundraising (CharityTech). The pace of technological innovation and the ability of AI systems to think like human beings (simulate human intelligence), perform tasks independently, develop intelligence based on its own experiences and process layers of information to learn ever-complex representations of data (ML/DL) means that improvements in the rates at which this technology can undertake complex, technical and time-consuming tasks, identify people, objects, voices, patterns, etc., screen for ‘problems’ earlier, and provide solutions, provide astounding benefit in economic, political and social terms. The purpose of this paper is to explore advents in AI, ML and DL in the context of the regulatory compliance challenge faced by financial institutions in the United Kingdom (UK).

The subject is explored through the analysis of data and domestic and international published literature. The first part of the paper summarises the context of current regulatory issues, the advents in deep learning, how financial institutions are currently using AI, and how AI could provide further technological solutions to regulatory compliance as of February 2023.

It is suggested that UK financial institutions can further utilise AI, ML and DL as part of an armoury of solutions that ease the regulatory burden and achieve high levels of compliance success.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to specifically explore how AI, ML and DL can continue to assist UK financial institutions in meeting the regulatory compliance challenge and the opportunities provided for financial institutions by the metaverse.