Nick is a partner in our Financial Regulation Group and a member of our Financial Institutions Group. He has a broad financial institutions practice, with extensive experience advising insurers, banks and asset managers on a range of stand-alone advisory and transactional projects. Nick also supports financial services clients on supervisory and contentious regulatory matters concerning UK and overseas regulators.
He is regularly called upon to advise on complex prudential regulatory matters, and has a keen interest in and understanding of the EU / UK regulatory regimes for solvency/own funds and governance, and also on transactions designed to create capital efficiency or otherwise be accretive to solvency / capital ratios. He also frequently advises on financial institution reorganisations and portfolio acquisitions/disposals, including by way of the UK Part VII process.
Nick sits on the Financial Markets Law Committee’s scoping group for insurance. In 2021, he was appointed chair to the International Regulatory Strategy Group ESG Committee’s ESG ratings sub-committee. He is the co-author of the UK chapter of The Banking Regulation Review and the author of the EU chapter of The Asset Management Review (both published by Law Business Research). He is recognised as a ‘Next Generation’ Partner in the ‘Financial Services: Non-contentious Regulatory’ section of Legal 500.
Recent highlights include advising:
- abrdn on its acquisition of Interactive Investor, the UK’s leading subscription-based investment platform, for £1.49bn
- Zurich Insurance plc on the Brexit-related Part VII transfer of the majority of its existing UK branch business
- Aviva on its strategic response to COVID-19 business interruption matters
- Schroders plc on its acquisition of River & Mercantile Group’s UK advisory, fiduciary management and derivatives business, and acquisition of a 75% stake in Greencoat Capital Holdings
- Moody’s on its acquisition of a 50% stake in credit rating agency, Global Credit Rating Company Ltd
- Santander, one of the UK’s largest retail and investment banks, throughout its preparation for, and implementation of, the measures required to comply with the UK retail bank ring-fencing regime
- Aquis Exchange plc on its acquisition of NEX Exchange Limited from CME Group
- Various insurers and banks in connection with reorganisations and transfers of business for Brexit-related purposes
- Various (re)insurance groups on longevity derisking transactions.
“Nick Bonsall is exceptionally friendly and approachable, very strong on regulatory matters.” Legal 500 2023
