Let’s talk Investigations – Foreign Lawyers speak to Foreign Banks in the UK

This article follows an open forum held for Foreign Banks on 10 December 2025. The discussion included reflections on common challenges for Foreign Banks and conducting Internal Investigations. Attendees spoke to the distinct reality of cultural & operational differences, independence and conflict, and cross-border evidence gathering. Invitees spanned APAC, EMEA, and the Americas and attendees included representatives from Foreign Banks with Head Offices in India, Ghana, and the United States. Tenet Investigations Lawyer Tristan Bramble led the discussion, including reflections from lived experience with investigations and Deferred Prosecution Agreements at the Department of Justice and international banking giant HSBC.

Executive Summary

• SRA Registered Foreign Lawyers in the UK can provide a unique perspective to global investigations for Foreign Banks with overseas head offices. International experience gives context to contrasting regulatory regimes, enforcement landscapes, cultural and operational differences.
• Foreign Banks in the UK are navigating compliance with UK regulators and expectations as a country branch or satellite to an overseas head office. Foreign Banks often inherit policy and compliance guidance from abroad, which may not align with UK expectations.
• There is great value in joining up the two perspectives, where foreign banks can confide in and be supported by foreign investigation lawyers with a broader understanding of the dualities.

Tenet is a multi-award winning boutique UK  law firm that specialises in advising clients in relation to investigations and disputes arising out of fraud and wider financial crime.  Tenet lawyers include UK-qualified disputes practitioners and Foreign-qualified lawyers from the Americas and EMEA.

The foreign lawyer perspective

With experience in the US, UK, EMEA, and APAC regions foreign investigation lawyers can appreciate the nuances of culture and context.

In 2022, Russian Sanctions enforcement by US, UK, EU authorities dominated the headlines. Banks were forced to conduct proactive reviews of their exposure to sanctions, especially related to private client businesses. These geopolitical and financial crime enforcement tools made diverse international experience invaluable.

In 2024, sweeping changes across the US Executive Branch of government impacted the corporate enforcement landscape across the globe. Rapid appointments and new policies at the leading enforcement agencies in the US made historical experience at the US Department of Justice particularly invaluable.

In 2025, the increasing geopolitical tensions from East to West has shifted the landscape for the reputational and economic interests of multinational banks, impacting cross-jurisdictional investigations. Cross-border investigations experience and an understanding of cultural differences remains of great value.

Distinct Challenges for Foreign Banks in the UK

Foreign banks operating in the UK often face significant challenges in meeting the expectations of regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations (10^th) edition reinforces the point that “whether, when and how a company should report potential misconduct requires an increasingly global (in all senses of the word) view of the risks and benefits involved.” See Self-reporting to the authorities and other disclosure obligations: the UK perspective – Global Investigations Review, Ashurst, 31 October 2025.

Head offices from abroad may have global compliance program policies and procedures that do not meet UK expectations and require more to be ‘fit-for-purpose’. Naturally, proactive compliance is always best, where region and country team resources and risk assessments are implemented for this purpose. However, financial crime and misconduct investigations often reveal the policy and control gaps for the Foreign Bank in the UK, and the result is often remedial and reactive compliance.

When handling financial crime and misconduct investigations, UK accountability and governance standards require quick escalation, transparency in evidence gathering, and clear ownership of issues. Investigations teams must ensure that internal processes and documentation follow UK regulatory guidance, and requirements in the banking sector can be demanding when the bank’s global policies are not designed with UK rules in mind.

Furthermore, the cross-border make-up of Foreign Banks can raise challenges with sharing information across the organisation, adherence to local or regional data protection laws, bank secrecy laws, or cultural differences that may impact evidence gathering for investigations in what is often a time sensitive situation. This includes documentation in multiple languages, varied systems of record-keeping and differences in legally privileged information, and obtaining reliable information in a timely manner. Technology and system incompatibilities may also create challenges if overseas case management systems or the use of multiple systems across the organisation allows for incomplete audit trails or slows evidence gathering.

When overseas headquarters and UK branch offices operate under different frameworks, then whistleblowing triage, handling of misconduct, or other supply chain issues can vary throughout an organisation. In cases where UK expectations do not align with customary overseas practices, conflicts may arise and put pressure on staff to follow overseas head office norms that could potentially be in contrast with UK compliance advice.

Best practices and how Tenet can help

To conduct thorough and effective investigations, UK compliance and investigations teams must maintain independence, ensure confidentiality and accessibility in reporting, whilst having international perspective to bridge the gap.

When deployed to support fact-finding, external firms like Tenet will engage the reporter with appropriate contextual questions and / or search for and review supporting documentation. In conducting preliminary assessments, Tenet will triage and assemble the team to support an internal investigation or conduct an external investigation as efficiently as possible. Based on UK escalation criteria, the team can tier or re-tier cases and establish protocols to meet relevant requirements.

With diverse experience managing investigations, the team can assess escalation criteria with reference to internal financial crime policies, reputational risk for the Executive team, risk of adverse media attention, or potential litigation or regulatory risk exposure for consideration.

Once the scope of relevant factors has been determined, Tenet lawyers can then establish an investigations plan, privacy reviews, conduct interviews and prepare investigations reports. By instructing Tenet lawyers to conduct the investigation, information is protected under legal privilege if required in anticipation of litigation and/or regulatory response. This further means that report recommendations on potential next steps can be offered with specific consideration of institutional legal and compliance needs from an international perspective.

For more information on this article for Foreign Banks please contact the co-authors: Tristan Bramble, Kirthi Kalyan, and Julie Leduc.

For information on how Tenet can help you with broader disputes, or should you suspect that you are a victim of fraud or other wrongdoing and need advice, please do not hesitate to get in touch at hello@tenetlaw.co.uk

Author Biographies:

• Tristan Bramble & Kirthi Kalyan lead Tenet’s Investigations Offering in London & Birmingham
• Tristan is US-qualified and previously worked at the US Department of Justice and multinational Banks HSBC and UBS on financial crime and conduct investigations. He is a Registered Foreign Lawyer with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
• Kirthi is SA-qualified and has previously worked in South Africa for international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, on complex cross border investigations as well as in the Channel Islands on investigations in the financial services sector.
• Julie Leduc is a Trainee Solicitor with an E&W law degree from the University of Birmingham Graduate Honours Programme. Prior, she completed both international law and civil law training in Canada and is fully bilingual in English and French.