TMT (technology, media and telecoms)
Praised by clients for its 'broad ranging capabilities and deep expertise', CMS' financial services regulatory practice works with a range of financial services clients, both wholesale and retail, including retail lenders, consumer credit providers, insurers and intermediaries, investment funds, fintech and digital asset firms, payment service providers and wholesale market participants. Practice head Ash Saluja draws on his deep experience in the full gamut of regulatory and commercial matters, for both the sell side and buy side. Adept in outsourcing matters is Angela Greenough, whose practice extends to complex commercial contracts and operational resilience aspects of matters. Sam Robinson is a key contact for banks, asset management firms, and broker-dealers in matters involving payments and fintech. Insurance specialist Pippa Tasker is equipped to handle insurance distributions, unregulated funds, cross-border business, and asset management regulation. Simon Morris leverages decades of experience in market conduct and governance work to guide financial institutions through regulatory authorisations. Joy Davey is a go-to adviser for outsourcing requirements and operational resilience requirements. Tom Callaby is a key contact for buy and sell-side firms, advising on M&A, securities, derivatives, and complex commercial transactions. Paul Edmondson remains an important contact within the group.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Mentions
Profile
Position
Partner
Career
Sam is a partner in the Financial Services Regulatory practice.
Sam advises clients include banks, asset management firms, broker dealers, payment institutions and corporate finance houses on a broad range of regulatory and compliance matters within the financial services sector. Prior to working in private practice, Sam worked for seven years at the UK financial services regulator, the Financial Services Authority (the majority of this time in the FSA’s General Counsel’s Division), and has also spent time on secondment at Santander Asset Management UK Limited.
Recent work includes advising on whether certain activities require FCA authorisation, establishing crowdfunding platforms and robo-managers, the structuring of fund vehicles (including regulated and unregulated funds), financial promotion issues, conduct of business requirements, acquisitions of FCA-authorised firms, drafting terms of business for investment firms and payment service providers as well as providing consumer credit advice.
Sam has been published in financial services publications and journals (including Bloomberg World Securities Law Reports, Bloomberg UK Financial Services Law Reports and Thomson Reuters Compliance Complete). Sam has also been a guest lecturer on the IPF Diploma in Investment Education.
Sam won an award for the Regulatory Lawyer of the Year at the Thomson Reuters Compliance Awards 2014 (http://www.complianceawards.com/2014-winners). Sam was also shortlisted for the same award in 2013.
Memberships
- Member of the Alternative Investment Management Association.
- Member of the Financial Services Lawyers Association.
- Member of the Prepaid International Forum
- Legal advisor to the UK Crowdfunding Association.
Education
- LLB Law
- LLM Law (Corporate and Securities Law)
- Securities Institute Diploma – Regulation and Compliance
- Securities and Futures Authority – Securities Representative
- Securities and Futures Authority – Financial Derivatives Representative
Content supplied by CMS
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Tom Callaby has been a solid partner to our business as we have been working to build this within the UK. He has appropriately connected us to other experts in different areas of domain expertise across CMS in London and equally around the globe. He has always been able to appropriately direct our queries and arrive at a conclusion that delivers for the business.’
‘Large multidisciplinary financial services regulatory practice with specialisms in insurance, asset management, wealth management, pensions, fintech/crypto, ESG, outsourcings, cross-border regulation and more. Has both breadth and depth in order to manage larger multi-faceted projects and smaller discrete technical advice.’
‘Angela Greenough is a specialist in regulatory analysis of complex organisational and technical set-ups. Very commercial and knowledgeable of the internal workings of financial services organisations. Pippa Tasker has knowledge of a broad range of technical FS regulations, very responsive and pleasant to deal with.’
‘Huge team with extremely broad-ranging capabilities and deep expertise.'
‘Angela Greenough is extremely approachable, practical, and generous with her time. There’s nothing about regulated outsourcing that Angela doesn’t know, but she also has wide-ranging industry experience and is always happy to hop on a call to help solve a problem or connect you to someone who can. Joy Davey is another rising star within Angela’s team and is likewise incredibly approachable and client-friendly, with formidable outsourcing expertise. Philippa Tasker also deserves a mention as a highly pragmatic and client-friendly lawyer with deep financial services regulatory expertise. Always very up-front and transparent with their billing and matter oversight; no unpleasant surprises here!’
‘Quick to hit the ground running and always at the end of the phone.’
Key clients
- Legal and General
- Morgan Stanley
- Phoenix Group
- Visa
- Aviva Investors
- Met Life
- Aegon Asset Management
- American Express
- Columbia Threadneedle
- Willis Towers Watson
- Fidelity
- Binance
Work highlights
Advising Phoenix Group on its agreement with Schroders to form Future Growth Capital, the first private market investment manager to be established in the UK to promote the objectives of the Mansion House Compact.
Advising United Trust Bank (UTB), on the regulatory and prudential aspects of a recently announced transaction in which Warburg Pincus acquired an equity interest in UTB, valuing the bank at approximately £520 million.
Advising Archax on products including tokenised securities trading and custody arrangements and the creation of a tokenised representation of uranium using the Tezos blockchain.