Clifford Chance and Grant Thornton offer operational resilience service

Grant Thornton UK and Clifford Chance have joined forces to offer UK financial services sector entities a one-stop shop to secure operational resilience compliance. The move comes as the financial services market stands on the brink of a huge regulatory shift.

From the end of March 2022, the UK’s financial markets watchdog and pensions regulator will mandate a framework for operational resilience for the first time. The new rules and guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority cover customer harm, market stability and outsourcing reliability, and mean that banks; building societies; designated investment firms; insurance firms; e-money; and payment services firms will need to look beyond business continuity in their internal operations.

This represents an increasingly complicated path to compliance for businesses, as they seek to draw themselves in line with the new regulations. In order to help clients do so, consultancy Grant Thornton and legal firm Clifford Chance have launched a new partnership, which will present businesses with a one-stop-shop, bespoke offering.

Sandy Kumar, Head of Financial Services Group and Business Risk Services at Grant Thornton UK, said, “By combining the practical advisory experience of Grant Thornton’s specialists with the breadth and depth of Clifford Chance’s legal team we can offer an agile, tailored service that addresses the unique needs of any size of regulated enterprise.”

As operational resilience continues to move up the agenda of those operating in the financial services sector, clients will need to act in order to continue to prevent or respond to operational disruptions in the best way. By combining the extensive knowledge and experience of each firm, the collaboration provides clients with access to the business and legal support to help them meet regulatory requirements and optimise their operating models.

Monica Sah, Financial Regulation Partner at Clifford Chance, added, "We're very pleased to announce this collaboration with Grant Thornton as we believe there is real value in an integrated approach to supporting our clients in this area, ensuring that the operational resilience challenges our clients face are fully covered by our combined expertise."

The UK wing of Grant Thornton is led by 190 partners and employs over 4,500 professionals. Clifford Chance meanwhile has a global total of 556 partners, and 2,741 fee-earning staff.