European allies Chiomenti, Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira, Gide Loyrette Nouel and Gleiss Lutz have teamed up to launch a joint group focusing on financial services regulation in Frankfurt.

The ‘Regulatory Hub’ will house lawyers from all four firms with the aim of developing closer interaction with banking regulators, particularly the European Central Bank (ECB) which is headquartered in the city.

It follows the introduction of the European Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) in November last year. The SSM gives the ECB a supervisory role over banking regulators across the eurozone.

The idea behind the hub was a joint effort, according to Gleiss Lutz regulatory partner Maximilian von Rom. The venture is coordinated by Chiomenti partners Vincenzo Troiano and Alessandro Portolano, Cuatrecasas’ Fernando Minguez Hernandez and Gide managing partner Stéphane Puel alongside von Rom.

Lawyers from the four firms will spend time at the hub in Frankfurt developing closer links with the regulator and building their expertise in financial regulatory issues. The group’s regulatory lawyers already meet regularly to exchange ideas and share their experience.

Von Rom told The Lawyer the move would benefit the four firms as well as their clients in the financial sector in an environment where regulation and compliance had become increasingly important for banks.

“Frankfurt will become even more important for the banking sector than Brussels for antitrust today,’’ predicted Troiano.

The move follows the establishment of the non-exclusive referral network between the quartet some three years ago and is the latest development in a series of moves bringing the firms closer together, including office-sharing in London

Chiomenti and Cuatrecasas also office-share in Brussels; Chiomenti and Gide are in the same office in Hong Kong and are in the same building as Cuatrecasas in Shanghai; and Gide and Cuatrecasas brought their Casablanca operations under one roof last year.

Gleiss Lutz managing partner Rainer Loges said the regulatory hub was the type of initiative he had hoped the quartet would collaborate on through the alliance.

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