Stuart Davis
Partner
London
stuart.davis@lw.com
+44.20.7710.1821
PRACTICES
- Digital Assets & Web3
- Emerging Companies & Growth
- Financial Regulatory
- Payments
INDUSTRIES
- Financial Institutions
- Fintech
- Technology
EDUCATION
- MA (Hons), University of Cambridge, 2011
- BA (Hons) Law, University of Cambridge, 2007
LANGUAGES SPOKEN
PROFILE
Stuart Davis counsels clients on the domestic and cross-border regulatory aspects of cutting-edge fintech initiatives, including technology innovations in legislation, market infrastructure, tokenization, trading, clearing and settlement, lending (including crowdfunding), payments, and regulatory surveillance.
Stuart is Co-Chair of the Fintech Industry Group and Co-Chair of the Global Digital Assets & Web3 Practice. He advises financial institutions on the impact of regulatory change on their businesses, including MiCA, MAR and MiFID II, CASS, CSDR, PSD2/3, AIFMD, and regulatory divergence, as well as strategically advising on their FX remediation projects, market conduct issues, best execution compliance, systems and controls, and governance.
Stuart has a wide range of experience advising broker-dealers; investment, retail, and private banks; technology companies; market infrastructure providers; investment managers; hedge funds; and private equity funds on complex regulatory challenges.
EXPERIENCE
Stuart’s experience includes advising:
- Sixth Street Growth on its investment in a €285 million funding round for SumUp, a leading global financial services company
- Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM), an Abu Dhabi-based regulator, on a new Foundations Regulatory Regime to facilitate the issuance of blockchain tokens
- FIS and Worldpay on the regulatory aspects of GTCR’s acquisition of a majority stake in Worldpay, a leading global provider of payment processing solutions, from FIS
- Coinbase on its acquisition of One River Digital, a digital asset manager
- Shift4 Payments on its acquisition of Online Payments Group (dba SecurionPay), a Switzerland-based online payments service provider
- Madison Dearborn Partners on its US$1.8 billion acquisition of MoneyGram, a provider of money transfer services
- The Rise Fund, an investing platform of TPG, on its US$200 million investment in Airtel Mobile Commerce, a Netherlands-based mobile money business and wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel Africa
- Paysafe, a London-based payments platform, on its US$9 billion business combination with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company
- TA Associates on its £1.78 billion investment in Söderberg & Partners, a Sweden-based provider of wealth management and corporate pension and insurance services
- Shift4 Payments on its US$575 million acquisition of Credorax (dba Finaro), an Israel-based software financial technology company
- Permira Growth Opportunities in its participation in the GoCardless US$312 million Series G
- The investors on FreeTrade’s US$50 million Series B financing
- The underwriters on Argo Blockchain’s US$128 million Initial Public Offering on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Nasdaq
- Citi on its US$20.5 million sale of Proxymity, a London-based provider of end-to-end digital investor communications platform services, to a consortium of investors
- Elwood Technologies on its £70 million Series A+ financing led by Dawn Capital and Goldman Sachs
- Digital Moneybox on its US$40 million Series D financing
- Advised Euler XYZ on its US32 million Token Investment Round
- The financial advisers in Wise’s £8 billion Direct Listing on the London Stock Exchange
- Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital consortium on its £4.25 billion acquisition of Chelsea Football Club
- Shift4 Payments on its US$396.75 million IPO on NYSE
- Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan as underwriters on the €946 million Initial Public Offering of Adyen on the Euronext Amsterdam
- Cipher Mining Technologies, a Bitcoin mining operation created by Bitfury, on its US$2 billion business combination with Good Works Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company
- Airbnb in connection to its initial public offering
- Goldman Sachs on the build of its first UK Retail Investment Platform – Marcus Invest
- Silver Lake Partners on an equity investment in Klarna, a Sweden-based provider of payments and shopping service
- Square in the acquisition of Verse, a Spanish P2P payments app that allows customers to send and receive payments from friends and family instantly, safely, and free of charge
- The Central Bank of Egypt on the formulation of a new banking law / regulatory regime
- A number of central banks and governments on drafting substantial financial services, market infrastructure, payments, and fintech legislation
- A broad range of global investment banks, market infrastructure providers, and technology companies on structuring innovative and efficient technology platforms and/or products, including through the use of blockchain technology, covering areas such as clearing and settlement, netting, and the tokenisation and digitisation of products
- A national payment system operator on its establishment of a new retail payment system
- A number of global technology, payments, and media companies on regulatory implications of launching stablecoins
- eToro on the structuring and launch of eToro Digital Assets, an innovative platform for the tokenisation of assets
- Nivaura on structuring its regulated custody and issuance platform for the tokenisation of equity, a deal which was highly commended by the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards
- The World Economic Forum on its blockchain initiatives as part of its Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution