Our team is part of a network of 4,000 legal professionals working in over 100 jurisdictions. Our unique access to international best practices enables us to provide you with cutting-edge solutions, and also to effectively advise even the most complex of cross-border transactions.
Our unique relationship with legal and tax professionals, business consultants and other service providers within the global PwC Network - which consists of nearly 328,000 professionals, located in 152 countries - allows you to benefit from a comprehensive and multifaceted approach. We work closely with business advisory, M&A teams, tax, private equity and corporate consultants, allowing us to offer you fully integrated and tax-efficient solutions, and advise you on all matters relating to Financial Services Regulatory, Securitisation, Financial Markets and FinTech/RegTech.
Our team consists of experienced attorneys and lawyers, each of whom adheres to the highest social responsibility, professional and ethical standards.
The circa 30-member PwC banking and finance team is a unique, multidisciplinary entity, consisting of banking and finance lawyers, business consultants and tax advisors. We are the largest and most experienced banking and financial advisory team in Estonia, offering solutions in financial regulation, compliance, risk management, corporate governance, licensing, transaction financing, legal and tax due diligence, management consulting, restructuring, and preparation of necessary documentation, etc.
Our team members regularly participate in different workgroups which cover a wide range of practice areas, including:
When you also include our practitioner know-how and training programs, our team comprises the highest level of international knowledge and direct contacts to help conduct any cross-border transaction imaginable.
Under increasingly rigorous supervision, non-compliance is no longer an option. However, being in compliance with regulatory requirements takes more than just maintaining a good professional relationship with supervision authorities, retaining necessary activity licences and authorisations and refraining from receiving extensive fines. It is, first and foremost, about having a clean and professional organisation and internal processes, long-standing relationships with clients and cooperation partners that are built on trust, a solid business reputation and protecting and enhancing the investment made by owners and investors.
Regulatory compliance mostly affects businesses offering financial services and infrastructure that are necessary for providing such services, including:
However, certain regulations, e.g. anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws, have a much wider impact. They also apply to real estate agents, traders, gambling operators, etc.
The number of directives, regulations, etc. in place is already extensive, including (but not limited to) the following key pieces of legislation that impact the provision of financial services within the EU today:
In addition to these key EU-level directives and regulations, financial institutions must, on a daily basis, wrestle with numerous national and EU level laws and regulations, technical standards, guidelines, instructions, etc., which often come with extremely detailed requirements.
Although it seems that this “Regulatory Tsunami“ is slowing down, the discussions amongst financial institutions, supervision authorities and professional advisors indicate that the next step is a more rigorous level of regulatory supervision, designed to ascertain if the regulation issued during the “Regulatory Tsunami“ is implemented.
Our team of experts can guide you through the most complex, sensitive and reputation-threatening legal, regulatory and compliance issues.
We have extensive knowledge and experience with advising local and international financial service providers.
Our team has worked with the vast majority of the largest Estonian financial sector participants. The PwC Global Network has also worked with many of the world’s leading financial institutions.
Moreover, we have a solid track record and excellent professional relations with the Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (EFSRA) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). This allows us to foresee their expectations and reasonably discuss key legal, regulatory and compliance matters with them.
Our numerous contacts within the supervision authorities allow our experts to understand how financial institutions work and conduct their business. Deep industry insight allows us to see the opportunities, understand and mitigate the risks and provide you with the best advice on the market.
Establishment of a financial institution, preparation of a licencing and passporting application package and representing the applicant in proceedings.
Our services can (among other) include:
Regulatory advice in relation to acquiring a (holding in a) financial institution, including conducting legal and regulatory due diligence.
Our services can (among other) include:
We can draft or review and amend, for example:
PwC is respected and reliable advisor. We can provide legal opinions to our clients, their investors, business partners or supervisors in relation to multitude of regulatory and compliance matters.
We can help our clients carry out evaluations to determine if the internal rules and procedures implemented are in accordance with the requirements set for their activities. During the evaluation, we check the adequacy and compliance of the documentation as well as the appropriateness of the data collected during the operations.
We can support you throughout the on-site or off-site inspection process including:
We offer client (natural and legal persons) onboarding services to credit and financial institutions and other obliged entities. The scope of our services depends on the limitations set forth by law, our client’s internal policies, procedures and needs and the agreement concluded with the client regarding the division of responsibilities.
Our services may include (but are not limited to):
Subject to your approval, we may cooperate with various reliable and experienced partners.
Kirill Ležeiko
Attorney-at-Law / Head of Financial Transactions and Capital Markets, Estonia, PwC Legal
+372 502 0240
Lawyers who are not attorneys do not provide legal services but only assist attorneys to provide the legal services.