Fintech, Market Infrastructure and Payments

Our award-winning Fintech, Market Infrastructure and Payments (FMIP) Group is the ‘go-to’ practice for strategic advice on wholesale and retail payments, securities settlement, digital assets, distributed ledger technology, and the development of new and innovative products and systems.

We support a wide range of clients on complex and market-changing projects, spanning:

financial market infrastructures (FMIs) – including payment systems, CSDs and CCPs;
exchanges and other trading venues;
payment and e-money institutions;
digital assets firms – including exchanges, custodians and other service providers;
other fintech businesses; and
traditional financial institutions.

Our strong relationships with clients, alongside our active involvement with leading payments, digital assets, financial markets and fintech-related trade associations, means we help to shape the direction of legal and regulatory developments affecting our clients – rather than merely advising on the law.

Our cross-disciplinary team provides a ‘one-stop shop’ for all of our clients’ needs – covering expertise in payments, FMI, digital assets and other financial services regulation, AI, technology and commercial contracts, banking and insolvency, IP, data protection & privacy law, competition law, M&A and other strategic transactions, and contentious matters.

See our FMIP brochure for more information.

See our views on the Law Commission's draft Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill.

Acting as lead project counsel for Pay.UK on the design and implementation of the New Payments Architecture.
Advising RTGS.global on the implementation of a ground-breaking, next-generation interbank payment system to allow instant cross-border payments.
Advising Faster Payments on revolutionary contractual solutions for the admission of non-bank payment service providers to participation in FPS using special purpose funds.
Advising Copper, the award-winning digital asset custodian and service provider, on various new, innovative products and services.
Acting for Tulip Trading in its claim against Bitcoin developers for the recovery of its stolen bitcoin holdings, the leading case in the English Court on the legal characterisation of crypto-assets, the nature and extent of control exercised and the legal duties owed by the developers of the associated permissionless blockchain networks and the legal remedies available to owners of those assets.
Advising Paymentsense on legal and regulatory matters affecting its business and new products and services.
Advising Ethos Money on key contractual and critical outsourcing arrangements to support the establishment of its innovative ethical and Shariah-compliant UK bank.
Appointed by NatWest Group to undertake an independent review into account closure arrangements at Coutts.
Advising CLS on its new service for the settlement of FX derivative contracts to be cleared by central counterparties.

Advising Euroclear UK & International on the successful launch of a new post-Brexit market solution for euro settlement.
Advising Fnality International on specialist regulatory aspects of the development of its innovative, blockchain-based payment system.
Acting as project counsel for Cheque & Credit Clearing Company Limited on the development and implementation of its state-of-the-art Image Clearing System.
Advising Bittrex Global on legal and regulatory considerations impacting upon its global cryptocurrency exchange business.
Advising Palisade, a new digital asset service provider, on its digital asset wallet and custody products and services.
Advising nsave, a cutting-edge fintech aiming to provide safe and secure banking for people in unstable and distressed economies, on a range of payments regulatory, digital and technology matters.
Advising Monzo, the leading digital bank, on a business-critical near-shore outsourcing arrangement.
Acting for a group of FMIs in helping HM Treasury develop its policy on, and the drafting of, onshoring statutory instruments in response to a potential Hard Brexit, with specific reference to settlement finality and wider financial market issues.
Advising CHAPS Co on the development and implementation of its contractual and governance framework prior to the migration of the CHAPS System to the Bank of England.

A potent force for fintech clients navigating the opportunities of technologically-enabled innovation in an ever-changing regulatory landscape.

The ‘proactive’ department at Travers Smith LLP provides ‘exceptional service and commercial, actionable advice’; it has ‘deep industry knowledge’, especially in payments and wider fintech infrastructure.