Regulatory & Compliance
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Regulatory & Compliance Services
Corporate Governance
Corporate Governance refers to the way a business is managed, controlled and how decisions are made. Its purpose it to facilitate effective, entrepreneurial and prudent management to deliver long term success of the company.
Having an effective Corporate Governance strategy in place ensures that responsibilities are clearly defined, and decisions-makers well informed to take proper decisions, that a company’s objectives and how it intends to achieve them are transparent and that all stakeholder’s interests are borne in mind. Such clear structures preserve and enhance the value of the business and its attractiveness to investors.
Missing Corporate Governance on the other hand can be – or often has been – the root cause for corporate failure and endangers the trust in the organisation both in the inside and on the outside.
Digital Asset and Blockchain Services
Our digital asset lawyers can advise on the FCA authorisation procedure for qualifying cryptoasset firms, together with compliance and regulatory advice, corporate structuring, general commercial, intellectual property and data protection issues relating to your cryptoasset business.
Financial Services
We have extensive experience advising household names operating in many sectors in the financial services industry, including:
- High street banks
- Independent financial advisors (IFAs)
- Insurance companies
- Insurance brokers
- Pre-paid card providers
FCA Change in Control Assistance
If you wish to increase your control in an FCA-regulated firm (outside of the permitted control bands), or acquire control in an FCA-regulated firm, you will need to obtain prior approval from the FCA. If you fail to obtain prior approval, this is a criminal offence under section 191F of FSMA.
Extensive Financial Services Experience
We have advised clients operating in the financial services sector at every stage of their corporate life, from:
- Drafting and advising on Financial Conduct Authority applications
- Associated policies and procedures for businesses just starting out in the financial services sector
- Assisting long established financial services businesses with their compliance programs and reporting obligations.
Legal Opinions
Our specialist team provides high quality, English law legal opinions for UK and international businesses, in house legal teams, commercial leaders, financial institutions and overseas law firms. Whether you require a formal opinion for a transaction, a clear view on risk, or commercially grounded guidance to support strategic decision making, we deliver fast, reliable and actionable advice.
Training & Workshops
A single legal training session can help your staff to identify and deal with risk and issues and know when to seek further guidance. We offer training onsite or we would be pleased to host you at our offices. Alternatively, we can provide training remotely using video conferencing facilities, enabling live Q&A sessions.
We can provide training sessions which are designed to meet the needs of your business and address new or recurring issues which your business might face. We are experienced in providing training to staff across all departments, including in-house legal counsel and sales teams, to ensure that they stay ahead of current commercial law and / or regulatory law trends which might affect them in their roles within the business.
What types of training do we provide?
- Legal knowledge training
- Key commercial clauses training
- Terms in commercial agreements
- Media & Entertainment
- Regulated Training Sesssions
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Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to your most pressing questions about our services and processes.
The answer is very fact specific and will depend what your business will be doing. In order to confirm whether or not FCA authorisation is required, a regulated activities analysis should be performed. This involves mapping the activities of the business against the relevant regulated activities and available exemptions. The complexity of the regulated activities analysis will vary depending on the nature of the activities to be carried out by the business. Alternatives to FCA authorisation are potentially available – for example becoming an appointed representative – please see below for more details.
If your business will be undertaking regulated activities, it will need to be authorised or exempt for those activities. Becoming an appointed representative of a business that is already FCA authorised is one potential alternative to your business becoming FCA authorised itself. Whether or not the appointed representative route is appropriate would depend on the surrounding circumstances and also the goals of the relevant business – there are pros and cons to becoming an appointed representative for example speed vs cost.
Not only is funding a hurdle for new and existing businesses, the provision of care is also a highly regulated sector (and for good reason). Not only would you be assisting the elderly but potentially the very vulnerable, providing care into their last hours (depending on what type of care facility you intend to provide). It is no secret therefore that the care home and healthcare sectors are heavily regulated with not only having to comply with the stringent requirements under the Care Quality Commission (CQC), but also needing an in-depth understanding of current health and safety regulations, commercial property matters which may affect the running of the business, environmental issues and employment law issues to name a few. The CQC is an independent regulator of health and adult social care in England, ensuring that the services provided to people are safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality. They have the ability to monitor, inspect and regulate the services provided and regularly publish their findings on their website. They also have powers to take action against care home providers who provide poor care services, facilities and/or are unsafe which assists in regulating the industry across the board. The CQC is an independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. For more information, please visit their website.
The FCA has wide-ranging powers to implement a number of different sanctions ranging from providing guidance, publicising enforcement action, imposing fines, to bringing criminal proceedings against directors personally. The exact sanction applied would depend on the nature of the breach and the surrounding circumstances.