Financial services sector

We’re trusted financial services lawyers on conduct and prudential matters to the financial services sector. We provide valuable advice and guidance to various financial services market organisations, from established financial institutions and participants, to new entrants in the financial services industry. Our financial services clients include manufacturers, distributors and purchasers of financial products and suppliers of associated technologies and other services.

Sectors our clients operate in include banking, capital markets, consumer credit, fintech, financial services assets, funds and investment management, life and non-life insurance, private equity, payment services and electronic money.

Our work covers the income / capital-generating (e.g. customer-facing) activities of financial sector firms, as well as their ‘own account’ issues, and all the associated commercial and corporate operations in both cases. Any of these may have implications for financial services firms’ conduct, capital, operational resilience and regulator relationships. We handle arbitration and litigation involving financial services firms and advise on the regulatory ramifications.

We also advise on environmental, social and governance (ESG) sustainability and responsibility matters, which financial services firms are increasingly subject to regulatory requirements and investor demands.

Clients’ income / capital-generating activities we advise on include acting for UK banking groups on commercial loan transactions, and acting for private equity investors.

Working closely with financial services clients’ compliance, legal and risk teams, we have extensive experience in advising on own account issues, addressing issues across the spectrum of regulatory supervision and enforcement processes and procedures, including the ‘controllers’ (change in control) regime, investigations and notifications, the ‘senior managers and certification regime’ (SMCR), ‘Solvency II’, ‘skilled person’ reports, and whistleblowing. Our expertise in financial services regulatory and compliance matters ensures that our clients are well-equipped to navigate the complex landscape of the financial services industry while adhering to regulatory requirements and industry standards.

Banking

We represent a major challenger bank on its HR and employment issues, and have also advised on enhancing its senior employee risk management programme, including via its UK D&O coverage.

Consumer credit

We advised a household-name consumer goods business on a strategic project to distribute, as an appointed representative, credit products alongside sales of goods. This was a significant new departure for the client and involved extensive work on policies and procedures, including as to contractual governance, financial promotions and IT systems and controls, and customer-facing documents.

Fintech

We have advised an innovative high-growth payment institution about the impact of the safeguarding regulations on its novel business model and assisted it with relevant elements of its FCA authorisation application.

FS assets, funds and investment sectors

We advised a leading supplier of IT-based analytics for fund performance on its contractual terms with an authorised investment manager, protecting commercial rights and interests but without risking any undertaking of regulated activity.