Payment systems are the infrastructure that underpins all services relating to the transfer of value. Across the globe, the payment systems landscape is beginning to face disruption, as innovators look to alternative payment rails to bring about greater efficiencies in both the retail and wholesale markets. Our expert payments team has advised on many of the most complex and cutting-edge matters in the market.

Our clients are both long-established players and new market entrants. And we support them with a range of work in relation to existing and new payment systems, including (among other things) advice on:

Our experience

We have a broad wealth of experience around payment systems. Our recent work includes advising:

• a consortium of financial institutions and Clearmatics across multiple jurisdictions on the development of a new global interbank payment system for the Utility Settlement Coin, an asset-backed digital cash instrument on blockchain
• a global payments provider on the development of its global remittance system and settlement rules for its internal payment system
• a major scheme provider on various matters, including advice on core scheme rules, payment obligations in relation to issuers/acquirers, potential exposures of the scheme operator, settlement finality and engagement with regulators
• on the legal and regulatory structuring issues relating to several global stablecoins, including Libra
• as sole legal counsel on the establishment of Payconiq, an omnichannel payments platform led by ING and KBC and supported by other major banks in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg
• a consortium of 14 of the world’s largest swaps dealers, on the development by SwapAgent Limited of the SwapAgent Service, which provides centralised valuation, calculation, trade reconciliation, payment processing, settlement to market and funding optimisation (though compression, netting and liquidity saving mechanisms) services for non-cleared OTC derivatives