Publisher: Oxford University Press
Edition: 2nd Edition (March 2009)
ISBN: 978-0-19-956418-7
Price: £195.00
Financial services law has never been a slow moving area of law. However, since the last edition was published in 2005, a lot more than expected has happened in the banking industry: the fall of Northern Rock, the increase in state ownership of lending institutions and the review of lending supervision. So this new edition of Financial Services Law, edited by Michael Blair QC, George Walker and Robert Purves, could not be more timely and is extremely welcome.
Financial Services Law is divided into three parts: Financial Services and Markets; Financial Services Regulation; and Financial Sectors and Activities. Each part then includes a number of chapters. For example, the first part includes chapters on the Financial Services Authority and the Financial Services and Markets Act. The second part includes chapters on the (important) FSA Handbook and High-Level Standards, Financial Redress – Complains, Disputes and Compensation and Misleading Statements and Practices. The third part includes chapters on Investment Firms – Wholesale Sector, Home Finance Transactions and Insurance Regulation. This is a rather comprehensive coverage of the key areas of financial services law.
As you would expect for a text edited by three expert lawyers, Financial Services Law is wonderfully and engagingly written. From time to time it does, however, go into too much detail for practitioners and sways more towards an academic text. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this, it is perhaps an endemic issue for a text like this which tries to straddle these two worlds. Financial Services Law is thoroughly researched meaning no stone is left unturned by the authors in their quest of providing a key text for financial services lawyers. Being a banking litigation lawyer, I found the chapters on FSA Handbook, High-Level Standards and Financial Redress – Complains, Disputes and Compensation extremely useful and practically written.
Self-respecting financial services lawyers will welcome this new edition of Financial Services Law with open arms. It should, however, be remembered that this area of law is constantly changing meaning developments towards the end of 2009 have not made it into this edition. This will, no doubt, require the editors to regularly invest time in updating this important text. It is, however, one of the most authoritative texts on the markets and, whilst the price may understandably put some people off, those who do invest in Financial Services Law will not regret it – having expert guidance on hand is certainly no bad thing in these interesting times.
Reviewed on 20 August 2010