Alexander Schumacher

Senior Associate

Alexander is an accomplished financial services lawyer with 20 years’ experience working as counsel in the public and private sectors. He specialises in all aspects of financial services regulation and anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism.

Before joining MinterEllisonRuddWatts, Alexander worked as a Senior Associate in the Financial Services Regulation team at Chapman Tripp (New Zealand) and as Senior Associate in the Risk, Regulatory and Advisory team at Collas Crill (Jersey).

In these roles, Alexander provided comprehensive regulatory advice to a diverse range of domestic and international financial service providers, particularly insurers and reinsurers, banks, non-bank deposit takers, brokers, financial advice providers, payment providers, and trading platforms, as well as assisting financial service providers to interact with regulators and to make submissions on regulation reform proposals. His advice covered such matters as licensing, registration, governance, conduct and culture, and policy, procedures and controls, fair trading and privacy.

Alexander has previously worked for over a decade in the Inland Revenue Department, where he prepared the Commissioner of Inland Revenue’s binding public and taxpayer rulings and delivered tax law training, with shorter stints as a Law Lecturer at Te Piringa – Faculty of Law in the University of Waikato and a Legal Researcher at the Law Commission.

Alexander’s mix of public and private experience enables him to effectively advise clients on how they can constructively engage with regulators and persuasively demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements and regulator expectations.

Career highlights

Acting for international insurers over six years with ongoing Conduct and Culture review by Financial Markets Authority and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, including preparing policies, procedures and controls relating to conduct, remuneration and incentives, complaints, training and vulnerable customers.

Working with a major New Zealand insurer on the acquisition of insurance portfolios and reinsurance treaties, assisting with negotiations to amend reinsurance treaties to meet solvency standard requirements, facilitating successful acquisitions.

Providing assistance to a global employee share scheme service in establishing its New Zealand operations, reviewing and amending its agreements and collateral to ensure compliance with New Zealand regulatory requirements, enabling successful market entry.

Acting for a New Zealand multinational company with annual earnings over NZD1 billion on KYC, ongoing due diligence, and account monitoring obligations for existing customers.

Providing specialist advice on the design of a online electronic identity verification process, incorporating biometric verification for an overseas buy-now, pay-later provider.