Clive is a partner in our Financial Services Regulatory advisory (non-contentious) team in London.
Clive specialises in financial services law and regulation. With over 30 years City experience, including time as a banking regulator with the Bank of England and in-house at Merrill Lynch (wealth management), Clive advises banks, investment managers, insurers, insurance brokers and other financial institutions on a wide range of regulatory and compliance matters. Areas of special sector expertise are banking, investment management and securities regulation; and governance.
Individually ranked in Legal 500 (Hall of Fame) and Chambers directories since 2007.
Feedback from clients
"Clive's technical understanding is best in class, but he blends this with taking a pragmatic approach which works for our particular business. He's very easy to work with and always responsive." (Chambers UK, 2024).
"He is very knowledgeable, very commercial and a serious practitioner. Clive is an impressive operator and is experienced." (Chambers UK, 2023).
Main areas of practice include
- Licensing requirements, structuring new businesses and new authorisations
- Day-to-day compliance with regulatory requirements
- Client documentation
- Senior management accountability and governace
- Regulatory aspects of outsourcing and other commercial arrangements in the financial sector
- International regulation
- Regulatory capital
- Regulatory developments (UK and European level) and implementation/change projects (e.g. MiFID II, AIFMD, Transparency Directive, Brexit, DORA)
- Financial sector M&A and corporate reorganisations
Background
- B.A degree in History and Politics from Durham University (First Class).
- Formerly a banking supervisor at the Bank of England; and Director of Law & Compliance at Merrill Lynch (private wealth management).
- Member of: City of London Law Society (CLLS) Regulatory Committee; Law Society Financial Services Sub-Committee; PIMFA Regulatory Committee; and FMLC Banking Scoping Forum.
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
- Jaime Gilinski / Spaldy Investments on PRA regulatory approval and all other regulatory aspects of a majority equity investment for the rescue of Metro Bank in 2023
- ClearBank (the first new UK clearing bank in 250 years) on new customer documentation, payment services regulation and regulatory capital
- ClearBank, the largest next generation clearing and embedded banking platform in the UK, on all regulatory aspects of its recent £175m equity raise, led by Apax Digital, and associated group restructuring and regulatory approvals
- a major European bank on its Brexit project (changes to contracts and business migration)
- Court of the Bank of England (non-executive directors) on its conflicts of interest review, following the resignation of Charlotte Hogg
- several banks, asset managers and securities firms on new businesses and regulatory authorisations
- banks, brokers and investment managers on regulatory capital and consolidated supervision (CRD IV, CRR, financial conglomerates, IFPR / MiFIDPRU and Basel 3.1)
- Laiki Bank (Popular Bank of Cyprus) on all regulatory aspects of the reorganisation of its UK business as part of the Cyprus banks bail-out
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