Paul Belanger practises in the Corporate Law and Securities Groups in the Toronto office. His practice emphasizes the business, affairs and regulation of financial institutions, including life and property and casualty insurance companies, commercial banks, trust and loan companies, and other regulated and unregulated providers of financial services.

Paul is involved in all aspects of acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations and joint ventures involving financial service providers, as well as product development and distribution matters, including internet banking and all aspects of the business of insurance.

Paul also advises on all manner of regulatory and structuring issues for financial service providers, including:

• Ownership structures
• Business powers
• Permitted investments and related structures in the context of consolidated supervision
• Corporate governance, and risk management policies and systems
• Inter-company agreements
• Cross-border structuring and delivery of services
• Outsourcing agreements
• Implementation of BIS standards for commercial banks
• Referral arrangements
• Money-laundering legislation
• Mortgage lender and broker licensing matters

Paul is recognized as most frequently recommended in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2010 in the area of banking law and ranked in Band 1 in Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers 2010 in the areas of banking and finance. In Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers, he is recognized as a leading lawyer in the areas of banking, insurance and reinsurance. In The Best Lawyers in Canada 2010, Paul was voted by his peers as one of the leading lawyers in Canada in the area of banking law (regulatory).

In 2002, Paul was named one of Canada's "Top 40 Under 40" by Lexpert, a magazine for lawyers, in Lexpert's first such report. In 1991/92, Paul spent 18 months seconded to the financial institutions division of the federal government's Department of Finance, where he was engaged in the development and implementation of Canadian financial sector reform policy, including the regulation of institutions themselves, networking and distribution arrangements, and ownership policy.

Paul is Co-chair of the Firm's Pro Bono Committee.