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FinTechs

Fintechs, payment system operators, technology service providers, and investors

Our fintech work spans regulatory, strategic, and policy engagements for a diverse range of payment ecosystem participants and digital lenders. Our lawyers have experience working with both traditional and innovative institutions, including: retail and commercial payments and lending fintechs (including buy-now-pay-later providers), fintech banks and neobanks, prepaid program managers and issuers, money transmitters, finance companies, crypto and digital asset service providers, payment processors, payment system infrastructure operators, and payments and credit units of technology companies.

Services we provide to fintech clients include:

Regulation & Compliance

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.

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.
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 Service Providers Bank-Fintech Partnerships Challenger Banks Consumer Lenders Durbin Amendment Digital Asset Firms Digital Assets & Cryptocurrency EFTA Financial Technology GENIUS Act Market Infrastructure Providers Payment Processors Payment Systems CFPA 1033 Prepaid Accounts GLBA-Privacy TILA

Related

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

OCC does not believe the GENIUS Act creates a new charter type

March 31, 2026

It seems the OCC does not believe the GENIUS Act creates a new charter type, contrary to speculation late last year. They would, however, be pleased to offer applicants charters they already have. In the preamble to its proposed GENIUS Act rule, the OCC adopts a narrower reading than it could have of the savings clause that follows the Act's list of activities permitted to a stablecoin issuer. The savings clause says that nothing in the activities provision "shall limit a permitted payment stablecoin issuer from engaging in payment stablecoin activities or digital asset service provider...

Analysis

CFPB Advisory Opinion on Earned Wage Access Under Regulation Z

Dec. 22, 2025

Set to be published in the Dec. 23rd Federal Register, the CFPB is issuing an advisory opinion (Advisory Opinion) to resolve “regulatory uncertainty” regarding the application of TILA/Reg Z to earned wage access (EWA) products. The Advisory Opinion explains why “Covered EWA” is not credit under Regulation Z. It also explains why, to the extent any EWA product is credit under Regulation Z, expedited delivery fees and tips are not, in the normal course, finance charges under Regulation Z. The CFPB also is withdrawing the 2024 proposed interpretive rule on EWA. The Advisory Opinion is effective...

Insight

Why nobody likes Vullo v. OCC

Oct. 24, 2025

Nobody likes Vullo v. OCC, New York's challenge to the nondepository national fintech charter half a decade ago. For most people in the industry, the case stands for the idea that the OCC can’t charter national banks that don’t take deposits, unless the bank is restricted to trust company activities. The OCC dislikes this for a few reasons, but mostly because it isn’t true. The lower court’s decision against the OCC was reversed on procedural grounds, and the case went away after the applicant at issue applied for deposit insurance. Had the lower court’s substantive reasoning been put to the...

Insight

'Skinny Master' does not change legal eligibility

Oct. 22, 2025

Before you get too excited about the "skinny" master account (aka payment account) proposed by Fed Governor Waller, it's important to read his words carefully. Waller repeatedly stressed that the account would be available to "legally eligible" entities. Under current law, this means depository institutions. Waller's proposal is not a recipe for payment service provider (PSP) access as adopted by the UK, EU, Canada, and others. It is a Fed compromise offer for the many "Tier 3" depository institutions that are currently eligible for master accounts that the Fed does not want to give them. To...