Expertise
Gemma acts for a wide range of corporates, PE houses, asset finance and leasing companies as well as consumer finance and short-term lenders. This is in addition to her significant experience of acting for bank, private equity investors and corporate borrowers in a range of sectors.
Gemma’s expertise focuses on the financial regulatory sector, including assisting with applications for FCA authorisation, change of control advice, regulatory reporting and advising on a wide range of Consumer Credit Act queries. She is also familiar with assisting on the diligence aspects of M&A work and guiding clients and colleagues through regulatory pitfalls.
Gemma also has experience in equipment leasing and asset finance (both regulated and non-regulated), commercial and consumer lending alongside regulatory consumer credit work.
Experience
- Advising on various issues around FCA and PRA compliance, authorisation and investigation, including the application of the FCA Handbook and PRA Directives.
- Handling various complex applications to the FCA for change of controller scenarios, transaction and strategy planning in respect of regulated entities in an M&A scenario.
- Assisting on various PE transactions involving regulatory issues in respect of due diligence and risk advice.
- Advising on group restructures in respect of regulated entities.
- Advising a challenger bank in respect of its regulatory obligations spanning from Consumer Duty to SMCR.
- Overseeing complex compliance and audit reviews.
- Acting for start-up businesses, often who have devised a novel forms of funding, including drafting their standard documentation and guiding them through FCA authorisation.
- Acting for various banks, private equity houses and funders on reviewing and advising on their current security arrangements, including with the drafting of new loan and security documentation.