Regulatory Counsel

Posted 4 days 20 hours ago by Abound

£80,000 - £100,000 Annual
Permanent
Full Time
Other
London, United Kingdom
Job Description
About Abound

We're redefining consumer lending in the UK, and beyond. Using advanced AI and Open Banking data, we make fair, affordable personal finance available to more people. While traditional lenders rely almost entirely on credit scores, we look at the full financial picture - how much you spend, and what you can afford to repay to build a deeper, more accurate understanding of each customer's unique financial situation.

And we've shown it works at scale. We've issued over £1.3bn in loans directly to customers while delivering market-leading credit performance - for every 10 defaults the industry expects, we see only 3. We also reached profitability just 2.5 years after launch.

Backed by £2bn+ of funding from top tier investors including Citi, GSR Ventures, and Deutsche Bank, we're recognised as one of Europe's fastest growing fintechs (Sifted, CNBC). Now, we're expanding into new markets and product lines - and we're looking for ambitious people who want to learn fast, take ownership, and grow with us.

Role summary

Fintern is a fast growing fintech consumer lender. We're scaling up and entering new markets and introducing new products. We're hiring a Regulatory Counsel with strong Consumer Credit Act (CCA) and FCA CONC experience. You'll prepare submissions to the FCA and others and advise senior leadership on regulatory risk in your area. You'll also draft, implement, and monitor legally robust, plain English templates and ensure live documents match approved versions. We have a small legal team so you will also be expected to assist with broader legal work.

What you'll do
  • Regulatory submissions: draft submissions and supporting materials to a high standard such as Appointed Representative/IAR applications, waiver/modification requests, applications for new permissions and similar submissions, liaising with external counsel where needed.

  • New markets: identify and communicate key legal and regulatory matters for new products, markets and geographies that we are considering. Working closely with others, ensure that decisions about new markets are well informed and that subsequent entry is well managed.

  • Draft & maintain customer credit documentation across the lifecycle (pre contract and post contract), including credit agreements, PCCI, adequate explanations, statements, and notices (e.g. NOSIAs and Default Notices). Maintain suite of customer documentation, managing versioning and approvals. Check accurate deployment into production.

  • Risk advice and governance: provide clear, pragmatic advice to the CCO and senior management on risks and mitigations in your area; log actions and drive them to closure.

  • External advice: commission advice from legal and other advisers on discrete questions, track progress, and capture learning back into templates and guidance.

  • Assist with broader legal work: work with a more senior lawyer to prepare/review and negotiate the commercial agreements governing entry into new markets and introduction of new products, review and negotiate supply terms for the products and services essential to our business and review and negotiate NDAs.

  • Support broader compliance activities: working with the Compliance team, help to identify key compliance risks and where needed monitor and control these risks. This may entail detailed loan by loan review work.

You'll bring
  • Qualified UK Solicitor

  • Knowledgeable and experienced in the areas of Consumer Credit Act, FCA Handbook including CONC. Additionally, knowledge of the Payment Services Directive where relevant to consumer lending activities would be an advantage.

  • Excellent written and verbal skills

  • Strong ability to evaluate risk and propose risk based actions

  • Ability to negotiate with external parties and reach acceptable outcomes

  • Strong team player qualities

What we offer
  • Everyone owns a piece of the company - equity

  • Hybrid with 3 days a week in the office

  • 25 days' holiday a year, plus 8 bank holidays

  • 2 paid volunteering days per year

  • One month paid sabbatical after 4 years

  • Employee loan

  • Free gym membership

  • Team wellness budget to be active together - set up a yoga class, a tennis lesson or go bouldering