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Financial Regulation

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Our recent transactional experience includes advising/acting for:

  • State Street Bank on its acquisition of the Irish Goldman Sachs hedge fund administration business.
  • Fairfax Financial Holdings, WL Ross and Kennedy Wilson, on the acquisition of a 34% stake in Bank of Ireland from the Irish Government.
  • J & E Davy on its acquisition of the private client and fund administration business of Bloxham Stockbrokers.
  • Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. on the sale of its investment management division AIB Asset Management Holdings (Ireland) Limited to Prescient Holdings (PTY) Limited.
  • Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. on the sale of Goodbody Stockbrokers to Fexco.
  • Goldman Sachs as sponsor on the restructuring of Irish Life & Permanent Holdings into bank and life assurance structures in advance of State recapitalisation.
  • WIPRO Group on its Irish establishment and acquisition of the activities of Lloyds TSB Insurance Services.
  • Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the sale of its US, Irish and Jersey fund administration businesses.
  • SunLife Assurance Company of Canada on the sale of the Irish reinsurer Sun Life Reinsurance Ireland to Berkshire Hathaway, including all Central Bank of Ireland and other regulatory liaison.
  • Merrion Capital and the MBO team on its buy-back from Landesbanki.
  • Fidelity Investments on the establishment of its Irish unit-linked life insurance company.
  • Ahli United Bank plc on the redomicilation of its Cayman range of funds to Ireland representing the continued development of Ireland as the preferred domicile for promoters from the Middle East region.
  • Alterra on the High Court merger of its insurance and reinsurance platforms in advance of proposed implementation of Solvency II.
  • Santander on the launch of its Irish pan-European payment protection insurance platform.
  • AXA on the set-up of its AXA Life Europe variable annuity life company and the AXA Cessions insurance-linked securitisation programmes.

Our services include advising on:

  • authorisation requirements and applications for regulated financial services providers and extension of authorisations
  • winding down of business of regulated financial services providers and surrender of authorisations
  • acquisition and disposal of qualifying holdings in regulated financial services providers
  • regulatory issues arising in mergers and acquisitions in the financial services sector
  • regulatory capital requirements
  • regulation of payment services, payment institutions and electronic money institutions
  • fitness and probity regime
  • corporate governance issues for regulated financial services providers
  • compliance with conduct of business requirements including under MiFID and the CPC
  • insider dealing and market abuse
  • transparency and prospectus requirements
  • anti-money laundering compliance
  • investigation and enforcement of regulatory standards including administrative sanctions.