Banking & Finance

In a market shaped by intense regulatory review and commercial pressure, you need legal advice that keeps transactions moving while protecting your business, ring fencing against risk, complying with policies and preserving your commercial relationships.

Whether you are managing risk, responding to regulatory change, or restructuring and enforcing facilities, clarity and speed are critical. We work alongside both banks and borrowers to help you progress transactions at pace, protect the essential underlying lender/borrower relationship and operate with confidence.

Why Walker Morris: Supporting banks with their legal challenges

When regulatory requirements are high and execution of risk matters, you need advisers who understand how the market operates and the importance of the underlying borrower/lender relationship. With probably the largest and most experienced banking teams outside London, we support borrowers and all types of lenders on complex, high‑value and time‑critical transactions with clear, pragmatic, commercial advice that protects your position while keeping matters moving.

Our team is recognised as Tier 1 by Legal500 and Chambers for banking and finance (Yorkshire region), reflecting our market knowledge and our expertise in transacting quickly and efficiently whilst managing risks confidently and maintaining lender/borrower relationships which will be important long after the financing transaction has completed.

What sets us apart

• We’re the largest corporate banking team in Yorkshire, covering all aspects of banking law from a single Leeds base, giving you consistency, speed and joined‑up advice.
• Our proven capability at scale having advised on over 20 transactions exceeding £50m in 2025, with facilities in aggregate exceeding £14bn across the last year.
• We’re trusted by leading banks and high profile borrowers on corporate, acquisition, real estate, wholesale, project finance and asset‑backed lending.
• Expert commercial insight from both sides of the table, providing you with our balanced insight acting for both lenders and borrowers, enabling faster issue resolution and better outcomes.
• Our Tier 1 ranked banking team gives you the assurance of recognised market strength with a volume, range and complexity of work unmatched in the Yorkshire region.
• As part of a one office firm, we have direct access to specialists in all other areas of the law under the same roof. This makes us very different to the national and international firms with outposts in Leeds who do not have the same strength in depth or breadth of experience in the region and are not able to offer the same joined up cohesive advice to clients.

We can advise banks and borrowers on a range of legal solutions including:

Lending

All businesses use debt or financial products to trade.  We have extensive experience negotiating the documentation which governs these faciliites.  Our team in Yorkshire are unrivalled in the types of fiance we advise on – corporate debt, acquisition finance, project finance, wholesale lending, asset backed lending and real estate development and investment finance amongst others.  We twin this with specialist sector advice which means we truly understand your business.  We advise clearing banks, alternative lenders, FTSE 100 borrowers as well as SME and MME companies so understand the issues that arise on lending transactions from both sides giving us a unique abilty to quickly eplain and resolve problems.

Debt portfolio sales and legal due diligence on debt portfolios

When you are acquiring or disposing of debt portfolios, you’ll need clarity on regulatory exposure, operational risks and commercial value before you transact. We support you with thorough legal and regulatory due diligence, including FCA‑regulated mortgage and unsecured lending books, so you can have a precise understanding of risk allowing you to move at pace without compromising compliance.

We advise on the sales and purchases of consumer and SME debt portfolios with values of £500m+, with extensive due diligence undertaken by our Regulatory team when all or part of a debt book comprises FCA regulated mortgage and unsecured lending. We have also advised local, national and international clients on financing transactions ranging from £1m to £500m within the UK and beyond.

Financial services regulation

With regulatory requirements evolving at speed, you need advice that translates complex FCA and prudential rules into clear actions. Our specialist lawyers, who act for a wide variety of national and international consumer finance providers, can help with your regulatory needs with prime and sub-prime, first and second charge mortgage lending, personal loans and credit cards, guarantor loans, high-cost short-term credit and home collected credit.

Non‑contentious regulatory advice

We help you create compliant documentation, lending processes and customer‑journey frameworks that withstand FCA review and integrate seamlessly into your operations. Our advice helps you navigate affordability rules, collections standards, vulnerable customer needs, AML controls, and data obligations whilst protecting customers, reducing compliance risk and maintaining operational resilience.

Due diligence

When you are investing, entering funding arrangements or partnering with counterparties, you need fast, actionable insight. We deliver focused due diligence aligned with FCA’s approach, ensuring we can deliver deals swiftly and provide wider commercial insight, benchmarking a specific provider’s approach against our wider sector experience. We provide a precise ‘traffic light’ risk analysis of regulatory breaches and a focused recommendation for improvement/remediation where required.

Commercial agreements

Your commercial relationships, from broker partnerships to white‑label products and outsourced operations, need to support growth while protecting your data, systems and brand. We draft and negotiate agreements that enable automation, digital integration and scalable operations, ensuring your contracts are robust, compliant and built to withstand regulatory scrutiny while encouraging innovation.

Contentious regulatory advice

When investigations arise, you need a partner who can help you understand the risks, prepare your position and manage the process with confidence. Drawing on the experience of former FCA and SFO investigators, we help you frame your strategy from the outset by identifying key issues, shaping evidence and preparing your organisation for whatever course the matter may take. We aim to reduce disruption, protect your reputation and keep your regulatory obligations firmly in view.

We advise businesses on disputes before the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the courts and have a wealth of experience in matters ranging from defending firms and individuals in FCA disciplinary proceedings and criminal proceedings. This includes allegations of fraud, unauthorised trading and market abuse.

Cross‑border and multi‑jurisdictional support

As your transactions increasingly involve international counterparties and multi‑jurisdictional issues, you’ll need advice that aligns with local requirements while accounting for global execution risks. We support you on cross‑border financings, coordinating across jurisdictions to maintain your deal momentum while managing complex international structures.

Digital transformation, data and fintech integration

As your bank invests in digital platforms, automation and data‑driven processes, you’ll need legal frameworks that keep pace with your organisation’s technology ambitions. We advise on technology procurement, data governance, platform integrations and fintech partnerships so you can stay compliant with data, AML and operational‑resilience requirements.