FinTech

New technologies demand new insights.

Here’s our point of view:
We can help you prepare for what the future holds for your business.

The financial sector is increasingly shaped by technology, digital business models and new forms of financial infrastructure. Fintech businesses often operate at the intersection of financial regulation, corporate law, technology, payments, crypto-assets, investment structures and capital markets. That creates opportunities, but also complex legal and regulatory questions.

Watsonlaw advises clients on a broad range of fintech-related legal and regulatory matters. We assist founders, scale-ups, crypto businesses, payment institutions, electronic money institutions, token issuers, investment funds, investors, platforms and established financial institutions in analysing, structuring and documenting innovative financial products and services. Our work ranges from early-stage scoping and legal qualification to licence applications, regulatory implementation, transaction structuring, internal documentation, supervisory engagement and ongoing compliance support.

Our Fintech practice covers several closely connected areas. We advise on:

• Crypto-assets and blockchain-based business models, including crypto-asset services, crypto-asset issuances and stablecoins under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation.
• Payments and electronic money, including qualification under second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and the second Electronic Money Directive (EMD2), payment institution and electronic money institution licensing, safeguarding, outsourcing and interaction with MiCA.
• Finance and capital markets transactions, including private placements, the issuance of shares, depositary receipts, convertible loans, bonds and tokenised financing instruments, as well as prospectus and crowdfunding-related questions.
• Investment funds and investment structures, including the legal qualification of fund models, fund structuring, registration and licensing questions, the offering of participation rights and funds investing in crypto-assets or other digital assets.
• Regulatory due diligence in the context of investments, acquisitions and strategic transactions, helping clients identify regulatory risks, licensing issues, compliance gaps and structuring points before a transaction is completed.

Our approach is practical, pragmatic and hands-on. We understand that Fintech clients often operate in fast-moving and innovative environments where legal advice must be clear, responsive and commercially workable. We focus on the actual prodct, service, transaction or business model rather than labels alone. Our aim is not only to identify the applicable legal framework, but also to help clients move forward with a robust, scalable and operationally feasible structure.

Are you developing a Fintech product, launching a crypto, payments, e-money, investment or financing model, preparing for a licence application, or assessing regulatory risks in a transaction? We are happy to help you qualify your activities, structure your business and determine the next steps. Contact one of our colleagues for an introductory call.

Client experiences.