Expertise

William is a Partner based in the corporate/commercial division. He specialises in payments and leads the firms' payments team. William is recognised as a payments specialist in Chambers with clients commenting that he has a "genuine proactive interest in the payments space". He has advised on some of the most significant payment transactions and innovations in the UK over the last ten years and regularly works for banks, technology companies and payments processors on a wide variety of corporate and commercial transactions including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), partnerships, joint ventures and commercial arrangements.

His experience includes the joint venturing and disposal of HSBC's payment processing business to Global Payments. He has advised two high-street banks on their payment processing arrangements and ongoing relationship with their processors. He has spent time in-house with a major UK card issuer and was involved in the first implementation of a mobile payment device in the UK. More recently he has assisted on the legal implementation of digital mobile payments for a major UK bank with various technology and payment network providers.

He has significant expertise in the card affinity space and has advised in relation to various card affinity and loyalty schemes for banks working with large UK retailers.

Recent M&A transactions have included the acquisition of the peer to peer encryption business owned by Logic Group for Barclays, and the disposal of Smart Card Software Ltd to Rambus Inc. He has also done regular work for US technology companies in relation to payment technology.

He is a regular speaker in the UK and USA on payments issues.

• Advising UK high street bank on all aspects of the rebuilding of its merchant acquiring / payment processing business and investment in fintech loyalty, data and insights company
• Advising various UK banks on their commercial arrangements with various card networks
• Working with a major US technology and retail company in relation to its online and physical stores payments arrangements with various card providers and alternative payment methodologies
• Assisting a major UK Bank in relation to its affinity arrangements with two UK retailers including the loyalty and additional financial services products
• Working with various fintech companies on alternative banking, payment and deferred payment solutions