£50,000 to £85,000 plus a competitive benefits package
London
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) are currently recruiting for Lawyers within Regulatory Enforcement.
What does the role involve? What are the key responsibilities?
This is an exciting time to join the PSR. We have ongoing casework and continue to develop our investigative and enforcement capability.
The Enforcement team conducts regulatory investigations into a range of matters such as compliance with the Interchange Fee Regulation, access obligations and compliance with Directions issued by the PSR. The types of firms that the PSR could take action against range from schemes, acquirors, retail banks to infrastructure providers.
The team takes cases through to settlement agreements, presents cases to the Enforcement Decisions Committee (EDC), and manages appeals of EDC cases. It is also involved in policy work, determining the PSR’s guidance on penalties and investigatory procedures. The team may, from time to time be involved with other subject areas of the PSR.
The role reports to the Manager of Enforcement, who reports to the General Counsel and Head of Regulatory Enforcement. The multi-disciplinary enforcement team includes experienced investigators, qualified lawyers, economists and financial professionals.
We are seeking qualified lawyers to be case leads and legal advisors to investigative teams.
As case lead, you will be accountable for the day-to-day conduct of investigations, including:
- The management of cases and delegation of the work to other team members, ensuring effective progression to reach high quality outputs to agreed deadlines, escalating issues where necessary and keeping the manager apprised
- Devising and keeping under review the investigation strategy adjusting where necessary after consultation with the manager or the General Counsel/ Head of Regulatory Enforcement
- Identifying/mitigating as far as possible key risks to the case
- Ensuring the necessary case management documents are maintained and ensuring there is a full/accurate audit trail of investigative steps/decisions
- Gathering evidence using the most appropriate powers/procedures for doing so
- Planning and taking the lead throughout the investigation, including determining evidence strategy and review, conducting interviews, settlement discussion and preparing cases for final decision-making before the Regulatory Decisions Committee
- Making robust case recommendations to managers/ decision-makers
- Communicating with parties under investigation and other relevant persons as part of the investigation process
- Drafting all relevant case documentation, including statutory requests and notices
- Managing external costs e.g. counsel’s fees
- Providing high quality legal advice on all relevant areas, to the investigatory teams
You will also contribute to development and implementation of the PSR’s enforcement strategy.
Skills/Experience Required
We’re a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role. A minimum criterion needs to be measurable from reviewing a candidate’s CV. Exceptions may apply if due to the volume of applications we are not able to interview all eligible candidates who qualify under the scheme.
As a minimum, you will need to be able to demonstrate:
- You are a qualified lawyer with at least four years PQE and a valid practising certificate issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the General Council of the Bar, or a valid authorisation to practise in another jurisdiction
- Experience of leading or advising on complex and contentious regulatory investigations, including experience of settlement, assessment of sanction (including financial penalty) and taking cases to a regulatory decision-making (or equivalent) body
Essential substantial experience of:
- Leading cases and taking them forward efficiently and effectively, delivering to a high standard in a timely manner, even under pressure
- Leading multi-disciplinary teams and work collaboratively with other professionals within such teams
- Planning the strategy and scope of investigations
- Identifying and managing risks across investigations
- Providing high quality technical legal advice efficiently and effectively
- Delivering results within challenging timeframes with limited resources
- Strong analytical and drafting skills
- Strong communication skills in order to present the outcome of that analysis clearly and effectively, orally and in writing to a range of audiences
- Experience of leading communication with internal and external stakeholders, including subjects and parties to an action, and their legal representatives
- You will be open to learning, challenge and change, being flexible and responsive to changing priorities and responsibilities and sharing know-how/best practice
- Ability to work cohesively with other teams across the PSR and deploy effective resource to contribute towards the delivery of timely and accurate outcomes, in line with the PSR’s objectives
- Excellent interpersonal skills, with experience of contributing through working as part of a team and the ability to work manage and coach team members
- Excellent project management and planning skills including the ability to successfully organise and prioritise work to meet expected works standards and deadlines
It would be useful to have
- Experience in formulating and developing enforcement policies, processes and procedures and being able to contribute to the formation of the same
- Experience of economic regulation, financial regulation or payments law
About the PSR
How payments work affects the society we live in; the challenges faced by the vulnerable; how likely we are to fall victim to fraud; and how easily we can manage our money. Payments underpin our economy.
Behind these payments are several important payment systems. We rely on these systems to support markets, facilitate competition and drive innovation. This helps to deliver new products, find new ways to protect people from harm, and deliver services that give people and businesses more choice and control about how to pay and be paid.
We need the technology, the rules governing the use of these systems and the markets they support to all work well. This is where the PSR plays an important role – we are the economic regulator of, and competition authority for, those systems. We protect people and businesses and promote competition and innovation in these systems and the markets that they support.
The PSR is an independent economic regulator led by Managing Director, Chris Hemsley. We are directly accountable to Parliament and funded by the payments industry. We work closely with other regulators involved in this sector, notably the Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England and the Competition and Markets Authority. Operationally we are an independent subsidiary of the Financial Conduct Authority.
The PSR's Values & Diversity
In order to represent the people and organisations that we serve, we are committed to building and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our commitment includes disability, ethnicity, LGBT and gender identity through to mental health and social mobility issues.
We are proud signatories of the Women in Finance Charter, we hold the Level 2 Carer Confident accreditation from Carers UK and we signed the Social Mobility Pledge in June 2020.
As an inclusive employer, we are open to considering flexible working arrangements. Please contact our recruiter if you wish to apply for this role on a flexible basis.
In September 2021, the FCA proposed changes to the employment offer and began consulting with colleagues. This is part of the transformation work underway to help ensure the FCA is an adaptive, innovative and assertive regulator.
Please note – Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted.
Applications for this role close on 5th December with interviews being conducted before Christmas
To apply please visit https://fca.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/PSR_Careers/job/London/Lawyer---Regulatory-Enforcement_JR0001911-1
