Linklaters

The increase in regulation, its increasing complexity, the lack of clarity in implementation, the greater propensity of authorities to enforce and the international dimension of regulation all combine to create an extremely challenging environment for financial institutions. The need for their lawyers to offer strategic, technical and commercial advice in these circumstances is plain.

Linklaters offers a market-leading financial regulation practice. We have been involved as leading lawyers at all points of the market, advising both on the non-contentious and contentious aspects of the regulation of financial services institutions.

Financial Regulation Group

The Linklaters’ global Financial Regulation Group (FRG) comprises a core team of specialists and associates. The non-contentious lawyers and contentious lawyers in the FRG work as part of one team, advising on the full range of retail and wholesale banking regulation.

Our practice focuses on advising government bodies, investment banks, securities houses, exchanges, trading and settlements systems and other players in the financial services sector across some 70 jurisdictions.  The team includes lawyers who have worked for and with regulators, including the FSA and the SFO.

We advise, among other issues, on:

• the effect and impact of regulations on businesses operating in the financial services sector, offering standalone strategic advice and as integrated team members on complex transactions
• compliance, including dealing with local regulatory bodies, particularly the FSA and the SFO
• investigations by local regulatory bodies, covering a wide range of issues, including governance, remuneration, complaints handling, insider dealing and market abuse, as well as enforcement more widely, including cross-border regulatory investigations
• the establishment of new mechanisms, such as trading and clearing platforms, for the transaction of financial services business
• management of conflicts of interest, global marketing and selling restrictions
• documentation, reporting structures and decision-making processes associated with regulatory matters, board and committee regulation, and form and content requirements for transaction and other regulatory reporting.

Market-leading know how

Linklaters was responsible for the development of online legal services to provide updated information and advice through the Blue Flag® range of products.  These products include Regulatory, Funds and Shareholding Disclosure, covering 39 jurisdictions.  They enable legal and compliance professionals to manage cross-border transactions in a more timely and cost-effective manner.

We have created a dedicated area on our website to keep our clients up to date with key initiatives from the main supranational bodies and also from the EU, UK and US, together with proposed or expected implementation dates.  Click here to access the site.

We run monthly client “Breakfast Briefings”, a discussion forum uniting legal and compliance professionals from major financial institutions, as well as hosting regular client seminars on topical issues.

We also serve as an expert group of lawyers advising law makers and regulatory bodies on regulation.  We advise on the potential impact of the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.

Recent Deals

Recent financial markets advice and transactions include advising:

• PwC as administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe), the largest corporate insolvency ever. We are advising PwC in a case which will be the first time that the Supreme Court will have heard a case involving the FSA Rules.
• on the establishment of trading and clearing platforms for equities trading, derivatives trading (including for the interest rate swaps market), foreign exchange trading and other instruments
• RBS on multiple major transactions, including the acquisition of ABN AMRO, the bank’s participation in the UK Government’s Asset Protection Scheme, the sale of WorldPay (its global merchanting service), the sale of bank branches, and the sale of a portfolio of project loans, as well as advising RBS more generally on all aspects of regulation
• on the US$13.5bn merger of BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors