Nicola Higgs is a partner in the London office of Latham & Watkins. Ms. Higgs specializes in financial services regulatory advice and has vast experience advising financial institutions and market infrastructure providers on a wide range of complex domestic and cross-border regulatory issues.
Ms. Higgs advises global investment banks, corporate finance houses, fund managers, insurers, stockbrokers, market infrastructure, and data services providers on a variety of legal and regulatory risk management matters, with particular expertise in the FCA’s Conduct of Business Rules, European regulatory developments, such as MiFID II, PRIIPs KID Regulation, and the EU Benchmark Regulation, and contested enforcement actions.
Ms. Higgs has developed a formidable reputation advising global investment firms on the sale of complex derivative products to professional and retail investors, including cross-border issues.
Ms. Higgs also has a strong track record in advising private banks and wealth managers on their regulatory obligations.
Ms. Higgs’ experience includes advising:
- Goldman Sachs on the build of its first UK Retail Investment Platform – Marcus Invest
- Syndicate banks on the US$1.085 billion refinancing of Aston Martin
- GCM Grosvenor on its initial public offering
- Primary Markets LLC, the holding company for DirectBooks, a digital platform that aims to streamline the communications process for primary offerings of corporate bonds, to design the service, and provide regulatory advice in a large number of jurisdictions as the service was being built
- The underwriters on the initial public offering of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), the largest IPO in history
- eToro on the establishment of eToro Digital Assets, a platform for the tokenisation of assets to be traded on eToroX, eToro’s Gibraltar-based digital currency exchange
- IHS Markit with regards to EU Benchmarks Regulation, including the establishment of new critical benchmarks with global reach
- The Central Bank of Egypt on a complete reformulation and enhancement of Egypt’s banking regulatory regime
- A leading US investment bank on its Brexit planning project
- A leading US investment bank on the launch of its retail banking platform in the UK and US
- A leading US investment bank on compliance with the new Benchmarks Regulation, including in its sensitive role as the administrator of a number of benchmarks
- Numerous financial services clients (banks, investment firms, and asset managers) in relation to firm-wide MiFID II preparation and implementation projects
- A number of global investment banks and a market data provider on the implementation of the EU Benchmark Regulation, including seeking authorization as a benchmark administrator
- Financial services clients (including investment banks) with critical outsourcing transactions
- A number of global investment banks on the implementation of the PRIIPs KID Regulation*
- A variety of firms on seeking new FCA authorization / changes to permissions*
- A number of global bank structured product providers on the implementation of the UK product governance regime*
*Matter handled prior to joining Latham