header-logo header-logo

NLJ this week: Debanking reforms mark a significant shift ahead for firms

20 June 2025
Issue: 8121 / Categories: Legal News , Banking , Financial services litigation , Regulatory , Consumer
printer mail-detail
223033
The rules and regulations on debanking (where a bank terminates its relationship with a customer) are due to change next year. In this week’s NLJ, David Hamilton, partner at Howard Kennedy, sets out the likely changes and explores the implications for payment services firms

Hamilton writes: ‘Since Nigel Farage’s public spat with Coutts Bank in 2023, the issue of debanking has drawn sustained public, political and regulatory scrutiny, becoming emblematic of broader concerns around financial exclusion and institutional accountability.’

The amended Payment Services and Payment Accounts (Contract Termination) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (PSPA Regulations), due to apply from 28 April 2026, aim to strengthen protections for consumers and micro-enterprises when payment firms ‘debank’ them. Consequently, Hamilton says, payment services firms may be prompted to adopt a ‘more conservative risk appetite’. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Partner appointed as head of residential conveyancing for England

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

Specialist firm enhances corporate healthcare practice with partner appointment

NEWS
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
back-to-top-scroll