Financial Services

4 Pump Court’s Financial Services team is widely considered to be at the cutting edge of regulatory law in the financial services sector.

Our barristers have substantial experience of financial services litigation and regulation both in this jurisdiction and overseas. We are regularly instructed in landmark and leading cases across the financial services sector including regulatory investigations; challenges to supervisory and enforcement decisions before the Regulatory Decisions Committee and the Upper Tribunal; judicial review of regulatory action; actions in the High Court involving financial services issues and commercial and banking litigation more generally, and; appellate work in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

Our clients include regulators, the regulated and those on the cusp of the regulated sphere. Regulatory instructions emanate from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and overseas regulators and stock exchanges. Private instructions typically come from financial institutions, including asset managers, banks, hedge funds, insurers and reinsurers and from independent financial advisors, other businesses and individuals.

Areas of expertise include:

• Supervisory and enforcement work including investigations, proceedings before the Regulatory Decisions Committee and referrals to the Upper Tribunal in respect of authorised persons and others in the regulated sector. Our recent work has involved outsourcing and delegation issues, pension switches and transfers, collective investment schemes, solvency issues relating to insurers, and consumer credit. We are also experienced in cases involving market abuse and insider trading and listing rules. Our judicial review work includes challenges to decisions by the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman Scheme.
• Perimeter work and actions under the Financial Service and Markets Act 2000 and the Financial Services Act 2012. We have expertise on products and the requirement for regulation, with significant experience in the fintech area, including blockchain and related investment spheres, as well as more traditional work including collective-investment schemes, deposit-taking schemes, financial promotions and unauthorised activities relating to the promotion of shares and other financial schemes, and quasi-insurance-type products.
• Commercial disputes between those in the regulated sector and third parties. Our expertise includes disputes involving networks, SIPP providers, IFAs, retail and SME mis-selling claims (PPI, IRHP, Libor and ForEx) and institutional claims under ss. 90 and 90A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as well as cases involving banks, hedge funds, insurers and other commercial entities.

Internationally, we have substantial experience in advising in respect of matters in offshore jurisdictions including Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, and further afield in Dubai, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Qatar and Singapore.

Our offshore work encompasses acting and advising on behalf of regulators, stock exchanges, businesses and individuals operating in the regulated sector in respect of supervisory and enforcement action and broader commercial disputes. We also have particular expertise in cross-border issues and passporting.