TLT partners with UK Finance on economic abuse report

National law firm TLT has partnered with UK Finance on Project Safeguard – a project designed to understand the legal landscape surrounding economic abuse, which has resulted in the publication of a new report, From Control to Financial Freedom. 

UK Finance is a trade association for the UK banking and financial services sector, representing over 300 firms in the UK providing credit, banking, markets and payment-related services. Over the years, TLT and UK Finance have created a strong relationship through their partnership by hosting many collaborative events that were held in our London office’s. These events were to share knowledge and insights to our clients and members in relation to new legislative changes in the industry.

TLT and UK law firm Simmons and Simmons worked in collaboration providing legal and regulatory support to UK Finance in order to explore some of the obstacles experienced by victim-survivors of domestic abuse when regaining financial control.

As part of the project, several teams within TLT worked together to bring their expertise to the project. TLT’s family law, financial services disputes and investigations and financial services regulation teams worked alongside each other to analyse the legal landscape to determine how the law and regulation fit together, examining where the legal thresholds are set and looking at definitions of the types of abuse and how they might lead to or be categorised as economic crime, financial crime and fraud.

TLT were able to draw on the expertise of advising clients who have experienced domestic abuse to help shape a series of recommendations aimed at improving the experiences of, and outcomes for, victim-survivors included in the report.

Natalie Drew, partner in TLT’s family law team said: “The combination of TLT’s family law and FS disputes expertise means we were uniquely placed to be able to advise on this project. The report is a milestone moment for economic crime, driving significant improvements for those who have experienced economic abuse and providing improved guidelines for financial firms whose customers might have suffered from domestic abuse.”

Heff Heathcote, partner in TLT’s Financial Services Disputes and Investigations team said: “We have a longstanding relationship with UK Finance given our track record and focus in the financial services sector. It was a privilege to assist on this important piece of work which seeks to prevent domestic economic abuse”

Please find the full report here.