Nicholas Pavouris

Senior Associate

Nicholas approaches his practice with a scientific lens, inspired by a combined law/chemistry major at university. His main interests are in payments, crypto, insurance and fintech but advises on all aspects of Financial Services regulation. Nicholas utilises creative thinking to provide innovative and novel solutions and valuable advice for his clients.

Nicholas’ expertise is in providing regulatory and corporate support to emerging Fintechs and disruptors with cutting-edge product and service offerings. Nicholas is also experienced in supporting established financial service providers by managing their regulatory compliance obligations and assisting them to grow their business. Nicholas understands the regulatory environment and is well-placed to advise on regulatory requirements and risk mitigation strategies for businesses of all sizes.

Nicholas regularly contributes to and informs regulatory reform including drafting submissions on the digital asset licensing and payments reforms, buy-now pay later reform and AML/CTF.

Nicholas has close connections with Fintech Australia, Insurtech Australia and Blockchain Australia and regularly supports them with submissions to government and providing them with legal support.

Prior to joining Hamilton Locke, Nicholas worked at The Fold Legal, which merged with Hamilton Locke on 1 September 2022.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Financial Services; Regulatory; AML/CTF; Fintech; Payments; Cryptocurrency; Insurance; Credit; Licensing; Corporate Advisory.

AWARDS

Lawyer’s Weekly 30 under 30 – Financial Services, Winner 2024
Lawyer’s Weekly 30 under 30 – Financial Services, Finalist 2022

QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor of Laws (Honours) – Queensland University of Technology
Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) – Queensland University of Technology
Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice – Queensland University of Technology
Admitted to practice in Queensland

SELECTED REPRESENTATIONS

Advised Great Southern Bank on product design and restructuring, regulatory compliance, and unfair contracts legislation;
Advised BankVic on distribution arrangements for outsourced add-on services (e.g. FX), broker agreements, add-on insurance, and the Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice;
Advised various global and local digital currency exchanges (including Independent Reserve and CoinSpot) on token listings, token due diligence processes, product and service offerings, payments, margin trading, AI-trading, share trading solutions, ETFs and corporate transactions.
Advised Employment Hero on the distribution of superannuation and payments solutions as well as drafted and negotiated commercial agreements with customers and service providers (including master services agreements).
Advising BNPL providers and other credit providers on their legal obligations, licensing obligations, regulatory agreements and compliance including April, Latertax, Payo and Payright.
Advised Prospa, Australia’s leading online lender to small businesses, on its successful acquisition of the Zip Business loan portfolio from Zip Business Pty Ltd for approximately A$15.6 million. This was Prospa’s first M&A transaction which was funded through Prospa’s existing warehouse funding arrangements.
Advising multiple clients looking to offer a solution to prospective homeowners who can’t save a home deposit using an innovative co-ownership model, designing a solution to avoid regulation as a fund or lender.
Advising various payments, lending, funds and crypto clients on their AML-CTF compliance and regulation obligations including advising on applicable designated services, know-your-customer (KYC) measures, AML programs and AUSTRAC applications.
Advising on the design, structure distribution, regulatory requirements of CashD’s early wage access product and other payment solutions for B2B and B2C offerings including Divipay, Azupay, Plan Pay, and other escrow payments services.
Advised Zip Money on partnering with Cover Genius to offer product insurance for purchases made by customers using BNPL and other payment services.
Advised KOBA Insurance, Australia’s first kilometre-based car insurance provider on their strategic alliance and authorised representative agreements. Assisting in reviewing all documents for their go-to-market including website and marketing collateral, financial services guide, terms of business, privacy policy, terms of use and drafting product disclosure statements and target market determinations.
Advised BetaCarbon on the design, licensing and regulatory requirements of its Australian Carbon Token and Retirement Token.
Advised Bamboo on its regulatory obligations, product and service design and rewards program in relation to its cryptocurrency micro investment app.
Advised PICNIC Labs on one of the market first offerings of Mutual Capital Instruments (MCI’s) for their Our Ark Mutual – Australia’s first community based mutual supporting organisations in the religious, education, aged care and not-for-profit space to source risk.
Advised Limepay on their $22m pre-IPO convertible note issue and previous capital raisings.