SPCG Law Firm offers comprehensive legal advice on the implementation of new technologies to financial sector entities, including banks, investment firms, fund management companies (AIFMs and/or UCITS’ managers), insurance companies and payment institutions. We also provide support to FinTech start-ups and IT providers who – working or establishing a business relationship with a financial institution – have to meet regulatory requirements specific to the financial sector.

These are services concerning in particular:

• original drafting, as well as reviewing and updating of internal regulations, procedures and contracts (including IT) in terms of:
  • regulatory requirements (compliance) with respect to the introduction of new technologies and related business solutions, including regulatory requirements contained in the law and following from the positions and guidelines of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, as well as EU institutions – ESMA, EBA, or EIOPA – e.g. regarding cryptoassets, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, payment instruments,
  • the correctness and completeness of the acquisition of intellectual property rights to solutions delivered by IT providers (including the copyright transfer model, i.e. transfer of rights or granting of a licence to use the solution in question, as well as rules for the application of “used” licences), including matters with regard to open source software applied in the solution by the provider (GPL, MIT, Apache, etc.), as well as verification that the providers meet or will contractually commit to meet the relevant regulatory requirements,
  • the scope of liability and possible legal risks involved in the licensing terms of the IT solutions which are used (e.g. unclear licensing metrics, rules for auditing the entity supervised by the licensor, consequences of breaching the licensing agreement),
  • compliance of personal data processing rules with relevant regulations (GDPR);
• audits of selected areas or processes for compliance with applicable contracts, procedures, and legal requirements – in the regulatory, IP, and tax matters (e.g. verification of the correctness of the purchase of software from programmers engaged under civil-law contracts or the use of licensed software, analysis of the possibility of tax allowances specific to new technologies);
• representation in proceedings and contacts with institutions and authorities such as the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW), Central Securities Depository of Poland (KDPW), the General Inspector of Financial Information, the President of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), the President of the Office of Personal Data Protection (PUODO) or the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK);
• support in the outsourcing of activities performed by financial sector entities in relation to IT service providers, e.g. with regard to the development of and analysis of implementation agreements, maintenance agreements and Service Level Agreements (SLAs);
• preparing financial sector entities to migrate their IT environment to cloud computing in accordance with sectoral guidelines;
• advice on the performance of obligations arising from AML/CFT (counteracting of money laundering and terrorist financing) regulations;
• support in the implementation of tax instruments in furtherance of innovation activities, such as R&D allowance, IP Box, 50% tax deductible costs;
• conducting negotiations with providers of licensed IT solutions;
• advice on obtaining and using grants and other forms of public aid;
• preparation of legal opinions on potential liability for planned activities of financial institutions and providers of licensed IT solutions, including administrative, tax, civil and criminal liability, and, if required, representation in administrative, court and pre-litigation proceedings (in which the law firm’s Financial Litigation, Tax Team and White Collar Crime teams will be of assistance).

Combining a wealth of experience in capital market regulation, IT, intellectual property and tax law, as well as an ever-improving knowledge of new technologies, members of SPCG’s FinTech team offer support in individual projects as well as on an ongoing basis for entities in the financial sector, start-ups and IT providers.

As part of the FinTech team, experience and knowledge – under the supervision and with the substantive support of SPCG’s Partner Ewa Mazurkiewicz – are offered in particular by Marcin Balicki PhD, Grzegorz Keler PhD, Igor Sobieski and Szymon Jelonek.

The FinTech team also invites you to our blog (in Polish), to the dedicated SPCGforFINTECH section, where the our law firm’s lawyers share practical insights on legislative novelties and the experience gained in their daily work with financial sector entities in the field of new technologies.