Skip navigation

Banking Organizations

Domestic and foreign banking organizations of all sizes

We provide comprehensive legal counsel to banks ranging from community institutions to the largest national and regional banks, as well as specialized trust, wealth management, and employee benefits institutions. Our services span regulatory compliance and examination support, licensing and charter applications, M&A transactions, and public policy advocacy before Congress and federal banking regulators.

Regulation & Compliance

Capital Analysis: We assess treatment of assets, instruments, and transactions under bank or GSE capital rules.
Consumer Compliance: We assist clients with compliance matters on a variety of federal banking and consumer financial services laws including TILA, RESPA, HMDA, FCRA, CRA, privacy, fair lending, compliance management, and UDAP/UDAAP.
Impact Analysis: We help clients understand the impact of existing and proposed laws and regulations on new or existing products and services.
Payments Advice: We advise clients on payments regulation, market structure, and policy, including payment system access, faster payments, and innovative payment products.
Regulatory Inventory: We build and maintain comprehensive and special-purpose inventories of regulatory content and obligations.
Safety and Soundness: We provide clients with support on safety and soundness issues including Regulation W (transactions with affiliates), Regulation O (insider lending), capital adequacy, and Regulation Y (holding companies).

Licensing & Transactions

Charter Options: We provide clients with strategic legal advice on charter, license, and operating model options, including charters for commercial banks, ILCs, national trust banks, and limited-purpose state banks, as well as money transmission and foreign bank licenses.
Control Analysis: We provide advice on control issues under the Bank Holding Company Act, Change in Bank Control Act, and similar laws.
Due Diligence: We conduct regulatory due diligence on financial services acquisition and investment targets.
FinTech-Bank Partnerships: We advise fintechs on structuring their bank partner relationships and the desirable number, size, charter, and other characteristics of potential bank partners.
Product Advice: We assess new financial products and services, providing advice on regulatory requirements, licensing obligations, communication strategies, and product structure recommendations.
Regulatory Applications: We assist clients with applications related to specific initiatives and transactions, including applications for charters, conversions, acquisitions, and new activities.

Public Policy

Agency Challenges: We provide technical legal advice and strategic counsel to clients who are contemplating or pursuing challenges to agency actions.
Bill and Rule Analysis: We provide analysis of legislative proposals and regulatory rulemakings, as well as summaries and analysis of comments submitted by other stakeholders.
Comment Letters: We draft comment letters for clients on regulatory proposals and analyze the broader comment record to help clients understand where their position sits in the field.
Congressional Testimony: We prepare written and oral testimony for Congressional hearings on financial services law and regulation.
Executive Briefings: We prepare and deliver regulatory update briefings to client senior executives visiting Washington and help prepare them for meetings with regulators, congressional staff, and executive branch officials.
FOIA Requests: We submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to federal agencies and follow up with demand letters to obtain regulatory documents and agency records.
Legislative Drafting: We draft bills, amendments, and legislative text to support clients' advocacy efforts relating to financial services regulation and policy.
Monitoring & Tracking: We perform tailored monitoring of regulatory developments and provide custom trackers, reports, and other data products.
Ongoing Advice: We provide ongoing regulatory advice through participation in regular conference calls and meetings, responding to questions as they arise during product development and operations.
White Papers: We produce policy white papers and analytical studies on financial services regulatory issues.
Bank Holding Company Act Capital Adequacy Charters & Licensing Community Banks Fiduciary, Trust & Asset Management Foreign Banking Organizations Holding Companies Insider Lending (Regulation O) Mergers, Acquisitions & Change in Control National Banks Preemption & Rate Exportation Savings Associations & Thrifts State Banks Supervision & Examination Transactions with Affiliates (Regulation W) Trust Companies

Related

Analysis

Disparate Impact: States Pick Up the Baton to Combat Housing Discrimination

Aug. 3, 2026

In April 2025, President Trump issued an executive order (EO 14281) directing federal agencies to eliminate disparate-impact liability "to the maximum degree possible." In response to that EO, the OCC, FDIC, CFPB, and HUD have stepped away from disparate impact claims: The OCC and FDIC removed disparate impact from their fair-lending examination manuals. HUD proposed to remove its disparate impact rule found at 24 C.F.R. Part 100, and instead, rely on court interpretations of disparate impact. The CFPB finalized a rule amending Regulation B to remove the "effects test" or disparate impact...

Analysis

Recent Executive Orders Regarding Financial Services

May 20, 2026

On Tuesday, May 19th, President Trump issued two Executive Orders regarding financial services. The first, Integrating Financial Technology Innovation into Regulatory Frameworks, addresses the role of fintechs in the financial system, including supporting bank-fintech partnerships, charters, and access to Federal Reserve payment systems. The second, Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System, covers banking products and services provided to immigrants and related BSA/AML and ability-to-repay requirements. Neither will result in immediate changes. Rather, the EOs direct the federal...

Analysis

CFPB's Final Rule on Small Business Lending Data (Section 1071)

May 4, 2026

On May 1, 2026, the CFPB published its final rule implementing section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the small business lending data collection and reporting rule (Final Rule or Rule). The rule is finalized largely as proposed, except that the final rule removes disaggregated data fields for race/ethnicity. While the final rule is effective June 30, 2026, the compliance date is January 1, 2028. This memorandum provides a brief overview of the Rule. This rule amends the 2023 small business lending data rule, which did not go into effect due to litigation and a change in administration. Under the...

Insight

Unusual dissension in Fed vote on Reg W exemption

March 27, 2026

The drama around yesterday's Fed decision to grant Morgan Stanley a 23A exemption makes the exemption a tempting target for criticism. But a minor factual error in Governor Bowman's statement defending the decision reveals critical context that puts the decision in perspective. In case you missed it, the Fed Board voted 4-3 to approve an exemption letting Morgan Stanley move a significant trading operation from its European non-bank subsidiary to its US FDIC-insured bank. Such a transaction would usually be prohibited by the restrictions on bank transactions with their affiliates in the...

Analysis

Key Implications if the CFPB Is No Longer Operational

Dec. 2, 2025

In a pending case brought by the union representing CFPB employees, the Administration has informed the court that CFPB will run out of funding early next year and that the Administration will not seek additional funding for the agency. This memorandum examines the implications for the CFPB’s key functions – rulewriting, supervision, enforcement, and publication of market data – should the agency cease operations in early 2026. The Dodd-Frank Act provides the CFPB with exclusive authority to prescribe rules implementing federal consumer financial laws. These laws include ECOA, EFTA, FDCPA,...

Insight

How GENIUS Act opens doors for uninsured banks

Sept. 24, 2025

Controversy is clustering around the GENIUS Act provision granting state depository institutions national money transmission and custody powers when acting through a stablecoin issuer subsidiary. Bank trades and state regulators are pushing to repeal the provision, saying it gives preemption power to uninsured banks like Wyoming's SPDI. But how do they know the provision applies to uninsured banks? And why didn't more people notice that sooner rather than later? The answer lies in the convoluted way the Act defines "state chartered depository institution." The definition's cross-references...