Financial Services

Consulting focus

• Banking and financial supervision law

  We advise you on all issues of German and European banking and financial supervisory law. This includes the analysis of licensing requirements in the context of accompanying licensing applications, the establishment of branches in Germany and abroad, the appointment and dismissal of management and supervisory board members as well as advice on questions of remuneration regulation. We support you in the implementation of new regulatory requirements, in the issuance and design of own funds instruments, in outsourcing projects including contract design and negotiation and accompany you in bearer control proceedings. In addition, we take over the communication with financial supervisory authorities for you.

• Bank Civil Law

  We provide comprehensive advice on all banking law issues. Our range of advisory services includes clarifying civil banking law issues, drafting contracts and terms and conditions for banking products and services, and representing your interests in complex disputes and litigation. In addition, we support you in mass litigation matters as well as their defense and in the adaptation and negotiation of customer contracts, for example with regard to regulatory changes or new court decisions with mass litigation character.

• Compliance, data protection, money laundering and anti-financial crime

  We advise you on all questions of compliance in the banking sector. Our range of consulting services includes, for example, not only the implementation of new legal requirements, but also comprehensive advice on data protection and money laundering issues, including the optimization of customer onboarding. We support and accompany you in the execution of external or internal audits as well as investigations and advise you on all aspects of anti-financial crime and financial sanctions.

• Digitization and Payments

  We advise you on digital and innovative products and business models in the financial industry. This includes, for example, the digital transformation of customer onboarding, including issues such as KYC and electronic signature, and IT outsourcing, including cloud solutions. In addition, we advise you on issues related to Payments, ZAG, PSD2 and Open Banking and are available to advise on cooperations between established financial institutions and FinTechs. The trendy topic of digital assets rounds off our range of consulting services.

• Financing

  We advise financial institutions as well as large and medium-sized companies on all aspects of financing. Our range of advisory services includes in particular loan financing, capital market financing, financial restructuring, real estate financing as well as project and asset financing. In addition, we support you on your way to a sustainable future and advise you on all legal questions regarding modern forms of financing, such as Sustainable Finance or Green Finance.

• Insurance

  Insurance Supervisory Law, Structuring, Governance and Compliance

  Our team ensures that your insurance company’s processes adequately address all regulatory developments in insurance law and related areas of law. We support you in the implementation of regulatory requirements and advise you on issues of insurance supervisory law as well as insurance organization law, for example in the case of insurance start-ups and restructuring or outsourcing projects. We implement compliance management and legal monitoring systems and continuously adapt them to regulatory developments. We also advise and train your organization’s boards on governance, compensation and liability.

  Innovative products and distribution

  European regulatory initiatives such as IDD and PRIIPs, as well as court decisions on the effectiveness of premium increases, transparency and the sale of insurance products, pose major challenges for insurance companies and their associated sales organizations. Established structures and processes must be fundamentally rethought in order to remain competitive. These developments also influence the design of products and compensation agreements.

  As a leader in LegalTech, we use today’s most advanced technology to advise you on the design and realization of new solutions for products and distribution. Carefully considering the relevant legal and regulatory requirements, we find efficient and workable approaches, build modern distribution channels with you using bots, and develop blockchain-based solutions. In court proceedings, we represent your interests and provide you with highly professional and field-tested litigation and substantive support in mass actions.

  Insurance concepts – design and testing

  The selection and design of the appropriate insurance solution can be a decisive factor in the success or failure of a company. We advise insurers and policyholders on all aspects of corporate insurance, in particular D&O insurance, individual insurance solutions and the design of international insurance programs. We point out legal gaps in insurance coverage, identify opportunities for optimization and conduct insurance due diligence in the context of company acquisitions.

  Transactions, run-off and outsourcing

  In the context of restructuring, but also beyond that, we support you in run-off and outsourcing projects. We advise you both with regard to insurance supervision and insurance company law aspects, but also with regard to all other areas of law affected by this, such as data protection, IT or employment law.

  In cooperation with the experts at KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, we create holistic concepts with a 360-degree overview. In this way, legal, regulatory, tax, economic and, not least, corporate cultural implications can be carefully considered. We implement the projects structured in this way together with you and then take over the follow-up of the project.

