How we help Deposit Taking Institutions & Electronic Money Institutions
We were engaged by both the in-house legal and financial crime teams to advise on practical day to day issues causing concern in relation to customer account onboarding and usage of banking facilities.
Offering a service more akin to a bolt-on to the in-house legal team we have assisted in areas such as the below. Our advice was sought as an alternative to larger City firms so to drive a more cost proportionate approach for the advice required by our clients in these areas. Our approach of innovating on our approach to driving costs down for delivery of legal services fits with the forward thinking nature of our fintech clients seeking this advice.”
Our deep sector expertise in financial services regulation has enabled us to respond quickly to requests for advice, providing peace of mind to our fintech clients that they are meeting their regulatory obligations.
Deposit Taking Institutions
We have been working with a fast-growing online bank, providing advice to their in-house legal and financial crime teams on a range of regulatory matters including:
- The rules around lifestyle payments under s339A POCA 2002, including what they are and when such payments are permitted.
- The interplay between lifestyle payments, suspicious activity reports (“SARs”) and requests for a defence against money laundering (“DAMLs”).
- Retention periods for employee and supplier records, so as to balance the requirements on the FCA and the ICO as well as to protect itself from a fraud and/or litigation perspective.
Electronic Money Institutions
We have been supporting a young EMI, from providing ad hoc advice to bespoke ‘how-to’ guides for their risk analysts, including:
- Who the MLRO is able to share SARs with.
- Which parts of the FCA Handbook apply to EMIs.
- Whether EMIs can allow lifestyle payments under s339A POCA 2002, and how to assess the risk when the Financial Services Bill is passed.
- A flowchart showing the decision-making process as regards making a lifestyle payment.
- Industry practice around indemnity requests.
- Clayton’s Rule and how to determine the amount of funds available to satisfy an indemnity request from an originating bank.
- A flowchart showing the steps that should be taken on receipt of an indemnity request.
- A template letter for requesting an indemnity from a recipient bank.
- A flowchart showing the steps to be taken from the initial suspicion that a customer’s account contains criminal property, to submitting a SAR and requesting a DAML, to off-boarding the customer.
- A template letter to the customer informing them that their account has been suspended but which does not risk the EMI committing a tipping off offence under POCA.
- Guidance on what to include in a SAR/DAML request, including template wording.
