Leanne Banfield

Structured Finance Counsel, London

“I have specialist expertise in derivatives and structured finance, with a particular focus on repackagings and credit-linked products, including synthetic securitisations, and sustainable finance, including carbon-linked products. I have considerable knowledge in these areas, which I combine with being someone who is easy to get on with in order to deliver a comprehensive, client-friendly service.”

Overview

Professional experience

Education and qualifications

Overview

Leanne specialises in structured finance and derivatives with a particular focus on repackagings and credit-linked products. She has acted for investors and originators across multiple jurisdictions, advising on a wide range of repackagings and structured notes linked to a variety of asset classes, including loans, commodities and funds, as well as advising on many innovative and bespoke synthetic risk transfer structures.

More recently, Leanne has been focussing on sustainable products, especially carbon, and credit-linked products, particularly synthetic securitisations and risk transfer transactions in all formats. She has a special interest in sustainable finance and its impact on capital relief transactions and securitised products more widely.

Leanne has been engaged in a number of innovative initiatives, including holding the pen on the market documentation for the trading of verified carbon credits (VCC) for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), advising ISDA on sustainability-linked derivatives, establishing market leading carbon-linked SPV note issuance platforms and advising on bespoke carbon structured finance products.

Based in the firm’s London office, Leanne has also been seconded at different times to the firm’s Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices.

Professional experience

Leanne is a regular speaker on capital relief and ESG issues at industry conferences, including those organised by the Investor Advisory Committee on International Financial Markets (IACFM). She co-hosts “Tranche Up”, a Linklaters monthly podcast which focuses on synthetic securitisations, and “Credit Where It’s Due”, a Linklaters vodcast that examines emerging market trends in the credit space.

Education and qualifications

Leanne studied English literature at Warwick University.