Centre of Excellence Financial Services

What is a Centre of Excellence?

A Centre of Excellence is a facility that provides best practice and knowledge around a particular area. Our Centres of Excellence offer you the opportunity to study your chosen law specialism with dedicated support from our expert lecturers. You’ll benefit from their knowledge and experience in within financial services.

Across our different Centres of Excellence, we work with governing bodies and provide specialist modules and electives that allow you to shape your studies to meet your career needs.

Over the past decade, the financial services industry has experienced significant legal and regulatory changes to support and protect customers, and financial markets. Our Centre of Excellence for Financial Services focus on three areas which have been impacted by these changes: Banking, Insurance, and Wealth and Asset Management.

The Centre of Excellence is based at our Online campus due to faculty experience towards critical research and publications, as well as industry connections spanning across the UK. The Centre is also supported by an important teaching hub at our London Moorgate campus, located close to leading global law firms in the heart of the City of London.

What is financial services law?

Financial services law focuses on how financial activities and transactions are governed. This includes areas of banking, trade, investing, credit, risk management and financial crime. The financial services sector is a major force within the UK and has faced many regulatory issues such as Brexit, the impact of Covid-19, personal and corporate financial scandals, and increased regulation across different markets.

Financial services lawyers must be detail oriented to spot legal issues in contracts, whilst simultaneously being the backbone for clients against traders and other financial stakeholders. You could work within banking, insurance, wealth and asset management, compliance, regulation and more.

The named programmes we offer within financial services and regulation are:

• LLM Banking and Debt Finance
• LLM Compliance and Regulation
• LLM Insolvency Law
• LLM Insurance Law
• LLM International Finance Law
• LLM Investment Regulation

Our Lecturers

Our faculty members are recognised experts in the field, conducting cutting-edge research and engaging with industry leaders to shape the direction of policy and law.

Thomas Bullman – Senior Lecturer

Thomas Bullman began his career at an investment bank trading foreign exchange. After he found that his job was heavily impacted by regulatory processes, he undertook an LLM in Commercial Law to better understand the legalities of working within finance. This kickstarted his interest in financial regulation and how it can control the stability of markets.

Thomas has an impressive track record of qualifications under his belt. He is an Irish qualified Certified Public Accountant, having qualified in 2010 at Legal & General Investment Management. He is also an Irish qualified Legal Executive Lawyer, qualifying in 2015 at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. He is currently completing a PhD in Law at University College Cork, with a research focus on systemic risk regulation within the asset management industry. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Thomas has published articles in a number of journals, including the International Financial Law Review, the Bloomberg UK Financial Services Law Journal and Thomson Reuters’ Commercial Law Practitioner.

With over 20 years of financial services experience, Thomas has held several senior regulatory positions within the asset management industry in Dublin and London. He also provides Thomson Reuters with official annotations of statutes passed by the Irish Parliament.

Thomas joined the University of Law in 2020, teaching financial services law. Alongside his teaching role, Thomas continues to practice as a regulatory consultant in an advisory capacity at Ernst & Young.

Want to hear more from our lecturers?

Our lecturers have delivered a range of research seminars to our students, including financial services lectures on “Regulating in the public and private interest”.