Global Financial Regulatory

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Global Financial Regulatory Group provides comprehensive regulatory advice on all aspects of compliance, enforcement and transactions.

Our clients are the world’s leading financial institutions, including banks, financial holding companies, insurance companies, broker-dealers, investment advisers, asset managers, private fund managers, payment service providers and e-money businesses, as well as businesses spanning the fintech ecosystem, including cryptocurrency firms.   We also represent end-users that are impacted by financial regulations.

Our regulatory lawyers are based in the world’s leading financial centers, including New York, London and Hong Kong.  Many of our team have significant in-house experience within financial institutions or have worked in senior positions within the world’s most prominent regulatory and policy agencies, including the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).  Our team have advised on matters involving all of these regulators, as well as the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, New York Department of Financial Services, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and many other global regulatory bodies, including:

• Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF)
• Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin)
• Bundesministerium der Finanzen (BMF)
• California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI)
• Central Bank of Ireland
• Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA)
• European Banking Authority (EBA)
• European Securities and Markets Association (ESMA)
• European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB)
• Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
• Financial Services and Markets Authority (Belgium) (FSMA)
• Financial Stability Board (FSB)
• International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
• National Futures Association (NFA)
• Ontario Securities Commission (OSC)

We are trusted advisers to our clients, providing strategic advice in relation to regulatory change and the implementation of new requirements across the jurisdictions in which we operate.  We regularly represent our clients before regulators on a formal and informal basis on a range of matters.  We also work closely with regulators and leading industry associations and have led industry responses to high profile proposed reforms in a range of jurisdictions.

Our services include advising on:

• complex conduct and governance issues, including the implementation of senior management accountability regimes and advising senior management and boards of directors on culture and conduct risk;
• regulatory issues in merger and acquisition transactions, including on a cross-border basis
• the handling of client complaints, including the conduct of past business reviews, design, implementation and review of complaints handling and redress schemes;
• applications for licenses and registrations, and engagement with regulators to seek relief, exemptions and interpretations in connection with regulatory compliance matters;
• financial policy matters, including helping to shape the policies that impact our clients; and
• on the operation of financial services businesses inside and outside of the regulatory perimeter.

Our market leading practice regularly defends clients on their most significant regulatory investigations and enforcement matters on high profile issues such as market misconduct, governance failings, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing compliance, cybersecurity breaches, and systems and controls failures.  We also regularly conduct internal reviews and investigations in relation to these matters, including in some instances at the request of regulators or in parallel with their inquiries.

Given the breadth of our practice, we regularly collaborate with our colleagues in a range of practice groups, including Securities Enforcement, Anti-Corruption & FCPA, Crisis Management, Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), Privacy, Cybersecurity and Data Innovation, Investment Funds, Derivatives, Capital Markets, Anti-Money Laundering, Public Policy, Securities Litigation and White Collar Defense and Investigations.