Our financial services regulatory practice is one of the largest and most experienced outside the Magic Circle.

We advise banks, fund managers, insurers, investment firms, and payments and FinTech businesses and senior executives working in those businesses, on the most complex PRA and FCA regulatory issues they face, from an advisory, Supervision and an Enforcement perspective.

Three of our seven partners, as well as our senior associate, have worked in-house at the UK regulators and the SFO. Our team also has industry experience in a range of financial services firms. We are therefore able to advise on the most complex regulatory issues our clients face, whilst providing regulatory and practical insights that many of our competitors cannot offer.

As a result of our unique experience, we are trusted by Magic Circle, boutique City law firms, and US law firms to act as co-counsel or to deal with discreet issues – a clear vote of confidence in our ability, our experience, our responsiveness, and the quality of the work we do.

Financial services regulatory experience

  • Advised on the admissibility and categorisation of new debt and equity regulatory capital instruments.

  • Advised an international payment, identity, e-money and banking solutions service provider on various UK and EEA regulatory issues, as well as VISA, MasterCard and other card scheme rules.

  • Advised on how and when to comply with the requirements of MiFID II and MiFIR – internal policy drafting, terms of business, other documents, and other internal systems and controls.

  • Advised on terms of business for restricted deposit accounts.

  • Advised a UK bank on corporate governance, internal systems and controls issues, to bring the bank’s systems into line with current best practice and to allow the board of the UK bank to meet its legal and regulatory obligations, despite the strength of, and the extent of control previously exercised over the UK bank by, its US parent.

  • Advised IFA networks on regulatory capital and FCA threshold condition requirements. Our role included advising on FCA requirements and providing support on FCA supervisory interactions.

  • Provided insurance policy drafting, including deposit replacement insurance policies for landlords and tenants; as well as GAP; motor; pet; and public liability insurance policies.

  • Drafted complex B2C and B2B payment services agreements for various clients, including for entities providing white label payment services and for deposit aggregation platforms.

  • Advised on reinsurance contract drafting, including aggregate excess of loss; catastrophe excess of loss; and quota share.

  • Provided specialist advice on whether certain activities were permitted (or not) under the terms of an existing banking licence, followed by advice on an application for a Variation of Permission to bring ongoing and longstanding licence breaches to an end without triggering enforcement action.

Financial services regulatory FAQs

We can, if there’s something especially novel about it; it’s unusually complex; or there’s a reason to think it might be rejected. If there isn’t, you probably don’t need a law firm, but you might need a compliance consultant.

If the compliance consultants need legal advice about something, we certainly help with that.

We can also help if the regulators ask you to get legal advice about an issue, before sharing this advice with them. For example, the regulators sometimes ask applicants (a) to get legal advice, which explains why they need to be authorised and regulated, and which particular regulated activities they need to be authorised for; and/or (b) to get a legal opinion, which confirms the regulatory capital status of their shares, and any other financial instruments they might have issued. Advice like that is right up our street.

We handle the full spectrum of investigations that occur in the financial markets. We act for firms and individuals in the fields of banking, insurance, investment, payments and fintech.

Our recent investigatory experience includes a wide variety of matters which include: financial mis-selling; serious fraud and money laundering; conduct of business failures (including pensions transfer and discretionary investment management investigations); insider dealing and market abuse investigations (including market manipulation); payment services fraud; and systems and controls investigations amongst others.

We have expertise in acting for any party subject to an investigation in the financial markets. Our clients range from the largest global financial institutions through to national and regional financial services firms. We also act for individuals who may work at or control such firms and who may also be subject to regulatory investigations.

We are one of the few firms recognised in all the major legal directories for our expertise in acting both for corporate and individual clients. We recognise that our specialist service needs to be tailored to our clients’ needs and the resources they have available. We offer a tailored approach to the circumstances facing our clients and ensure the legal and reputational risks they face are mitigated.

We have built a specialist practice that is able to deal with the full spectrum of regulatory and criminal investigations in the financial sector. Our team includes solicitors and barristers who have substantial law enforcement experience and who have been enforcement lawyers, investigators and prosecutors prior to joining our team.

We are regularly engaged in relation to investigations and enquiries brought by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (both regulatory and criminal), the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Serious Fraud Office, various national police forces, HM Revenue and Customs and other specialist law enforcement agencies. We represent our clients at all stages of investigations including scoping, initial interview (whether voluntary, compulsory or under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act) and in subsequent action. Our team has deep experience of attending before regulators, at police stations and before all relevant courts and tribunals involved in the conduct of financial market investigations.

Yes we frequently act for both firms and individuals who are addressing complex issues under the SMCR.

We frequently advise firms on how to comply with the SMCR when complex and sensitive issues arise. Our work includes advising on how to conduct internal disciplinary processes on an SMCR compliant basis. We do this by deploying our expertise in both the regulatory and employment law fields. We can ensure that firms meet their PRA and FCA regulatory obligations whilst acting on a fair and appropriate basis as an employer.

Equally, we can act for individuals who may be subject to internal investigation or are seeking to join a new firm as a Senior Management Function (SMF) holder, or as a certified staff member. We are experienced in dealing with difficult issues and the implications that can arise in respect of adverse regulatory references. We are also able to represent and support individuals who may be subject to investigation for breaches of the FCA’s Code of Conduct (CoCON) provisions.

If you need to know what a particular PRA or FCA rule means; or whether particular arrangements are rule compliant, we can help. If you need help working out how best to respond to questions from the regulators, we can help with that too. We can’t help with routine compliance activities, compliance monitoring, compliance auditing or the detailed design of new systems and controls. We may, however, be able to introduce you to a compliance consultant who can.

Yes we do, please go to our consumer credit page for more information.

We’re often asked to advise PEVC fund managers on regulatory matters, including the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). But we don’t do fund formation work of any kind.

"Experienced in dealing with regulators and a good balance between technicity and pragmatism."


Legal 500 2024

"The team at Fox Williams provides sound and practical advice. They are highly responsive and very dependable. Their skill set, strategies and communication style are a great fit for our fast-growing organisation."


Chambers UK 2024

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