Robert Purves

As the following selection of recent instructions shows, Rob’s practice encompasses a broad spectrum of regulatory issues:

• Drafting, construction and interpretation of UK and overseas financial services legislation and regulatory rules including in relation to insurance, reinsurance, banking, investment business and the powers and functions of financial regulators.
• Advice (and where necessary written advocacy and challenge to the relevant regulator) on perimeter issues and the proper characterisation of existing and proposed new products, including contracts of insurance, contracts of guarantee, non-insurance warranties, weather derivatives, contracts of insurance with parametric triggers, non-insurance health care trusts, collective investment schemes, open-ended investment companies, currency and emission trading arrangements. The identification of contracts of insurance and their relationship with other regulated and non-regulated products is an area in which Rob has particular expertise.
• Advice on the location of insurance and financial services business, including the provision of insurance on a non-admitted basis into the UK and into the EU.
• Advice on threshold conditions, systems and controls and prudential requirements (for example capital requirements, risk margins and reserving) for insurance and reinsurance firms, friendly societies, credit unions, investment businesses and banks, including under PRA rules, MIFIDPRU and MIPRU.
• Advice on conduct of business requirements for financial services businesses, including under PRIN (for example Treating Customers Fairly and the Consumer Duty) COBS, ICOBS, MCOB, BCOBS and FPCOB.
• Advice on the interpretation and construction of contracts governing every type of regulated (or potentially regulated) financial services business, including contracts of insurance, contracts of guarantee and contractual arrangements for emissions trading.
• Advice on PRA and FCA requirements for Approved Persons and Senior Managers.
• Advice on preliminary decisions and determinations of the Financial Ombudsman Service, including written advocacy in reply to FOS decisions and (where necessary) challenge to the FOS, including by way of judicial review.
• Advice on FCA and PRA fee rules, including written advocacy in reply to FCA and PRA fee determinations for regulated businesses.
• Advice on and written advocacy in relation to the interpretation and application of legislation imposing anti-money laundering requirements and sanctions.

Rob’s clients include financial services firms, individuals and regulators, including the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the UK Prudential Regulatory Authority, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, and the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority and the Society of Lloyds.

Rob is a prolific contributor to legal literature and a sought-after speaker. He is a joint editor of Blair Walker Purves, Financial Services Law (Oxford University Press), a leading textbook in the field, now in its fourth edition. Rob is a current contributor to other highly regarded publications including Paget’s Law of Banking (16^th ed. 2023). In 2022 Rob was a joint contributor to a report by the UK Financial Markets Law Committee on the identification of contracts of guarantee in English law. He regularly provides training on financial services regulation.

Since 2008, Rob has been ranked in Financial Services Band 1 by Chambers & Partners and as a Leading Junior in Banking and Finance by the UK Legal 500. His peers and clients consistently praise his technical excellence, regulatory knowledge, approachability and creative problem-solving skills.

In 2023, Rob was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund as a non-executive director.