The digital transformation is here. As customers increasingly demand a full range of financial services accessible by touch, swipe or click, technology has permanently altered the way consumers interact with financial institutions. Through partnerships and integrations with fintech providers, financial institutions are moving towards more digital-first models.

This shift brings an array of new and evolving legal and operational challenges. Our lawyers are at the forefront of this digital evolution, helping institutions and fintech platforms navigate the choppy waters of fintech integrations and strategic partnerships. We provide banking, technology, and e-commerce clients with a full scope of fintech legal solutions. Our team combines a holistic view with unmatched experience to help clients navigate regulatory and litigation risks, compliance programs, licensing requirements, consumer-facing materials, and partnership agreements. Our clients include start-up companies, banks, retailers, payment processors, virtual currency service providers, individual investors, online lenders, prepaid card providers, digital/mobile wallets, data aggregators, bank service providers, and exchanges.

We advise on complex regulatory schemes involved in all aspects of the development, creation, marketing, sale, and servicing of payment products and services, including:

• Payment services, including checks, debit cards, ACH, wire transfers, remote deposit capture, online and mobile banking, and consumer credit cards
• Agreements for payment services, including disclosures, terms and conditions, and account statements
• Electronic commerce, including e-banking, mobile banking, and electronic funds transfer
• Money transmitters and remote merchant and remote branch capture
• Online and mobile services terms and conditions
• Cryptocurrency, blockchain, and digital wallets

Our team understands the payments ecosystem and advises on the applicable laws, including the Electronic Fund Transfer Act/Regulation E; the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts and Practices (UDAAPs); and the FinCEN money transmission licensing/registration rules.

We leverage our substantive knowledge and our enforcement and litigation experience to help clients navigate challenging consumer financial matters from inception to resolution. Our lawyers regularly defend banks; non-bank lenders; fintechs; servicers; retailers; debt collectors; data aggregators; payment processors; consumer credit data companies, their parent companies, directors, officers, and employees; and service providers in a broad range of enforcement investigations and pre-litigation disputes.

We advise on every stage of the process from handling market reviews, civil investigative demands, and negotiations with agency officials regarding prospective or actual enforcement actions to litigating before federal judges and appealing agency decisions. We have deep experience handling enforcement actions brought by key consumer financial services regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB); the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); the Department of Justice (DOJ); as well as prudential regulators, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, and state banking agencies (such as the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, the New York Department of Financial Institutions, and the state attorneys general in consumer protection-focused states).

We advise institutions and CFPB larger participants in preparing for and navigating through complex regulatory examinations, which frequently have the potential to become enforcement actions. We work to prevent actions from ever becoming public by convincing the government to either withdraw the threatened formal enforcement action or to impose a confidential supervisory remedy.

We advocate a proactive approach to managing compliance and navigating complex relationships with various state and federal regulators. Our team works with clients to identify and address potential compliance gaps and program enhancements to mitigate the impact of supervisory actions.

Our assistance includes conducting mock examinations; directing comprehensive risk assessments and institution-wide audit assessments; monitoring the flow of information during the exam process; crafting appropriate responses to regulator requests and Reports of Examination, including CFPB notice of Potential Action and Request for Response (PARR) letters; and addressing any items that require corrective action.