Experience

James’ main area of practice is in financial services regulation. James has experience advising a variety of clients (including payment institutions, electronic money institutions, retail credit firms, investment firms, credit servicing firms, banks and other financial services firms) on a diverse range of financial service regulatory matters. These matters include regulatory authorisations, consumer finance, regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, compliance issues, loan portfolio sales and related due diligence, and arrears resolutions.

One of James’ main areas of practice is Central Bank of Ireland authorisation applications. James has successfully guided clients through various authorisation applications including authorisation as electronic money institutions, payment institutions, virtual asset service providers, credit servicing firms, retail credit firms and MiFID firms. James advises clients on the entire application process from preparation of the application documents, the pre-application meeting with the Central Bank of Ireland, the assessment phase and dealing with any pre-conditions that need to be satisfied. James also has extensive experience in advising clients on post authorisation issues.

James also has experience in advising clients on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism matters. This includes various queries on different requirements of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, advising on registration as a Schedule 2 firm, assisting with Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) Authorisation applications and advising on beneficial ownership registers.

Another of James’ practice areas is advising clients on regulatory and administrative law complaint management. James assists clients in responding to queries and complaints that they receive, both on the internal process and the process with external bodies such as the Central Bank of Ireland and the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman.

Key highlights include advising:

  • AerCap Holdings N.V. in relation to a US$1.5 billion unsecured bond issuance by its wholly owned subsidiaries AerCap Ireland Capital DAC and AerCap Global Aviation Trust consisting of $900,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 3.150% Senior Notes and $600,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 4.625% Senior Notes.
  • Bitpanda, a crypto / digital assets service provider, in relation to Irish regulatory matters.
  • Boku Network Services Ireland Ltd in relation to the establishment of an Irish entity and the application for authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland to act as a payment institution.
  • Lloyds Banking Group on the Tracker Mortgage Examination mandated by the Central Bank of Ireland to review regulatory and contractual compliance with respect to all tracker mortgage accounts.
  • Start Mortgages DAC in relation to a number of complex complaints raised by customers or former customers of the client with the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman.
  • The Cerberus Group including Promontoria Servicing Ireland Limited to obtain authorisation as a credit servicing firm from the Central Bank of Ireland.
  • Pollen Street Capital on the sale of specialist business lender Capitalflow to Bunq, a fintech bank headquartered in the Netherlands.
  • Visa on financial services regulatory matters relating to payment services.