Nicholas Thompsell

Partner, Fieldfisher

My practice draws on my experience developed over more than 25 years of the fields of corporate, partnership law and financial services law to allow me to advise on complex issues and structures, particularly within the financial services industry. I particularly enjoy dealing with innovative transactions where there is a complex regulatory and/or tax background or where a new solution is being applied either to a new or an old problem.

When I began my training at Slaughter and May both "Big Bang" - the 1980s major reform of financial services regulation - and the first wave of privatisations were under way. These two movements have been underlying themes to my career ever since, sometimes combined within projects where I have been advising government in relation to financial services businesses and often separately. My career has taken me into other specialist industries such as transport, where I have developed a leading reputation, and other areas of regulation such as legal regulation.

My long-standing interest in partnership law and LLPs has combined well with my even longer involvement with the financial services industry so that, unusually, I combine knowledge of how professional partnerships work with knowledge of how to use partnerships within investment structures. More recently I have focused more of my practice on the financial services space.

The extent of my interest is reflected in the range of my publications - I am the author of the chapter on business structures in Sweet & Maxwell’s Working with Technology and part of the editorial board of the Encyclopaedia of Professional Partnerships and I have written articles for various publications and spoken at conferences on various topics ranging from capitalisation of financial mutuals, applications of aspects of the AIFMD and uses of LLP structures.

Contributed to

2

FCA regulation of claims management companies—essentials

Practice notes

As from 1 April 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the regulator of claims management companies (CMCs) established or serving customers in England, Wales and Scotland. At the same time, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has responsibility for resolving complaints about CMCs. This Practice Note discusses the background to the transfer of the regulation of CMCs from the Claims Management Regulation Unit within the Ministry of Justice to the FCA, the FCA’s authorisation process and supervisory approach to CMCs, and the parts of the FCA Handbook applicable to CMCs.

Financial Services

Governance, systems and controls requirements for insurers

Practice notes

This Practice Note deals with the requirements on UK insurers concerning governance, risk management, systems and controls and suggests that these topics are approached in a holistic manner in the framework of the applicable rules and regulations. The note considers the roles of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The applicable rules and regulations include, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA 2000), the PRA Rulebook and in particular, the Conditions Governing Business section for Solvency II firms; the Governance section for Non-Solvency II firms; the PRA Fundamental Rules, the Senior Management and Certification Regime (SM&CR) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) Guidelines on System of Governance.

Insurance & Reinsurance