Shoosmiths’ highly-regarded financial services (FS) team advises a diverse range of businesses and institutions on core finance and banking transactions, joint ventures and material outsourcings.
We have one of the largest and most experienced banking and financial services offerings in the country, with strength and depth covering all UK jurisdictions.

As well as advising on core banking transactional and investment work, we have expert regulatory and compliance specialists and commercial contract lawyers, who have decades of experience meeting the expectations of clients who include some of the FS sector’s largest and most well established names – as well as some of its highly successful recent disruptors.

Our lawyers work collaboratively to share their knowledge and sector knowhow, enabling clients to access the ‘best of all worlds’ in terms of technical quality and on-point service shaped to their exact needs.

Clients pay testimony to our team’s ability to think outside the box across the broad range of legal needs you are likely to face, including:
managing finance transactions from start to finish, ensuring a smooth and cohesive process, enabling you to continue to focus on building relationships and running your business
assisting in managing the cost of compliance, helping you to find the optimum path between regulatory and enforcement risks as well as commercial realism
advising on new products, using our detailed knowledge of the market
providing a host of related disciplines and skills – in tech, data & privacy, commercial contract, regulatory, corporate, real estate, tax and employment advice – tailored to the needs of clients in the FS sector.

We choose a client-centric approach
Our clients include the UK’s major banks and intermediaries, asset managers, investors, fintech businesses, private equity and venture capital backed businesses, as well as the finance arms of major corporates. Many of our client relationships stretch back for decades, portraying the strong partnering approach we take with our clients.

Shoosmiths is well known in the FS sector for its personable teams, innovation and excellence. We are not afraid to set new standards. We are one of very few law firms with an FCA authorisation and ours is a genuine position of experience.

What sets us apart is our client-centred approach and highly commercial and collaborative working style. Many individuals in our team have worked in-house in the sector, giving us an edge when it comes to anticipating issues and identifying solutions for our clients.

Specific areas of experience include
Retail financial services

Few firms have a team with the genuine strength and depth that we do across all UK jurisdictions, helping clients translate strategy to working reality, incorporating complex regulatory and litigation support.

Our services include

FCA compliance and governance
financial promotions
commercial contracts / material outsourcings
systems procurement
documentation and processes
debt sale and purchase
recoveries and collections
Banking & finance

Shoosmiths’ UK-wide team advises on all forms of corporate lending and deal structuring. Our expertise includes:

acquisition and leveraged finance
real estate finance
asset backed lending (receivables, stock and inventory)
specialist asset finance (aircraft, super yachts and trains)
infrastructure finance restructuring
We work closely with some of the UK’s major banks and financial institutions and have approved panel solicitor status with many of them. We also work closely with corporates, private equity and venture capital investors.

Asset finance

We regularly advise industry leading clients on the full range of asset finance legal support. . These range from small to medium ticket hire purchase transactions and vehicle leasing, through to big ticket rail and aircraft operating lease structures, including tax structuring advice. We also provide support with asset finance litigation at all levels – from the simple to the complex, and international.

We are without question the leading motor finance experts in the UK, with teams specialising in financial promotions, product design and manufacturer JV arrangements.

Our lawyers are up-to-date with changes in regulatory landscape and can provide long-term asset finance assistance to lenders by drafting precedent standard form documentation, as well as providing in-house training on best practice.

Commercial & finance agreements

Shoosmiths is retained to work alongside many major international finance companies, well-known high street banks, niche financial services businesses and leasing companies to provide day-to-day commercial support on transformational and material outsourcings. This ensures that working documents are compliant and user-friendly.

We invest and build relationships with our clients to create an intuitive and proactive service interface, in a way that suits their business needs.

FinTech

The size and strength of the UK financial services sector and its regulatory framework makes it a perfect arena for innovation and new entrants. Shoosmiths has worked successfully with a number of challenger banks and other disruptors, for whom Shoosmiths’ wealth of experience and willingness to share know-how is an obvious plus. This includes UK-based businesses and occasionally US-based businesses looking to move into the UK market.

Our teams work closely with our colleagues in our technology sector and venture capital teams, providing important areas of linked expertise.