Compliance, Conduct and Governance

Darren Maher is a partner and Co-Head of the Firm’s Corporate Department and Head of the Financial Institutions Group at Matheson. He has led the Financial Institutions Group since 2017.

He advises a wide range of leading domestic and international financial institutions on all aspects of financial services law and regulation including establishment and authorisation, development and distribution of products, compliance, corporate governance and re-organisations including cross-border mergers, schemes of arrangement, portfolio transfers and mergers and acquisitions.

Darren is a leading figure in the (re)insurance market. He is ranked Band 1 in Chambers and has been admitted to the Hall of Fame in Legal 500 for Corporate Insurance.

Joe Beashel is a partner in the Financial Institutions Group and is Head of Matheson’s London office.

He is a solicitor with thirty years’ experience almost all of which were gained in the financial services sector. Before joining Matheson in 2004, he was the country head of the Irish fund administration unit of Invesco plc, a leading international investment manager.

Joe and team assist clients with the authorisation of new financial service providers by the Central Bank of Ireland including banks, MiFID / investment firms, fund services providers, alternative investment fund managers, payment and e-money institutions, retail credit firms and others.

He also assists client firms where they wish to expand their existing regulatory permissions.

Gráinne Callanan, is head of the Matheson Cork office and is a partner in the Financial Institutions Group and specialises in health insurance and regulatory insurance.

Gráinne advises a wide range of leading domestic and international financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland including life and non-life (re)insurance companies, captive insurers and intermediaries on corporate transactions, regulatory and compliance and corporate governance. Gráinne has extensive expertise in the areas of new authorisations, portfolio transfers, cross-border mergers, corporate restructurings, product development and distribution arrangements.

She has advised on a wide range of innovative transactions in the insurance market and has taken a leading role advising clients on a number of significant acquisitions of closed books of life insurance businesses.

Elaine Long is a partner in Matheson’s Financial Institutions Group.  Her practice focuses on advising insurers, reinsurers and other financial institutions on a range of regulatory and transactional matters.

Elaine regularly advises private equity sponsors on their investment into the financial services sector in Ireland and provides expert guidance in dealing with the Central Bank of Ireland requirements in relation to such investment.

Niamh is a Partner in the Financial Institutions Group.

For 20 years, Niamh has specialised in financial services regulatory matters, with experience across all of the traditional sector classifications, Asset Management, Insurance and Banking.

Her primary focus is on providing advice to Irish and International Investment Banking, Investment Firm and Investment Fund clients, through authorisation, regulatory change projects, supervisory engagements, Firm ‘Own Initiative’ Reviews’, Supervisory Risk Mitigation Programmes and Skilled Person Independent Reviews.

Ian is a partner in the Financial Institutions Group, specialising in financial services regulation.

Ian has advised payment institutions, electronic money institutions, credit institutions, MiFID investment firms, and other financial institutions and investors in the financial services sector on compliance with regulatory standards and the impact of new regulatory developments at Irish and EU levels.