Cristina Faro
Cristina provides regulatory advice and support to a range of financial services providers, including clients working in insurance, wealth and asset management, payments and the FinTech and InsurTech spaces.
As well as providing business critical regulatory advice, her work includes preparing regulatory applications and project managing the cross-border expansion of products into new jurisdictions. Cristina also supports clients with setting up and implementing compliance structures/processes and drafting of internal regulatory policies, customer facing product documents and regulated commercial agreements. She takes a strategic and commercial approach reflecting the changing regulatory landscape and clients’ evolving businesses.
Cristina has extensive experience of dealing with claims and investigations against a range of financial professionals including financial advisors, asset and fund managers, offshore trustees, pension providers, accountants and insolvency practitioners. This includes experience of managing pre-enforcement FCA matters such as s165 requests, s166 skilled persons reviews, past business reviews and redress exercises.
With established expertise in providing coverage advice on professional indemnity, directors’ and officers’ and financial institutions’ insurance, Cristina’s experience also extends to monitoring and providing strategic input on large cross border regulatory investigations and class actions.
Cristina has undertaken secondments to the financial lines teams of two global insurers which have strengthened her deep knowledge of the insurance sector and broadened her commercial outlook in delivering pragmatic solutions for clients.
- Detailed advice and draft disclaimers for tech, retail and professional services businesses in respect of regulated activities, financial promotions and the regulatory perimeter.
- Preparing a complex bespoke appointed representative agreement for a global MGA addressing multi-layer and concurrent insurance distribution of different products.
- Detailed advice on group solvency to an established international InsurTech business regarding regulatory and prudential treatment of corporate structures with multiple insurance carriers.
- Project managing the roll out and set up of services of InsurTech and FinTech businesses into different local markets within Europe.
- General advice and drafting services for InsurTechs, FinTechs brokers/MGAs and investment managers in relation to bespoke policies, product design, insurance distribution, terms of business, delegated authority, appointed representative and other related commercial agreements.
- Ongoing advice on policy coverage, monitoring and strategy in relation to regulatory investigations, including a wide-ranging criminal investigation of a large international listed business and its board for alleged cross-border money laundering and bribery offences.
- In depth advice to wealth management platform on changes to the financial promotions regime dealing with client and investment categorisation including redesigning the customer journey and drafting questions for appropriateness testing.
- Acting as trusted outsourced legal adviser for a large professional principal firm providing ongoing strategic advice, drafting and consultation on the structure and operation of complex cross border insurance distribution models.
- Advising regulated firms on supervisory pre-enforcement dialogue with the FCA, which includes formulating strategy, drafting correspondence and advising on risk management and refining business models and practices.
- Financial services regulation
- Insurance coverage and monitoring
- Drafting regulated contracts
- Financial services investigations
Career
- Senior Associate, Capital Law Limited (Nov 2023 – present)
- Associate, Capital Law Limited (Mar 2022 – Oct 2023)
- Senior Associate, RPC (Jul 2021 – Feb 2022)
- Associate, RPC (Sep 2016 – Jun 2021)
- Claims Adjuster (secondee), AXA XL (Nov 2019 – Jul 2020)
- Claims Specialist (secondee), Liberty Specialty Markets (Aug 2018 – Jan 2019)
- Trainee Solicitor, RPC (Sep 2014 – Sep 2016)
- Legal Assistant, TLT (May 2013 – Jul 2014)
- Paralegal, Womble Bond Dickinson (formerly Bond Pearce) (Oct 2012 – May 2013)
Education
- University of Plymouth: LPC (2011 – 2012)
- University of Bristol: LLB Law (2008 – 2011)
Memberships / Trustee Positions
- The Law Society of England and Wales
Languages
- Spanish (limited working proficiency)