FinTech
Helping clients leverage FinTech Innovations
Whether you are seeking to
- launch a new FinTech company or develop new products or business strategies
- partner with a financial institution or deploy crowdfunding
- develop peer-lending platforms
- use blockchain platforms relating to cryptocurrency or other virtual currencies
- address enforcement, licensing, or other operational issues
our team provides legal advice to help you keep up with the ever-changing regulatory environment and to create or deploy FinTech products and services in compliance with federal and state laws.
We help clients manage
- Automated payments processing
- Bitcoin
- Blockchain
- Card processing and ISOs
- Core processing
- Crowdfunding
- Cryptocurrencies
- Data breach response and continuity planning
- Data integrity and encryption
- Data mining and consumer disclosures
- Digital banking
- Domestic and international funds transfers
- ESign and UETA compliance
- Income share agreements and other non-traditional financial products
- Loyalty programs
- Mobile and online underwriting and evaluation
- Mobile investment advising and securities brokerage
- Mobile payments and wallets
- Money transmission and Money Service Business ("MSB") regulations
- NFC, QR Code, and alternative input devices
- Online and mobile business lending and micro-finance
- Payment processing and compiling
- Peer-to-peer lending, barter and "sharing" networks
- Prepaid open-loop and closed-loop card networks
- Privacy and security issues
- Robo-advisors
- Technology licensing
- Third-party vendor due diligence and contracting
- Trademarks, copyrights, and patents
- Virtual currencies
Interdisciplinary team
- Broad experience in card network rules and regulations, payment processing and platform agreements, NACHA regulations, P2P lending, and software integration
- Financial services practitioners experienced in guiding clients on compliance and regulatory matters
- Team includes former: bank and SEC staff, in-house counsel for national financial institutions, general counsel and compliance officer for crowdfunding and startup investment company
- Collaborative insights from across broader Nelson Mullins platform, including: investment and emerging growth teams, litigators to anticipate issues and tackle disputes, privacy and cybersecurity attorneys who have handled some of the nation’s largest data breaches, finance, and tax perspectives
Our clients span the financial services sector
- Blockchain projects and platforms
- Card processors and sponsors
- Crowdfunding platforms
- Closed-loop prepaid card processors
- Digital wallet providers
- FinTech equity and debt investors
- Global, national, regional, and community financial institutions
- Institutional and emerging growth investors
- National, regional, local banks
- Open-loop providers of general purpose reloadable (“GPR”) cards
- Peer-lending platforms
- P2P, real-time payment providers
- Technology driven banks and payment subsidiaries
- Technology providers that layer consumer data onto payments processing
- Wireless/telecom providers offering alternative payment structures
Our FinTech Team advises and works with you to
- Launch a new business or product – from an idea to implementation
- Establish and maintain regulatory compliance – to help Fintech businesses comply with securities and financial services laws and regulations
- Advocate for legislative and regulatory change – that provides clarity to emerging fields of finance that do not “fit” traditional lending regulations
- Defend – to product offerings by regulators, competitors, or borrowers
- Develop growth strategies – that position companies for investment and capital raising
- Develop new products – that solve unique market needs not served by traditional payment mechanisms
- Develop third party vendor due diligence strategies – for partners and service providers
- Enforce claims – against networks, processors, program managers, and servicers
- Evaluate risks – of product designs or payment strategies
- Fund emerging technologies – through equity or debt offerings
- License technology – and develop platform integrations
- Protect innovation – through aggressive intellectual property strategies
- Stay compliant – with federal and state money transmitter laws and other regulations
- Stay current – with regulatory developments from banking regulators, state regulators, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of the Treasury / FinCEN
- Test security and data integrity – to comply with privacy, cybersecurity, and E-Sign regulations
FEATURED ATTORNEY
Richard is chair of the FinTech and Regulation Practice and was one of the first lawyers to focus on the regulation of blockchain and digital assets. He is considered a thought leader in the FinTech space. Richard brings his experience as a senior legal and compliance officer on Wall Street and in London to bear in advising clients on corporate, FinTech, securities, and regulatory issues. A problem-solver by nature, he has been advising FinTech clients on legal and regulatory issues since the start of electronic trading in the late 1990s. His practice focuses on helping financial services and technology clients identify and address regulatory issues as they build their businesses.
Experience
Following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.
