Clare Whittle
Financial Regulation, Counsel, London
"I am a regulatory lawyer with a focus on helping financial institutions to understand the impact of complex regulation on their businesses and investments. I work diligently to help clients reach solutions that achieve the best possible outcome for their businesses."
Overview
Professional experience
Education and qualifications
Overview
Clare trained at Linklaters and has over 15 years’ experience in advising our financial institution client base in London. In her time at Linklaters she has seconded to our Singapore office and in-house to an international bank's global markets regulatory change legal team.
Clare offers day-to-day support on a broad spectrum of regulation including key sectoral regulations such as MiFID II and related products regulation, covering application to both retail and wholesale markets. She also advises on MAR and anti-money laundering laws.
She has significant consumer finance expertise, advising on licensing, documentation and conduct issues relating to lending, the CCA, MCOB, the CRA and the Consumer Duty. She is also covering new regulations in the consumer space including DMCCA, CCA reform and the EU Accessibility Act.
Clare advises on the regulatory aspects of public and private M&A, co-investments and asset sales. She prides herself on her ability to help clients understand key regulatory risks and smoothing the path to get the deal done. Clare cut her teeth on Merrill Lynch’s sale of its wealth management business to Julius Baer in 2012 and she is a ‘go-to’ adviser on transactions involving regulated financial institutions.
Clare advises on all types of regulatory filings and is experienced in managing related regulatory liaison.
Work highlights
Clare’s recent work highlights include advising:
- Multiple private equity firms and banks on their investments in / financing of, consumer credit / mortgage portfolios.
- Wholesale banks and wealth managers on EU MiFID/R revisions and UK transparency changes.
- A wealth manager on papering trades with consumers covering several European jurisdictions.
- Several UK institutions on the application of the consumer duty to their business.
- J Sainsbury’s plc and Sainsbury’s Bank on the sale of its core banking business to Natwest Group.
- Blackstone on the sale of Lombard International Assurance to Utmost.
- An offshore buy now pay later provider on its UK licensing requirements.
Professional experience
Clare has contributed to the Financial Times publication FT Adviser and has spoken at Linklaters’ annual regulatory conference on ESG.
She is a regular mentor on Linklaters’ Stepping Forward programme which supports female associates in progressing their careers.