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David is a member of our corporate team advising on banking and financial services regulation.

David specialises in banking and financial services regulation providing regulatory advice to major retail banks, neo-banks, fintechs at all stages of their development, payment service providers, non-bank lenders and domestic and international asset managers.

David’s practice involves advising his clients on Financial Services Licensing, Payment Systems Regulation, Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Law, Consumer Credit and Retail Banking Law, and Australian Consumer Law. David also provides regulatory support in relation to corporate transactions.

David has an excellent understanding of the banking and financial services industry, and a good grounding in the commercial drivers of his clients through his time on secondment in the legal team of a major Australian bank, his experience in-house with an international asset manager and his previous experience providing financial services advice in Europe.

Background

David holds a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney and a degree in commerce from University College Dublin. Before joining Herbert Smith Freehills, David worked in Sydney with a global asset management firm and prior to that he worked as a solicitor in Ireland with a tier-1 financial services law firm, gaining experience in European financial services law.

Experience & expertise

Selected matters

 

  • advising a foreign bank on all regulatory aspects of introducing its customer platform to Australia that enables transactions by customers between banks within the group
  • providing regulatory support in relation to the acquisition of a retail banking book by a major bank
  • advising an established fintech on its partnership with a major bank utilising their banking-as-a-service offering to provide bank accounts to their customer base
  • advising an Asian based fintech on their APAC operations including cross-border provision of wallets into Australia and restructuring of their payment system
  • advising an international fintech on the regulatory aspects of launching a crypto-currency trading platform in Australia
  • advising clients on their investment into a start-up fintech which provides an e-wallet and payment platform to merchants
  • advising a major bank on its acquisition of a fintech providing e-wallet and payment services
  • advising reporting entities on their AML/CTF obligations, including assisting them with the preparation of their AML/CTF program, and correspondence with AUSTRAC
  • liaising with various regulators on behalf of clients, including ASIC, APRA and AUSTRAC.