  International PMO

  We are part of the KPMG Global Legal Insurance Network (GLIN). With the support of this network, we can accompany the business activities of internationally operating insurance companies worldwide. This enables us to set up a worldwide Project Management Office (PMO) for cross-border projects in the insurance sector and to provide you with the best experts in the respective countries – tailored to the specific situation. Ongoing quality assurance and permanent budget controlling across national borders are a matter of course for us.

• Investment Law

  From traditional fund investments to alternative investments and crypto assets: We provide comprehensive advice on fund structuring – from the initial investment idea to the closing. We support you in the realization of investment concepts and vehicles and create, analyze and optimize fund and distribution structures.

  In addition, we advise you on all regulatory frameworks and issues. In doing so, we respond precisely and pragmatically to your individual needs and situations and support you in implementing the regulatory requirements. We develop legally compliant and practice-oriented solutions for you based on careful analyses of regulatory topics and innovations.

  A special focus of our activities is the ongoing support of the legal departments of capital management companies. For this purpose, we have developed the “extended workbench” model. In this context, our experienced lawyers take over activities from the day-to-day business of your legal function, thus enabling your in-house lawyers to devote themselves again to supporting strategic projects and your business development.

• Capital Market Law

  Equity capital procurement and debt capital procurement on the capital market, listing and follow-up obligations

  We accompany you in capital measures from day one and already prepare the term sheet and the underlying structure with you. In the context of raising equity or debt capital, we support you in going public and implementing the capital measure. In the run-up to the IPO, we work with you to analyze the “IPO readiness” or capital market capability of your company and identify any structural adjustment requirements with regard to capital market requirements.

  Transaction and project structuring, ongoing issuer compliance and due diligence are as much a part of our consulting spectrum as support in the drafting and negotiation of contracts. In the context of debt capital procurement, our experts also help with restructurings.

  Regulatory developments, securitizations and covered bonds, derivatives and financial transactions

  We keep you permanently up to date on regulatory topics or innovations and take into account relevant civil law aspects. We set up an institutionalized legal monitoring system for you. We also support you in the drafting of contracts in the context of securitizations of individual assets or securitization transactions and review any existing contractual documentation. Our expertise also includes transaction and project structuring as well as collateral management. In addition, we settle bilateral and multilateral derivatives and financial transactions in the event of default or breach of contract by a counterparty, including the determination of termination payments (exposure, netting).

  Regulatory approvals and endorsements

  In the context of public offerings of securities or other capital market products, we assist you in submitting the required (prospectus) documents to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. Thanks to our in-depth understanding of regulatory requirements and expectations, we navigate you through the endorsement process professionally and expeditiously.

  ICO / STO

  Blockchain technology is making its way into the capital market: the dematerialized security is increasingly becoming the focus of the financial industry. With our relevant expertise in Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and Security Token Offerings (STO) as well as other token-based assets (Tokenization of Real Assets), we support you in the development of your business model or blockchain-based funding in all legal issues of modern token and coin issuances in Germany as well as in a cross-border context.

• M&A, transactions and outsourcing

  We provide comprehensive advice on all issues relating to corporate transactions and restructuring. Our range of advisory services includes, among others, the support of M&A transactions involving financially regulated companies. This includes legal due diligence, legal and regulatory structuring, preparation and negotiation of transaction documentation as well as preparation and support of financial regulatory notification and approval procedures (owner control). We also advise you on restructuring and cooperations, on outsourcing projects including cloud outsourcing, and provide comprehensive support for the establishment of subsidiaries and branch offices in Germany and abroad. We also assist you with capital measures including capital increases and the issuance of AT1 and Tier 2 instruments.

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• Extended workbench

  We support the legal department of banks and other financial institutions in their day-to-day business in the form of an “extended workbench”. In this way, we are actively meeting the challenge that increasing workloads, regulatory density and the complexity of legal issues are coming up against tight human resources. Furthermore, we support you with optimized processes and the use of LegalTech for issues with high administrative effort as well as repetitive tasks. The legal department can thus better focus on its core tasks and core competencies, balance out work peaks and save costs.