Supporting the compliance journey

StoneX provides financial services worldwide through its subsidiaries, including physical commodities, securities, exchange-traded, and over-the-counter derivatives, risk management, global payments and foreign exchange products for wholesale and retail clients. With nearly 70 offices across five continents, many offering services directly to consumers, the group has complex data protection requirements, which Cripps worked with the StoneX legal team to fulfil.

The challenge: ensuring compliance, minimising risk

The StoneX group consists of multiple companies in different jurisdictions. With that comes a complex structure of data transfers between group companies, shared services and multi-tenanted databases. Working in the financial services industry also means tight regulation and the need to collect significant volumes of compliance data about corporate (wholesale) and individual (retail) customers.

To help plan and manage its continuing compliance obligations and draft relevant documents, StoneX engaged Cripps to provide specialist data protection advice and drafting.

Our approach: part of the team

We initially proposed a retainer structure, providing a flexible way for StoneX to call on our expertise without the need for specific scoping and pricing. That helped our data protection experts work closely alongside the StoneX legal team, effectively acting as an internal resource for them, providing on-demand advice. We were always on hand for detailed discussions and drafting, as well as for a quick call to double check a point.

As the relationship continued, the need for that regular level of communication reduced, and StoneX shifted to a more traditional ‘time spent’ charging model, confident in the knowledge that we understood their business and its data protection requirements.

The outcome: the continuing journey

StoneX have bolstered their in-house data protection team, but the structures, advice and documents we implemented with them continue to form a key part of their compliance processes. Data protection compliance is a continuous requirement, not a one off project, and as with any ambitious and growing company, new challenges and use cases arise for StoneX, which we’ve been on hand to support them with.

How we made a difference

Using our experience of supporting all sizes of businesses at all stages of the compliance journey, we were able to offer specialist advice, both on the law and compliance strategies, to StoneX’s legal team. The documents we were drafting require both an expert knowledge of the relevant law and a detailed understanding of the business. Our close working relationship allowed us to provide documentation tailored to the client’s requirements. Our responsive and flexible approach meant we integrated effectively with the in-house team to ensure their internal timescales were met.

Harry Partridge, Legal Counsel at StoneX