Advice / Consulting

With around 25 years' of commercial and regulatory experience, we advise & consult on a wide range of strategic, governance, compliance & risk issues, relating to:

• FinTech (Ireland & UK) / RegTech (Ireland & UK)
• Financial Services - from authorisations to ceasing business
• Data Protection
• Financial Crime (i.e. AML/CFT, Sanctions, ABC) 
• Professional Services Firms (lawyers, accountants and others)
• Expert Witness Services
• Digital Currencies 
• Payment Systems 
• Central Bank of Ireland
• Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement
• Office of the Data Protection Commissioner 
• Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Unit (Department of Justice)
• Educational and Academic Institutions 
  

Our services include:

• Strategic Advice to Boards, CEOs and Other C-Suite Professionals
  
• Preparation for Regulatory Inspections 
  
• Representation before Regulators (Authorisation, Supervisory Inspections & Enforcement)
  
• Authorisations & Amendments to existing licences - Ireland (CBI, DoJ), United Kingdom (FCA & HMT) and Malta and other EU countries and Australia (ASIC & AUSTRAC)
• Strategic Business Consulting 
  
• Board Evaluation
• Fitness & Probity
• Compliance Coaching 
  
• Pre-Inspection Risk Assessments 
  
• Regulatory Compliance Advice 
  
• Drafting Compliance & Operational Manuals
  
• Designing & Implementing Risk-Based Compliance Monitoring Programmes
  
• Outsourced Anti-Money Laundering Requirements
  
• Regulatory Enforcement & Enhanced Supervisory Advice
  
• Litigation Support / Expert Witness Services
  
• Non-Executive Director Services
  
• Training, Seminars & Conferences (public courses and in-house training)
  

Representation

We are your regulatory representation experts.  We are the only firm headed by a former Central Bank of Ireland Director of Enforcement & Financial Crime Supervision.

We will attend and represent your firm, management & individuals at Meetings, Inquiries/Hearings and Settlements with the Central Bank on both contentious and non-contentious issues.

Non-contentious - examples include meetings with the Central Bank on supervisory inspections, PRISM, authorisations, amendments to licences, winding-up of businesses, self-reporting of potential regulatory breaches & general business/regulatory matters.

Contentious - new enhanced supervisory and enforcement powers and more onerous regulatory obligations on firms & individuals means that regulated persons need to think carefully about exposure to legal and regulatory liability when potential contentious matters arise.   In this area you need the experience of advisers who have worked at the Central Bank and other regulators to help advise and strategically navigate the right outcomes.  

Having led the creation of Central Bank's Enforcement Directorate, Peter Oakes is uniquely experienced and placed to advise on:

• Enforcement referrals 
• Investigations
• Supervisory Warnings
• Disqualifications and Suspensions of Individuals
• Inquiries (ASPs) / Hearings (Market Abuse, Transparency & Prospectus Regulations)
• Settlements
• Supervisory and Enforcement Procedures 
• Fitness & Property Queries & Attendances at the Central Bank
• Other matters relating to the use of the Central Bank's supervisory directions and enforcement powers

We also represent you and attend meetings with the AML Compliance Unit (Department of Justice), the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.   

Peter Oakes is your first choice of adviser on all Central Bank supervisory and enforcement actions.