- Addressed money transmitter regulatory compliance for an indirect, agent-based payments model
- Addressed regulatory compliance issues with client offering online closed-loop gift card marketplace
- Assisted in the development of one of the leading “dual loop,” multi-criteria card authorization platforms
- Brought together mobile payments with electronic investment advisor services to provide a mobile based RIA with the ability to “gift” contributions and assess savings
- Built a model for a client that was using expedited payment rail processing with alternative routing systems
- Consulted with banks developing a real-time payments engine including new ACH core integration
- Counseled clients on integration challenges with municipal transportation cards and real-time reloads
- Developed an ACH integration for one of the largest merchant-focused payment platforms
- Developed a Know Your Customer integration for account opening, funding, authentication, and authorization solely through mobile platforming
- Integrated a client’s mobile payments platform into a state college savings platform for “give the gift of college” program to assist traditionally underserved communities
- Negotiated program administrator and card sponsor agreements for multiple clients
- Structured programs for real-time reloads from cards and ACH into mobile payment and loyalty program
- Worked with client to develop in-app, point-of-sale regulatory disclosures
- Assisted financial company in analysis of NY cybersecurity requirements
We help clients manage
- Automated payments processing
- Bitcoin
- Blockchain
- Card processing and ISOs
- Core processing
- Crowdfunding
- Cryptocurrencies
- Data breach response and continuity planning
- Data integrity and encryption
- Data mining and consumer disclosures
- Digital banking
- Domestic and international funds transfers
- ESign and UETA compliance
- Income share agreements and other non-traditional financial products
- Loyalty programs
- Mobile and online underwriting and evaluation
- Mobile investment advising and securities brokerage
- Mobile payments and wallets
- Money transmission and Money Service Business ("MSB") regulations
- NFC, QR Code, and alternative input devices
- Online and mobile business lending and micro-finance
- Payment processing and compiling
- Peer-to-peer lending, barter and "sharing" networks
- Prepaid open-loop and closed-loop card networks
- Privacy and security issues
- Robo-advisors
- Technology licensing
- Third-party vendor due diligence and contracting
- Trademarks, copyrights, and patents
- Virtual currencies
Interdisciplinary team
- Broad experience in card network rules and regulations, payment processing and platform agreements, NACHA regulations, P2P lending, and software integration
- Financial services practitioners experienced in guiding clients on compliance and regulatory matters
- Team includes former: bank and SEC staff, in-house counsel for national financial institutions, general counsel and compliance officer for crowdfunding and startup investment company
- Collaborative insights from across broader Nelson Mullins platform, including: investment and emerging growth teams, litigators to anticipate issues and tackle disputes, privacy and cybersecurity attorneys who have handled some of the nation’s largest data breaches, finance, and tax perspectives
Our clients span the financial services sector
- Blockchain projects and platforms
- Card processors and sponsors
- Crowdfunding platforms
- Closed-loop prepaid card processors
- Digital wallet providers
- FinTech equity and debt investors
- Global, national, regional, and community financial institutions
- Institutional and emerging growth investors
- National, regional, local banks
- Open-loop providers of general purpose reloadable (“GPR”) cards
- Peer-lending platforms
- P2P, real-time payment providers
- Technology driven banks and payment subsidiaries
- Technology providers that layer consumer data onto payments processing
- Wireless/telecom providers offering alternative payment structures
Our FinTech Team advises and works with you to
- Launch a new business or product – from an idea to implementation
- Establish and maintain regulatory compliance – to help Fintech businesses comply with securities and financial services laws and regulations
- Advocate for legislative and regulatory change – that provides clarity to emerging fields of finance that do not “fit” traditional lending regulations
- Defend – to product offerings by regulators, competitors, or borrowers
- Develop growth strategies – that position companies for investment and capital raising
- Develop new products – that solve unique market needs not served by traditional payment mechanisms
- Develop third party vendor due diligence strategies – for partners and service providers
- Enforce claims – against networks, processors, program managers, and servicers
- Evaluate risks – of product designs or payment strategies
- Fund emerging technologies – through equity or debt offerings
- License technology – and develop platform integrations
- Protect innovation – through aggressive intellectual property strategies
- Stay compliant – with federal and state money transmitter laws and other regulations
- Stay current – with regulatory developments from banking regulators, state regulators, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of the Treasury / FinCEN
- Test security and data integrity – to comply with privacy, cybersecurity, and E-Sign regulations
Following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.
- Addressed money transmitter regulatory compliance for an indirect, agent-based payments model
- Addressed regulatory compliance issues with client offering online closed-loop gift card marketplace
- Assisted in the development of one of the leading “dual loop,” multi-criteria card authorization platforms
- Brought together mobile payments with electronic investment advisor services to provide a mobile based RIA with the ability to “gift” contributions and assess savings
- Built a model for a client that was using expedited payment rail processing with alternative routing systems
- Consulted with banks developing a real-time payments engine including new ACH core integration
- Counseled clients on integration challenges with municipal transportation cards and real-time reloads
- Developed an ACH integration for one of the largest merchant-focused payment platforms
- Developed a Know Your Customer integration for account opening, funding, authentication, and authorization solely through mobile platforming
- Integrated a client’s mobile payments platform into a state college savings platform for “give the gift of college” program to assist traditionally underserved communities
- Negotiated program administrator and card sponsor agreements for multiple clients
- Structured programs for real-time reloads from cards and ACH into mobile payment and loyalty program
- Worked with client to develop in-app, point-of-sale regulatory disclosures
- Assisted financial company in analysis of NY cybersecurity requirements
- Business-minded attorneys, including team members with financial and business backgrounds
- Technical knowledge and experience across a wide spectrum of financial technology businesses
- Multi-disciplinary team, deep bench, virtual team roles and experience
- Industry experience with regulators, investment bankers, investors, program managers, and other key service providers
- Cost-efficiency and budget predictability
