Legal Work for FinTech Businesses
FinTech products sit close to financial regulation and run on a stack of contracts. I build that stack in plain English and help you see where the regulatory questions are.
Where the Experience Comes From
My current role is legal manager for a group that builds software and services for proprietary trading firms.
I built its contract stack, its customer-facing documents, its intellectual property position and its data protection framework, and I advise its board on where regulation begins in the markets it operates in and targets.
Before that came eight years in investment banking and five years as an executive of a Hong Kong listed group. I know how financial businesses make money, and how investors and counterparties read the documents.
What I Do for FinTech Businesses
Platform and SaaS Agreements
Subscription, licence and white-label agreements for software sold to financial businesses, with service levels, suspension rights, liability caps and the intellectual property and data clauses those customers will negotiate hardest.
Customer Terms and Policies
Client terms, risk disclosures, refund, complaints and payout policies, and acceptable use rules, written to match how the product works rather than how a template assumes it works.
Partner Agreements
Affiliate, introducer, reseller and referral agreements, including commission, attribution, clawback and the rules on what partners may say about your product.
Data and Confidentiality
Data processing and data sharing agreements, non-disclosure agreements, international transfers and privacy notices.
Intellectual Property
Making sure the business owns its code and content: assignments from developers and contractors, licences in and out, and what a customer may and may not take with it when it leaves.
Company and Investment Documents
Shareholder, joint venture and investment documents for FinTech companies and their founders, including term sheets and the profit and control arrangements between partners.
Where Regulation Starts
Many FinTech products are designed to sit outside financial services licensing. Whether one does depends on the facts and on each country it reaches.
I map the questions, draft the documents to fit the model, and where a formal opinion is needed, brief regulatory counsel in the right country and keep the cost under control.
Because of my current role, every FinTech enquiry is checked for conflicts before we discuss the detail.
Tell Me About the Product
A short description of what it does, who pays for it and where your customers are is enough to start.