Jess Ward-Zinski

JESS WARD-ZINSKI advises financial institutions, including banks, asset managers, and payment services firms on UK and EU financial services regulatory issues. Her main areas of focus include:

• The EU and UK regulatory frameworks for securitizations, advising a range of financial institutions, asset managers, and securitization sponsors on structuring transactions for compliance with the EU/UK securitization frameworks and the classification of transactions as securitizations.
• EU/UK anti-money laundering compliance matters.

Jess trained and qualified as a solicitor in Sidley’s office in London, where she gained experience with the firm’s global finance, financial services regulatory, and investment funds practices. As part of her training contract, she completed a secondment to a UK-based private equity firm, where she assisted with compliance and regulatory matters.

Recent representative matters include advising:

• EU and UK banks on the EU/UK securitization rules within the context of their U.S. transactions.
• A global asset management trade association on EU/UK policy and regulations relating to securitizations.
• An asset manager on identifying securitization positions within an investment portfolio.
• Asset managers on the registration requirement for Annex I Financial Institutions under UK anti-money laundering legislation.

Jess was awarded the 2023 Sidley London Prize for Pro Bono Services.