Licensing of financial institutions
We take financial services businesses through authorisation — from establishing whether a licence is required to the regulator's decision.
Perimeter and structuring
- Perimeter analysis: whether the proposed model amounts to a regulated financial service and which permissions it requires - Choice of licence type and scope of permitted activities - Ownership structuring to meet transparency requirements down to ultimate beneficial owners - Capital plan and evidence of the source of funds contributed by each shareholder - Incorporation of the applicant entity or pre-application restructuring of an existing one
Lending, leasing, factoring and guarantees
- Scope of permissions across the intended product range - Internal governance documents: risk management, internal control, AML/CFT, consumer protection, outsourcing - Business plan — structure, description of the business and alignment with the regulator's expectations - Assembly and submission of the full application file - Responses to the regulator's queries and revisions to the file - Extension of the licence to additional services; removal of a service from the scope
Payment services and e-money
- Determining the appropriate status: payment institution, small payment institution, e-money institution, technical service provider - Capital requirements applicable to the intended combination of services - Safeguarding arrangements for client funds - Documentation on operational and security risk management, authentication, information security and third-party service providers - User-facing contractual documentation and pre-contractual disclosure - Application for authorisation or registration, and support through the review
Insurance
- Selection of classes of insurance and scope of permissions, including inbound reinsurance - Capital requirements applicable to the intended scope - Evidence of the source of funds contributed by shareholders - Policy wordings by class, standard contracts and pre-contractual disclosure - Governance system and allocation of key functions - Assembly of the application file and support through the review - Extension of the licence to additional classes for authorised insurers
Where we work
- Ukraine — full-scope representation before the National Bank of Ukraine - EU — jurisdiction selection and authorisation with passporting across member states - United Kingdom — authorisation and variations of permission - Asia — Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE financial centres, in coordination with local counsel where local admission is required