CASS Spring Forum – Edinburgh

Tom is a Next Generation Partner in Financial Services and an "expert in UK and EU regulatory matters" (Legal 500). He specialises in advising buy and sell-side firms on financial markets regulation, as well as their tech and data providers. Tom regularly advises on M&A, securities, derivatives and complex commercial transactions in the regulated sector. Tom has in-house experience gained on secondment to Morgan Stanley, primarily supporting the Sales and Trading business, and at MetLife, supporting a complex restructuring. He is an active participant in the industry, as a member of the Financial Markets Law Committee's Banking, Infrastructure and Fintech Scoping Forums and through his contributions to various trade body working groups, including at UK Finance, ISDA and TISA.

Scott started his financial services career at Franklin Templeton in Luxembourg before moving back to Edinburgh. He spent 17 years at Franklin in a variety of reconciliation, CASS, banking, and treasury roles before joining Nucleus in 2015. His near 9 years at Nucleus have been spent leading the CASS function through substantial organisation change.

Shaid is based in Scotland where he received his undergraduate education in Finance & Risk Management at the Glasgow Caledonian University. He has gone on to have an extensive career in banking and investment services over the past 25 years in both the wholesale institutional and retail sectors in the UK and Europe. His career history includes firms such as Morgan Stanley, Scottish Widows, Barclays and most recently abrdn. For the past 12 years, Shaid has focused his attentions on client asset regulations in the UK and specifically the FCA’s CASS rules and has been a leading industry commentator on this topic in the UK. As Head of Client Assurance for abrdn’s Adviser business, Shaid is responsible for the oversight of client assets and operations of two of the UK’s largest investment platforms, Wrap & Elevate. Additionally, Shaid is a founding member of the Scottish CASS Forum, a member of the UK wide TISA CASS Technical Committee and Co-President of the CISI Scotland Committee. With these associations, Shaid has represented industry bodies in several CASS consultations with the FCA and other regulatory agencies in developing regulation and establishing industry best practise.

Amarjit is a Partner at EY, leading EY’s extended assurance offerings in Wealth & Asset Management sector. He has worked with a wide range of clients from global asset managers and their funds through to investment trusts, private equity houses and hedge fund managers on variety of assignments from traditional audits to internal control reviews as well as s39/s166 FSA/FCA engagements. He spent four years in various roles at J.P. Morgan Asset Management before re-joining EY as a partner in 2008. Currently he is responsible for a number of Ernst & Young’s largest wealth and asset management clients and also provides regulatory assistance especially advising asset and wealth managers on CASS, MiFID II, CRD IV, Suitability and Solvency II. He chairs the ICAEW’s Investment Management Committee and represents EY at the FRC and FCA on CASS matters. Amarjit is an active supporter of the Diversity & Inclusiveness programme at EY and is the chair of the EY Sikh Network. He leads our engagement with clients on their D&I initiatives in the Financial Services industry.

Gary Fensom is a Financial Services Audit Partner and joined BDO in Summer 2024. He has 20 years’ experience in Financial Services, specialising in the Asset and Wealth Management sector, delivering a combination of statutory and CASS audits (both at BDO and KPMG). Gary’s CASS experience spans across some of the largest CASS audits in the UK, a number of Third-Party Administrators, established and start-up platforms through to private equity fund managers. In addition to his audits, Gary has delivered a variety of CASS training at management and Board level, CASS Governance reviews and client asset skilled person reviews.

Lauren has worked primarily in CASS for close to a decade and has recently returned to FNZ as their Senior CASS Compliance Manager. She started her career in operations and has since gained CASS experience across all four lines of defence, including holding the certified CASS Oversight role, as well as leading external CASS audits and CASS engagements at a range of firms for EY.

Edward has worked for the last 17 years in the financial services practice at Forvis Mazars. He has focussed his regulatory work on CASS with clients across multiple sectors and business models. He is active at Forvis Mazars in the practical aspects of methodology and technical matters and is responsible for the internal ‘licensing’ of staff for CASS audit work. He has an especial interest in transferring knowledge to other practitioners. Edward represents Mazars at the ICAEW CASS and Safeguarding working party.

As Policy Director at TISA, Lisa has emerged as one of the leading voices in Consumer Duty, having brought together the industry to produce a comprehensive Best Practice Guide, and currently working to bring about a standardised framework for data sharing across the distribution chain. Lisa also leads TISA work on vulnerability, an area which she is particularly passionate about, having had lived experience. Lisa is an experienced outsourcing, risk and CASS specialist with over 25 years’ experience in financial services, with a particular focus on client protection. She has held senior roles encompassing oversight of outsourced delivery of services within the asset management sector to both retail and professional clients, and held the role of CF10a, an FCA approved role responsible for compliance to Client Asset Protection. Prior to this she held senior roles in a large outsourcing service provider, including as a Lead Client Relationship Manager responsible for delivering services appropriate for a regulated firm, and leading large operational finance teams based in the UK and India. She has significant experience in implementing oversight and risk management frameworks to effectively identify and manage the risks associated with outsourcing and offshoring regulated activities. During her time as a CF10a, she took a key role in a joint client/service provider remediation programme, gaining valuable experience and insight into meeting the regulators expectation in relation to service providers performance, and regulated firms oversight of its outsourcing arrangements. She has a breadth of regulatory knowledge, in particular with a deep understanding of SYSC; CASS; COBs; COLL; MiFID; and MiFID II and is accomplished in assisting senior managers to Board level in understanding regulatory obligations.