Here are some examples of projects Ruth has worked on before and since setting up this firm.

Advising financial institutions on their strategic response to new regulation, the implementation of that strategy, meeting the regulatory requirements and achieving compliance

• Advising mortgage lenders and mortgage intermediary networks on the impact of mortgage regulation, including:

• Applications for authorisation
• The activities that would fall outside the scope of regulation
• How to deal with customers under the new regime
• Internal structures to ensure compliance
• The requirements for advertising and marketing

• Advising on the capital requirements introduced under UK implementation of the Capital Requirements Directive/Basel II and related requirements, and on the structuring of businesses, including:

• Criteria for treatment of instruments as tier 1 and tier 2 capital
• Solo consolidation criteria and their application to group companies
• Implications of moving to an internal ratings based approach

• Advising energy trading companies and potential e-money issuers on dealing with new UK regulation affecting their activities, including:

• The impact on their business
• How to deal with the Financial Services Authority
• The action needed to comply with the new regulatory requirements
• The subsequent structure of the UK operations

Carrying out strategic reviews and planning of new businesses and advising on the establishment of those businesses

• Advising on the establishment of a second charge lending operation, including:

• The location of the business within the group
• Ancillary activities and authorisation for those activities
• Compliance arrangements

• Advising on UK regulatory matters and co-ordinating overseas regulatory advice in connection with the establishment of various offshore financial services businesses, including:

• Establishment of offshore banking operations by a UK bank
• Expansion into other territories by a Channel Islands bank
• Establishment of an offshore lending operation by a UK financial institution

• Acting for a UK banking group on the establishment of a standalone internet banking operation, including:

• The structure of the operations
• Products to be offered
• Regulatory issues

Advising financial institutions on implementation of regulatory requirements

• Advising financial institutions on the implementation of mortgage regulatory requirements, including:

• The steps to be taken to comply with the FSA’s Mortgage Conduct of Business Sourcebook
• Arrangements with appointed representatives and introducers
• The content and form of documents to be provided to customers
• Changes to be made to advertising and marketing material

• Advising banks and building societies on capital requirements under GENPRU/BIPRU, including:

• Solo consolidation and the requirements to be met
• Risk weightings of exposures
• The constituent parts of capital and eligibility of debt for treatment as capital
• Use of standardised and advanced approaches
• Pillar 2 requirements

• Advising financial institutions on TCF (treating customers fairly), including:

• Work with institutions to devise a TCF policy
• Advice on TCF implementation
• Devising and assisting with TCF training programmes
• Providing a TCF overview to boards and senior management
• Advice on dealing with TCF issues in respect of specific parts of the business

Preparing financial institutions for ARROW and other regulatory reviews

• Working with financial institutions to prepare for a regulatory visit, including:

• Pre-authorisation visits
• ARROW visits
• Theme visits

• The work has included:

• Putting together preparation plans
• Mock interviews with senior management
• Identifying relevant issues
• Resolving problems
• Anticipating areas of concern

Devising organisational and governance structures to implement regulatory requirements

• Working with a financial services group to devise a new compliance structure for the group and its operating subsidiaries, including:

• Preparing compliance plans for the group and the operating subsidiaries
• Preparing compliance monitoring plans
• Advising on complaints handling arrangements

• Advising on governance structures for financial services groups, including:

• Reporting lines to and for senior management
• Allocation of responsibilities
• The obligations of the person responsible for apportionment and oversight
• Division of responsibilities between Internal Audit, Compliance and Risk

Advising financial institutions on risk identification and risk management to meet regulatory requirements

• Working with financial institutions to identify:

• Risks to the business
• Risks to consumers
• Risks to the FSA’s statutory objectives

  and action to be taken to reduce, eliminate
  or otherwise manage those risks

• Working with a retail financial services group to identify the current risks in a division of the business and advising on a new programme of monitoring the business to manage those risks

• Advising on risk identification, review and management for the purposes of:

• Capital treatment
• Risk-based supervision
• TCF

Carrying out a regulatory review of financial services businesses

• Carrying out TCF reviews for financial institutions

• Carrying out reviews of businesses to check for compliance with regulatory requirements (regulatory healthchecks)

• Reviewing documentation to ensure compliance with current and future regulatory requirements, including reviews for fairness of provisions of documentation

Advising on the development and launch of new products

• Advising on various structured products for the retail financial services market, including:

• Structured deposits
• Structured capital at risk products (SCARPs)

• involving:

• The sale of products by third parties
• The sale of products by the manufacturer

• Advising various banks on their online banking offerings, including:

• Services to existing customers
• Products and services available only online
• Affiliated provider offerings

• Advising on loans to older customers that can be transferred to members of their family

Advising on efficient capital management

• Advising banks, building societies and investment firms on capital raising and treatment of debt as capital, including tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 capital

• Advising on the capital treatment (risk-weighting and large exposures) of various transactions, including:

• Capital treatment of products
• Capital treatment of transactions
• Advising on the structuring of transactions to achieve more favourable capital treatment and/or to avoid large exposure concerns

Advising on regulatory breaches – dealing with the regulator and remedial action

• Advising on the issues arising from a regulatory breach, including:

• Identifying the nature, extent and scope of the breach
• Advising on remedial action
• Assisting with reports to the relevant regulators
• Advising on further review to ensure remedial action has been effective

• Advising a global banking group on the implications for the UK operations of criminal offences having been committed in other jurisdictions and reviewing and reporting on systems and procedures in the UK business

The information contained in this website does not provide, or purport to provide, specific advice relevant to particular circumstances and Ruth Finch accepts no liability for any loss or damage that may be suffered or incurred as a result of any person relying on any such information.

© Ruth Finch 2009