Financial services regulation lawyer services

We help clients with all aspects of financial services regulation, supervision and enforcement, whilst working closely with their compliance, legal, and risk teams. This includes becoming and remaining authorised or exempt, and issues of fitness and propriety. We also handle financial services regulation issues as part of the governance and HR aspects of the senior managers and certification regime (SMCR) and assist clients on the contractual aspects and requirements associated with operational resilience rules and regulations.

Our teams' pragmatic expertise means we’re regularly instructed to handle internal investigations, notifications and other reporting to financial service regulators. This can include where a business has been subject to, or itself sought to effect, whistleblowing.

Our clients include established institutions and participants, and new entrants to financial services markets. We’ve advised on numerous financial services applications and materials involved in businesses becoming authorised or exempt as appointed representatives. This work includes major projects in consumer and commercial markets, and where businesses intend to be outside the scope of financial services regulation.

Our work on the ‘controllers’ (change in control) regime, includes advising on which entities fall within the regime and on formulating business plans that meet financial service regulators’ requirements. Features of this work are also shared with multiple projects we’ve handled for cross-border business post-Brexit.

Regulatory supervision and enforcement, and related processes we advise on includes ‘risk mitigation programmes’ (RMP), ‘skilled person reports’, and complaints, including ‘root cause analysis’, ‘customer redress’ and Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) referrals.

Our experienced teams also advise both financial services firms and third-party service providers on operational resilience rules and requirements in the United Kingdom and EU (such as PRA SS2/21, EBA outsourcing guidelines and DORA) as well as third-party risk and compliance. This involves advising on all aspects of contract remediation processes, including reviewing, drafting and negotiating amendment agreements to ensure contractual compliance.

‘Non-contentious’ / financial services regulatory supervision and compliance

An EU-based payment services provider which was required to undertake an analysis of its multinational customer base of businesses that provided a range of financial services products to UK consumers, including some identified as banned in the UK.

'Contentious’ / enforcement financial services regulatory processes

Our financial services regulation team was involved in a series of related matters for a multi-jurisdiction insurance group which was accused of providing misinformation on financial reports, returns and notifications. We succeeded in addressing the inconsistent information, and in reassuring the relevant regulators that the client had not caused, nor intended to cause, any misimpression. This included working with overseas counsel in order to avert the commencement of proceedings in a non-UK jurisdiction.