Driving innovation in the banking sector
Banking is in our blood. We have acted for banks for 150 years, forming them, reconstructing them, documenting their assets and liabilities, designing product and systems for them, working with them to seize market opportunities while complying with laws of spiralling complexity and protecting them in court. Banking is rapidly evolving and our focus on the sector and ability to innovate helps clients stay ahead of developments.
The areas of banking law where we advise clients include:
- Acquisition and leveraged finance
- Anti-money laundering and sanctions
- Asset finance
- Bank mergers, acquisitions and divestments
- Clearing and payment systems
- Consumer product regulation
- Corporate finance / lending
- Debt capital markets and Equity capital markets
- Debt / loan trading / loan book sales
- Derivatives
- Design and distribution obligations for financial products
- Digital payments, payment services and e-money
- Financial market regulation
- Financial market infrastructure
- Funds finance
- Governance and executive accountability regimes
- Investigations, including Royal Commissions
- Islamic finance
- Licensing
- Project and infrastructure finance
- Prudential Regulation, including regulatory capital
- Real estate finance
- Resolution Planning
- Restructuring and insolvency
- Securitisation and covered bonds
- Standard documents
- Sustainable finance
- Trade, commodity and export finance.
Work highlights
- A major bank on the bankwide implementation of design and distribution obligations.
- The majority of Australia’s banking institutions in the design and implementation of Basel III compliant capital instruments.
- The National Australia Bank in its A$1.44 billion sale of its MLC wealth management business.
- Local and international bank and financial institution clients in the secured financing of eight Boeing 787-900 aircraft and 14 Q400 turboprop aircraft. These aircrafts were part of Qantas’ unencumbered fleet.
- Westpac – as described by the Australian Financial Review as ‘The case that could reshape banking’, 10 May 2019 – in successfully defending ASIC’s allegations that it contravened the National Consumer Protection Act. We continued to act in defence of the appeal lodged by ASIC, which was dismissed by the Full Federal Court.
- The financiers to the Western Downs Solar Farm in Queensland. The financiers included Natixis, Société Générale, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, MUFG Bank, Nord/LB, HSBC and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
- The three lenders who have sued certain directors and officers of the Arrium group for misleading and deceptive conduct based on drawing funds from the lenders when the Arrium group was allegedly insolvent.
