Financial Services Regulation

Organisations come to us for support to find the best way to control costs and resolve operational difficulties they face as a result of financial regulation, while maintaining good relations with the regulators.

We advise on a broad range of regulatory issues and matters:

• Anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist finance, sanctions, anti-bribery and compliance.
• CASS and custody arrangements.
• Conduct of Business - Conflicts of interest, best execution/pricing, transaction reporting and all aspects under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) and Conduct Rules.
• Consumer - The Consumer Duty, customer agreements and terms of business / CRA, and financial promotions and other investor facing materials.
• ESG and Greenwashing - All aspects of sustainable finance regulations, the UK sustainability disclosure requirements an investment labelling, EU sustainability related disclosures.
• FCA authorisation and variations of permission.
• Funds and Asset Management - Different types of fund structures in both the private and public markets, funds operational and trading issues. Liquidity management issues, general EMIR/SFTR disclosures, MiFID II product governance and AIFMD and UCITS compliance.
• Payments services regulations.
• Crypto-asset regulation.

Our experience includes:

• Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR)

Advising a global retail bank on the scope of the SMCR and on issues relating to multinational institutions.

• MiFID II and FSMA 2000 perimeter guidance
  Advising an international investment bank on licensing and permissions in the context of launch of new UK and EU regulated activity.
• Sustainable Sustainability Disclosure Requirements
  Advising a "social impact" investment company, along with its manager, on the implementation of the FCA's Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels regime.
• Overseas Funds Regime
  Advising a global asset management firm on the Overseas Funds Regime.
• Payment Services regulation
  Producing technical advice to a multinational sports manufacturing corporation on the perimeter of UK payment services and e-money regulation.
• CASS
  Negotiating CASS 6 compliant custody agreements for asset managers using omnibus custody arrangements.
  Assisting clients undergoing CASS audits or challenging audit findings.
  
  

Our team guides clients through financial regulations for buy-side insurer M&A deals or corporate deals.

Insurance Distribution Activities

• Advising an airline company on all UK regulatory aspects of its insurance distribution activities as a major distributor of travel insurance products as well as associated commercial law responsibility concerning its relations with the placing broker and insurer.
• Advising a US broker group on the launch of its UK operations.

Please view our Insurance services page for more information.

Our team regularly works with our leading Corporate and Funds team to support wealth managers, insurance broker and fintech firms on acquisitions and disposals of regulated businesses.

This includes:

• Due diligence, regulatory business plans and obtaining change in control consents.
• Buying/selling or investing into a company including closed-ended investment trusts.

Our experience includes: 

• Advising a large credit institution on the regulatory aspects of the acquisition of another FCA regulated firm.
• Advising in the acquisitions of IFA firms and the development of aggregator models.

Please view our Corporate or Funds service pages for more information. 

We regularly advise clients in managing both their domestic and cross-border compliance and risk management obligations in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Failure to do so effectively can lead to reputational damage and penalties for both institutions and individuals. We help our clients to navigate both "business as usual" compliance requirements and processes and assist them in implementing changes in response to new legal, regulatory and market developments.

This includes:

• Developing or advising on policies, procedures, surveillance and monitoring.
• Conducting audits, health checks and risk assessments to identify areas of potential risk.
• Training directors and their employees on regulatory duties, obligations and liabilities.
• Carrying out mock dawn raids to ensure you have adequate procedures in place in case you have a surprise.

Members of our team have previously had senior in-house roles within major financial institutions, within or in conjunction with regulators. As such, they can better understand the challenges faced by regulated firms and individuals in responding to financial regulation and managing risks.

Our experience includes:

• Global compliance policy
  Acting for the UK subsidiary of a global asset management firm in connection with the application of a global compliance policy to UK discretionary portfolio management mandates.
• Compliance programme
  Reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of a Sapin 2 compliance programme for a subsidiary of a large French group in the energy sector, with specific recommendations to be implemented.
• Global AML policies and controls
  Co-ordinating for a global company legal opinions in 32 jurisdictions on whether a global AML policy met local regulatory requirements.