TISA Annual CASS Conference 2025

Jim is Head of Client Assets at the FCA. He has a longstanding grounding in the subject, leading teams of CASS supervisors for five years and after that, leading teams working on the resolution of insolvent regulated firms, with a focus on return of client funds from CASS and payments/e-money firms. He also has significant experience of corporate finance regulation and market abuse from leading teams in the FCA’s Market Oversight division. Before joining the FCA, he worked in tax consulting.

Dennis is the Principal at Gladius Assurance, with over 17 years of experience advising top-tier and fintech financial services firms on regulatory matters. Before founding Gladius Assurance, he was a Partner at Deloitte UK, who led their Client Assets, Safeguarding, Payments and Digital Assets Assurance practices. At Gladius, he serves as a fractional CASS / Safeguarding officer, regulatory risk assurance strategist and internal controls practitioner. He assists by embedding SME knowledge and expertise into your teams and preparing your control environment for growth, change and regulatory scrutiny. He has assisted clients in navigating s166 investigations, regulatory deep-dives and readiness reviews. Sectors of expertise include banking, capital markets, wealth, platforms, custodians, fintech, payments and digital assets.

Austin Copp is Global Head of Client Assets Protection Assets Compliance at HSBC, having over 25 year’s experience in regulation, both as supervisor and supervised. As Senior Associate in FCA, Austin worked for 3 years in the then newly formed CASS unit before leaving to head up Logistics and CASS Compliance at RBS/NatWest Markets before setting up the specialist team at HSBC. Prior to this role, he held senior positions as CF1, 10 and 11 at Close Brothers, as well as time at JP Morgan Private Bank and HSBC James Capel Investment Management. Austin is a Chartered member of the CISI and Senior reviewer for the workbook for Client Money & Assets IOC qualification.

James qualified into the CMS UK Financial Services Regulatory team in August 2013, having trained with the firm. Since qualifying James has developed a particular focus on consumer financial service products, and the payment service market in particular. He advises a wide range of payment service provider and user clients, including as banks, new fintech entrants, and payment instrument issuers. James has particular expertise in advising payment account providers (including those attaching to investment platform propositions) and firms with unique distribution strategies (whether they be technology based or otherwise). James has experience of all matters within the regulated product lifecycle, including assisting with the authorisation of PSPs and implementing PSR/EMR/FCA compliance processes; advising on the design, distribution and operation of consumer products; drafting pre-contract information, customer facing agreements/terms of business and post-contractual notices; and advising on compliance with all conduct of business rules applicable to regulated entities. Clients have commended James for his extremely practical and commercial approach in light of increasing regulatory rules and principles within the credit and payment sectors. His knowledge of both the statutory and regulatory regimes is invaluable to clients.

Chris is a partner in the Financial Services Regulatory Practice at CMS London. Chris has significant payments, fintech and financial regulation expertise. He has a unique background and insight having joined CMS from the Bank of England where he was working on a number of high profile projects such as the renewal of the Bank’s Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), the broadening of access to RTGS and the payments systems which settle over it to non-bank payment service providers or central bank digital currency (CBDC) / stablecoin workstreams. Chris also has a strong background in Banking and Restructuring, having qualified as a restructuring lawyer and advised on a wide range of finance and resolution matters at the Bank. Chris has considerable experience working with the regulators, financial market infrastructures and payment institutions.

Oliver is a director in PKF Littlejohn’s Wealth and Asset Management team with over 10 years’ experience leading the statutory audits of asset, wealth and investment managers. His expertise extends to leading the related reasonable assurance CASS reports required for those entities holding client money and custody assets and is responsible for delivering training on this topic. He enjoys working closely with his clients, helping them overcome the complex accounting requirements and other regulatory challenges faced in the sector, providing practical and relevant solutions as well as expert recommendations.

Shaid is the Head of Client Assurance at Aberdeen Group plc for the past 11 years holding the roles of the CF10a and currently SMF18z. Shaid is also co-President of Chartered Institute of Securities & Investments Scotland and a Chief Examiner of CISI professional diploma qualifications. In addition to this, Shaid sits on the TISA CASS Technical Committee, PIMFA CASS Working Group and is a co-Chair of the Scottish CASS Forum. With nearly 30 years in the investment industry with firms such as Morgan Stanley, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, and Barclays before joining Standard Life (now Aberdeen). Through this time Shaid has gathered deep industry experience in the wholesale, institutional and retail sectors, specialising in investment operations and regulatory compliance across a broad range of asset classes and markets. For over a decade now Shaid has been a leading figure in the CASS arena with extensive participation in industry forums and trade bodies and is a regular orator on CASS matters in events and conferences sharing his experience and insights and shaping industry best practice.

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.

Naomi is Head of CASS at Moneybox, a savings and investments app. She has 13 years of experience across both audit and industry and was a founding member of a CASS industry focus group for fintechs.

Grant’s is the Head of Group CASS Control Office for Lloyds Banking Group. He has been with the Group since 2016, previously being responsible for the Group’s CASS Policy, Strategy, Governance and Monitoring. Prior to joining the Group, Grant specialised in CASS oversight in a number of organisations, both UK focused and in other jurisdictions internationally.

Edward has worked for the last 14 years in the financial services practice at Mazars. He has focussed his regulatory work on CASS with clients across multiple sectors and business models. He is responsible for Mazars’ policies and the practical aspects of developing methodology, the training of staff and internal ‘licensing’ of staff for CASS related work. Edward represents Mazars at the ICAEW CASS and Safeguarding working party.

As Director of Strategy & Business Management 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.