Scott Farrell is a senior partner with more than 20 years’ experience in financial markets and financial systems law, advising market participants, exchanges, clearing and payment systems, regulators and governments in Australia and Asia.
Scott has given many years of service to the public and private sector in advising on, and guiding, regulatory and legal change in the financial market and system landscape, including in connection with financial technology. In 2016, Scott was appointed to the Australian Government’s FinTech Advisory Group at its formation. In 2017, Scott led the Australian Government’s review into Open Banking in Australia. In 2018, Scott was appointed to be the co-chair of the Australian Government's FinTech Advisory Group. In 2020, Scott led the Australian Government’s Inquiry into Future Directions for the Consumer Data Right and was appointed by the Australian Government to its Ministerial Advisory Council on FTA Negotiations, to the Board of Industry Innovation Science Australia and also to lead the Australian Government’s Review of the Australian Payments System.
Scott and his team are at the leading edge in the development of legal architecture for the implementation of financial technology solutions, including data-sharing frameworks, blockchain, digital currencies, smart contracts and digital identity frameworks. They have published their own open source smart contract architecture for collaboration with the wider legal and tech community, and advise both technology and financial services clients, as international industry bodies and regulators, on fintech use and development.
Scott’s team is Australia's leading team of derivatives and financial market infrastructure lawyers, acting as counsel to many Australian and international financial institutions, market infrastructure providers, state entities, funds, corporates and industry bodies (including ISDA and ICMA) in relation to derivatives and financial market transactions, collateral, netting and regulation.
In recognition of his market-leading work, Scott has been listed as one of the Financial Times Top 10 Innovative Individuals in law and his team’s work has won FT innovation in law awards in 4 of the last 6 years.