Financial Services Regulatory
Financial Services Regulatory overview
Our global Financial Services Regulatory (FSR) practice provides comprehensive advice to the world’s leading financial institutions, including commercial and investment banks, broker-dealers and investment advisers, nonbank lenders, sovereign wealth funds and government-owned banks, and to emerging financial services providers, including fintechs and payment companies.
We are trusted advisors, helping our clients stay informed of new regulatory initiatives, develop innovative products and services, implement and maintain effective compliance programs and controls, monitor and respond to new risks, and explore strategic opportunities in emerging markets.
Our extensive experience across a full spectrum of domestic and cross-border services, includes:
Expansion of operations
- Bank and nonbank licensing options for traditional financial services providers
- Evolving licensing options and regulatory strategies for fintechs and other nonbank financial services providers
- Regulation of payments, broker-dealer, investment adviser, investment fund, derivatives, underwriting and insurance mediation, and other nonbanking activities
- Enhanced prudential standards, resolution planning, ring-fencing, consumer financial services and COVID-19 relief, AML and internal systems and controls
- Transactional experience with new products and services, distribution arrangements, partnerships, client platform development and other services involving regulatory issues
Regulatory and legislative advocacy
- Cross-border legislative/regulatory policy development
- Developing and advocating for fintech/regtech solutions
Regulatory capital solutions
- Structured solutions to improve capital and liquidity ratios and to manage the balance sheet effect of changing regulatory and accounting requirements
- Capital raising, capital relief, disposal/sale of assets, including structuring of non-performing loan (NPL) and asset-backed securitization offerings
Digitization
- Incorporating digital processes, products and services, including payments services
- Adopting AI-driven regtech solutions
Data privacy and cybersecurity
- Data breach preparedness, incident response and disputes
- Regulatory compliance, including GDPR, NIS Directive, and US federal and state breach and privacy requirements
Anti-financial crime
- National and cross-border anti-financial crime risk assessments, remediation and compliance with key local and international regulations
- Developing, implementing and overseeing compliance with AML/KYC/CIP/CDD/beneficial owner programs
- Managing third-party vendor financial crimes risk/exposure
Enforcement, investigation and supervisory
- Regulatory, supervisory, enforcement and compliance inquiries/material risk reviews/gap analyses
- Extraterritoriality of anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and sanctions laws
- Current expectations of enforcement authorities for self-reporting, cooperation and remediation
Regulatory Disputes
- Administrative and court proceedings against decisions by regulatory authorities
Financial Services Regulatory experience
Financial holding company election
Advised a global non-US bank on issues related to seeking US financial holding company (FHC) status, including strategies to address the need to ring-fence US operations in a US intermediate holding company (IHC).
Enhanced prudential standards
Rendering ongoing advice to non-US banks on compliance with Dodd-Frank Act enhanced prudential standards, including issues related to requirements for maintenance of a US liquidity buffer, establishment of a US Risk Committee and US Chief Risk Officer, and strategies to avoid the need to ring-fence US operations in a US IHC.
Resolution planning
Assisted several large Asia-Pacific and EU banks in addressing compliance with the US and EU resolution plan requirements, including preparation of the resolution plan filings of a large Asia-Pacific–based global bank.
Volcker Rule compliance
Prepared a comprehensive Volcker Rule compliance programs to address the global trading and fund activities of a number of global EU- and Asia-Pacific–based banks, and recurring advice on strategies to address the potential impact of Volcker Rule limitations on financings, securitizations, M&A and other transactions.
Bank and nonbank Fintech collaboration
Advising Tide on its successful collaboration with ClearBank to apply for an award under the RBS Capability and Innovation Fund and on the development and launch of the Tide business bank account.
EU Single Resolution Regime / EU Banking Levy
Represented Landesbank Baden-Württemberg in their successful appeal against the EU Single Resolution Board’s (SRB) decision on the EU Banking Levy 2017 before the EU General Court in Luxembourg. In its groundbreaking judgement of 23 September 2020 (T-411/17) the General Court decided that the decision by the SRB is void and the Delegated Regulation 2015/63 by the European Commission on the calculation of the Banking Levy is partly illegal.
E-commerce payment advisory
Representing a global technology company on payment specific advisory matters in relation to the various regulatory regimes in a number of Middle Eastern and North African countries (including stored value, loyalty cards, payments aggregation).
Anti-financial crimes and defense
Representing N26, a German neobank with more than five million customers, in its defense against a sanction for breaching anti-money laundering reporting obligations to the German authorities.
Non-performing loans
Represented Piraeus Bank, one of Greece's leading "big four" banks, in the sale and transfer of a portfolio of non-performing, denounced unsecured retail consumer and credit card exposures equivalent to €2.238 billion total legal claims to APS Investments, a leading CEE/SEE distressed debt investment advisor and manager.
