Regulatory & Business Crime

Regulatory and Financial Services

New Square Chambers has deep expertise in financial services and regulatory matters.

Members of Chambers are instructed both for and against financial institutions on a regular basis. This work is assisted by its natural fit with Chambers expertise in chancery, commercial fraud and offshore work. Members of Chambers have been involved in some of the most high-profile financial services and regulatory work of recent years including swaps mis-selling and LIBOR manipulation. 

It is not just in the area of financial services where individuals and companies are facing an increasing regulatory burden. As a result, members of Chambers provide tailored advice about the regulatory landscape in a large number of other sectors whether that be to accountants or to estate agents.

Examples of recent work include advice and litigation relating to:

• The mis-selling of interest rate swaps and foreign exchange derivatives.
• The implementation of the Senior Managers Regime.
• Claims in relation to alleged LIBOR manipulation.
• Issues relating to credit default swaps.
• European legislation including the second Payments Services Directive.
• Issues relating to the handling of small businesses by banks’ internal restructuring teams.
• Indemnities provided by borrowers in respect of “embedded” derivatives.
• Advising on the FCA’s regulatory perimeter.
• Unauthorised collective investment schemes.
• The obligations of estate agents under the anti-money laundering regime.

Investigations and commercial crime

Members of chambers have extensive experience of advising and acting for UK and international individuals and corporations at all stages of potential regulatory non-compliance, investigations and prosecutions by UK and overseas government regulators.

Examples include:

• Conduct of internal investigations in cases of suspected noncompliance with financial regulation and whistleblowing.
• Appropriate responses to external investigation and domestic and international requests for evidence and disclosure.
• Self-reporting and other cooperative procedures with regulators including the preservation of LPP during investigations.
• Investigations of market abuse and other alleged breaches of market regulation.
• Commercial and banking fraud.
• Allegations of personal criminal and regulatory liability against officers and directors.
• Investigations and prosecutions for bribery and corruption and sanctions breaches including corporate liability.
• Concurrent settlement of multi-jurisdictional investigations.
• Mutual legal assistance.
• Health and Safety and environmental cases against corporations and directors.

Members’ experience and expertise goes back over 25 years to many of the most important domestic and international regulatory investigations and prosecutions in respect of commercial and banking fraud and breaches of market regulation including Maxwell, BCCI, Gooda Walker, Wickes, TransTec, Torex, Asil Nadir and Celtic Mining. It includes international corruption cases such as British Aerospace, V Mobile and Innospec; sanctions cases such as for Oil for Food and cartel cases such as Kent Pharmaceuticals. Most recently Chambers has been engaged in the successful defence of the brokers in the SFO LIBOR prosecution.

Our expertise in these areas combines with the other specialist practice areas of Chambers in offshore matters in BVI, Cayman, the Channel Islands and other jurisdictions as well as several African jurisdictions and the Far East.