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Financial Products & Services

We represent clients in establishing, acquiring, and operating new lines of business and product offerings, including securities underwriting and dealing; brokerage; investment advice; investment funds; IRA, retirement account and pension servicing; sweep and other deposit products; lending, credit, debit, and other card operations; funds and other money transmission; fiduciary and investment management activities; insurance; and leasing.

  • Broker-Dealer and Investment Advisers. We represent broker-dealers and investment advisers on regulatory matters related to their creation, expansion, services, and operations.
  • Private Investment Funds. We represent clients in the creation, operation, and offering of private investment funds, in establishing and structuring the management companies that operate private equity and venture capital funds, and in connection with portfolio investment transactions by the funds. We advise clients on new fund development and structuring, required documentation, and compliance with state and federal securities and banking laws including the Volcker Rule. We are also familiar with issues relating to specialized investment funds, such as SBICs, business development companies, collective investment funds, and employee securities companies.
  • Private Banking. Drawing on the resources of our trust and estates, ERISA, and tax attorneys, our financial services team also represents clients in the bank and securities regulatory and fiduciary law aspects of operating a trust department, trust company or family office.
  • Special Purpose Institutions. Our lawyers have helped create special purpose institutions designed to take advantage of favorable regulatory treatment and exploit niche markets. For example, we assist clients in establishing non-depository banks and thrifts created to offer trust services on a nationwide basis, as well as credit card and other limited purpose institutions. In addition, we have established limited purpose entities in order to facilitate the orderly liquidation of numerous financial institutions.
  • Credit Card/Debit Card/Stored Value and Payments Systems. We assist clients in the card area with litigation, product development, and regulatory policy, and in negotiations of their processing, co-branding, and other agreements. Our clients include representatives of all parts of the credit and debit card industry, including one of the major credit card associations, card issuers, diversified financial services companies offering card products, merchant processors, merchants, and ATM and POS operators. We represent clients that operate other types of payment systems, as well. Clients in this area include funds and other money transmitting companies, a major government-sponsored enterprise, and merchants in a variety of online businesses.

Experience Highlights

  • Bank in establishing a nondepository trust company, including all aspects of all regulatory and corporate issues in the transaction.
  • Multiple banking organizations in the design, documentation, offering, and operation of private investment funds for institutional and high-net-worth investors.
  • Institutional brokerage firm on all aspects of operations and compliance, including registration, implementation of the "Volcker Rule" and other aspects of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, derivatives compliance, and sales matters.
  • Third-party payment services provider and a prepaid debit-card program manager for numerous banks and nonbank lenders in acquiring a financial institution or chartering a de novo bank, including advising on the type of charter, assessing the application processes and determining the appropriate corporate structure for the resulting institution.
  • Nonbank financial services company in consumer finance legal and regulatory support for its ongoing development of loan and real estate products.
  • Payment solutions provider in drafting and negotiating commercial agreements with various technology solutions vendors to integrate and offer enhanced functionality on its platform.
  • Emerging fintech solutions provider in commercial agreements to create a white-labelled, point-of-sale lending platform that merchants can offer to customers to facilitate access to financing options at the point of services.
  • Large, global securities firm that is affiliated with a depository institution in advice and documentation for lending and bank deposit products and programs linked to the brokerage platform and online platform, including sweeps, brokered deposits, CDs, escrows and other deposit programs, nonmargin bank lending, and margin lending programs, as well as ongoing counsel regarding compliance with consumer protection laws and regulations.
  • Major investment bank in all aspects of regulatory compliance for a newly secured loan product, including interest rate limitations, federal and state consumer protection considerations, loan documentation, and servicing correspondence, among other things. The regulatory analysis and structuring of the loan product required addressing complicated issues of state usury laws and the exportation of interest rates under federal law.
  • West Creek Financial Inc., a fintech consumer goods leasing company, in leveraging its existing merchant network via the establishment (with a partner bank) and phased nationwide roll-out of a new term point-of-sale loan program.

Key Contacts

David F. Freeman, Jr.
David F. Freeman, Jr.
Partner
Washington, D.C.
+1 202.942.5745
Christopher L. Allen
Christopher L. Allen
Senior Counsel
Washington, D.C.
+1 202.942.6384
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