Karen Anderson

Karen has more than two decades of experience in helping a wide range of financial sector clients to resolve contentious and non-contentious regulatory matters, both in the UK and overseas. 

She brings a rounded perspective to her advice, through an in-house secondment in a major banking group as Head of Regulatory, a secondment to the UK financial regulator and a prior role as criminal prosecutor in Australia.

As part of the Financial Services Regulation team which is top-tier ranked in this field by International Financial Law Review, Karen helps banks and brokers with a wide range of regulatory issues, including responding to reviews, attestations and inquiries, focusing particularly on market abuse, wholesale conduct, conflicts of interest, sponsor duties, investment research, and systems and controls issues. 

Karen leads the FSR horizon-scanning team, analysing new law and regulation to ensure that her clients anticipate and remain at the forefront of regulatory law and practice. 

Karen is actively engaged in discussions with HM Treasury and UK regulators concerning the development of financial services regulatory policy at a UK and European level. She chairs the City of London Law Society Regulatory Law committee, and works with the industry in various forms, most notably the BBA Market Abuse working group, the Law Society Banking Reform working group and the Wealth Management Association's European Committee.

Karen's recent experience includes helping:

• a number of banking groups to prepare for, and implement, the UK Senior Managers and Certification Regime
• an investment bank respond to and manage a significant supervisory review, with competition and governance implications
• banking groups and other investment firms with legal and compliance issues under the market abuse regime, including implementing, and complying with extra-territorial aspects of, the Market Abuse Regulation 
• a brokerage and investment group with the regulatory implications of data theft by an employee, working closely with colleagues in Hong Kong and in employment
• an investment firm in relation to a range of regulatory and other legal issues arising out of a market disruption event, delivering optimal outcomes for the firm and its customers.