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financial institutions
Schoenherr's experts advise financial institutions on all legal questions emerging across CEE.
"It’s a top-class firm. Schoenherr is a full-service firm and are a top firm for transactions of all kinds."
Rapidly changing regulatory environments, disruptive technologies and global economic uncertainties are some of the challenges faced by financial institutions. Schoenherr has a leading practice, both on a cross-border/international level and national level in each of its jurisdictions, advising our financial institution clients across CEE/SEE and beyond on a broad spectrum of matters that go to the core of their businesses.
Relevant areas include transactions (debt and equity, including financial institutions consolidation), regulatory matters (including proceedings in front of national and European regulatory authorities), resolution and restructuring, outsourcing, corporate governance, dispute resolution, investigations, compliance and reputational risk management as well as legal assistance in day-to-day operations.
Our clients include banking organisations and investment banks, private equity and hedge funds, real estate investment funds, investment advisers, fund and asset managers, broker dealers, development banks and export credit agencies, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, fintechs, payment services providers, outsourcing and other third-party service providers and other participants in the financial sector. We work with many of the leading EU, global and regional international financial institutions active in CEE/SEE.
Chambers (2020), IFLR1000 (2021), Legal 500 (2020) and Germany's JUVE (2020) have all ranked Schoenherr's banking and finance practice as top tier.
our services
Schoenherr advises financial institutions on a broad spectrum of legal matters, including:
- banking law and banking regulation, including CRR
- financial services and securities regulation
- pension funds regulation
- insurance supervisory, governance, contracts/products and litigation
- trading platforms / MTFs regulation
- asset and fund management
- payments services and systems, market infrastructure providers
- fintech, including crypto assets / cryptocurrencies regulation and payment services
- set-up, licensing and daily operations for banking and non-banking financial institutions
- regulatory compliance, risk management and assistance in extraordinary circumstances / crisis management
- executive compensation and employment matters
- outsourcing/insourcing strategies and implementation
- regulatory capital and own funds legal advice
- financial institution consolidation, including mergers, acquisitions and ownership control proceedings
- internal governance legal advice and corporate reorganisations
- loan sales and other forms of deleveraging, portfolio transactions and special situations
- securitisations (true sale and synthetic of various asset classes, incl. loan, leasing and trade receivables)
- bank recovery and resolution as well as recovery and resolution planning
- financial services litigation, including in front of regulatory authorities
- investigations, including governmental enforcement proceedings
- regulatory change initiatives
- lender liability and other commercial dispute resolution
- all forms of capital markets, structured finance and derivatives transactions
- derivatives and other financial products litigation
- debt finance products, including leveraged lending, project, asset and trade finance
- consumer lending, including prepaid cards, e-wallets and other legal aspects of cryptocurrencies
- restructurings, work-outs and insolvencies
relevant legal areas
- administrative & public law
- arbitration
- banking & financial services regulatory
- capital markets
- commercial contracts
- compliance & internal investigations
- corporate & reorganisations
- data protection
- eu & competition
- finance & corporate finance
- restructuring & insolvency
- ip & unfair commercial practices
- it & technology law
- labour & employment
- litigation
- m&a
- public procurement & ppp
- white collar crime & criminal defence
news
roadmap
The Czech Class Actions Act: a potential game-changer for consumer claims enforcement against businesses
The Czech Class Actions Act – Act No. 179/2024 Coll., on Collective Civil Proceedings (the "Act") – implementing the EU Directive on representative actions, came into effect on 1 July 2024. This long-awaited legislation enables collective enforcement of consumer claims against businesses, a mechanism that has been largely limited in the Czech Republic until now. This poses risks, especially for businesses with large consumer bases in sectors such as financial services, insurance, energy, telecommunications and transport.
roadmap
Bancassurance in the Czech Republic: navigating high remuneration and conflicts of interest
Bancassurance – the collaboration between banks and insurance companies aimed at offering insurance products to the bank's customers – is a significant distribution channel for insurance products in the Czech Republic. This model faces scrutiny due to high remuneration and conflicts of interest, as highlighted by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA).
roadmap
Managing stagnation of contract partners in long-term service or software contracts: key actions to take
In the fast-paced world of business, long-term service and software contracts are common, often designed to provide stability for all parties involved over several years. However, a frequently overlooked aspect is planning for situations where the service provider can no longer meet its obligations. The lack of adequate contractual provisions for transferring the contract or services to a new provider can result in significant operational disruptions. This article explores the challenges of inadequate contractual provisions and provides practical guidance on how to address this issue effectively.
class action info corner
The new class action rules are coming and will have quite an impact. In many CEE jurisdictions, the possibility to request compensation in a class action will be new and will materially change the litigation landscape. Our info corner gives you an overview of how CEE countries intend to implement the Directive.
team
our team
Across all our CEE offices, highly experienced lawyers provide legal advice in the sector of financial institutions.