Financial Regulatory &
Compliance

Greenberg Traurig’s Financial Regulatory & Compliance Group brings together attorneys from across the firm's vast platform to advise clients in the financial services arena as they face regulatory, legislative, supervision, examination, licensing, business combination, compliance, and governance matters.

The breadth and depth of our experience, coupled with our regional and international diversity, positions us to collaborate across practices and offices to deliver the quality service and value that financial services clients require in today’s changing regulatory landscape.

Our group is experienced in various facets of financial regulations, including:

• Bank Regulation & Compliance
• Broker-Dealer Regulation & Compliance
• Investment Adviser & Asset Manager Compliance
• Consumer Finance Regulation Compliance & Enforcement
• Financial Institution Formation, M&A & Divestment
• Futures & Derivatives Regulatory & Compliance
• Mortgage Lending & Servicing Regulation
• Unclaimed Property

Our global team of attorneys provides clients with strategic planning, analysis, and interpretation of legislation, amendments, and administrative rules governing the financial services industry. We counsel regulated financial institutions (and their officers and directors) in connection with critical examination reports and enforcement actions relating to capital, asset quality, management, compliance, and other issues.

Our Financial Regulatory and Compliance Group often collaborates with our Insurance Regulatory & Transactions Practice in order to fully address our clients’ needs. Our Insurance Regulatory team brings together lawyers from throughout our U.S. and international offices to support clients in all segments of the insurance industry in regulated transactions, mergers and acquisitions, state enforcement actions, governance and risk management, regulatory examinations and oversight issues, legislative advocacy, and litigation.

 Our Financial Services Blog

Greenberg Traurig’s Financial Services Observer monitors and reports on news, legal developments, litigation, and legislative actions affecting the financial services industry. Written by members of Greenberg Traurig’s Financial Regulatory and Compliance Group, this blog is designed to help in-house counsel and industry executives stay abreast of major developments affecting their industry. 

Bank Regulation & Compliance

We regularly advise clients in connection with federal and state banking laws and regulations, such as:

• The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and related regulations, including Volcker Rule implementation
• Bank Holding Company Act and Regulation Y
• Bank Secrecy Act, including USA PATRIOT Act amendments
• Bank Control Act and Bank Merger Act
• National Bank Act
• Federal Reserve Act, including Sections 23A, 23B, and Regulation O
• Federal Deposit Insurance Act (including FIRREA and FDICIA)
• International Banking Act, Foreign Bank Supervision Enhancement Act, and Regulation K
• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
• Community Reinvestment Act

With offices in government hubs, we consult regularly with staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and state financial institution and securities regulators to efficiently provide our clients with practical strategies for their legal and regulatory issues.

Broker-Dealer Regulation & Compliance

Greenberg Traurig counsels broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, municipal securities dealers, and municipal advisors in a wide range of regulatory and compliance matters. We also regularly conduct internal investigations and full-scale compliance reviews, drawing upon our network of former in-house lawyers and regulators. We work closely with our broker-dealer clients to develop and update their compliance programs, as well as their anti-money laundering and internal control policies and procedures.

We also work closely with the firm’s Financial Services Litigation, Securities Litigation, and White Collar Defense & Special Investigations teams to help our clients avoid unwarranted regulatory scrutiny and enforcement, and to defend when investigations or actions are brought by the SEC, FINRA, the U.S. Department of Justice, state attorneys general, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), FINRA, New York Stock Exchange, and other regulators and litigants involving:

• Accounting fraud and earnings management
• Analysts’ conflicts of interest
• D&O bar proceedings
• Delisting proceedings
• Insider trading
• Individual enforcement actions
• Market timing and late trading
• Market manipulation
• Miscellaneous criminal proceedings
• New SRO membership applications and continuing membership applications

Investment Adviser & Asset Manager Compliance

Our team represents private investment funds on formation and offering matters for domestic and offshore funds, mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation, SEC and state investment adviser registration and exemptions, the development and implementation of Advisers Act compliance programs and procedures, ongoing compliance matters, mock audits, and regulatory examinations.

Consumer Finance Regulation, Compliance & Enforcement

Greenberg Traurig’s Consumer Finance Regulation, Compliance and Enforcement team brings together attorneys from various offices and practice areas to assist financial services firms of all types and sizes as well as vendors to those firms as they face regulatory, legislative, supervision, examination, licensing, and compliance matters.

Our regional and practice diversity enables us to collaborate across practices and geography to deliver clients the service and value that they require in today’s world.

Our consumer finance team has wide-ranging experience representing financial service providers on complex matters, including:

• CFPB and state supervisory examinations
• Civil investigative demands
• Compliance management reviews and audits
• Defense of CFPB and state enforcement actions
• Defense of consumer class action and individual litigation
• Electronic lending
• Federal and state regulation of consumer credit and other financial services
• Interpretation and application of Title X of the Dodd-Frank Act and the federal consumer financial laws
• Participation in CFPB rulemakings
• Privacy and information security
• Product development, implementation, and maintenance
• The scope of prohibition against unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices
• Understanding the legal status, organizational structure, and operational authorities of the CFPB, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and other governmental agencies

We represent financial service providers in a variety of areas, including:

• Automotive, boat, and manufactured housing indirect lending
• Credit, debit, and prepaid card issuance, and payment system processing and operations
• Debt collectors
• Direct and indirect consumer lenders
• Electronic payment and money services businesses
• Large banks and their affiliates
• Military lending
• Private student lenders
• Residential mortgage lending and servicing
• Small-dollar/short-term lending
• Vendors that act as "service providers" to covered entities offering consumer financial products or services

Our team consists of veteran consumer finance attorneys, including former in-house counsel and regulators, with decades of combined experience helping clients to navigate a dynamic and complex regulatory landscape. We closely monitor the CFPB's activities in carrying out Dodd-Frank’s mandate to implement and enforce federal consumer financial law. The CFPB’s expansive rulemaking agenda and rapidly evolving enforcement priorities have an almost daily impact on clients across multiple industries. Our team not only advises clients on compliance with existing regulations and responding to enforcement actions, but also assists clients in identifying important rulemaking initiatives and emerging enforcement trends.

Financial Institution Formation, M&A & Divestment

Our team is experienced in the formation and licensing of financial institutions of all types, as well as their expansion, merger, acquisition, and divestment before the OCC, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, SEC, FINRA, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), National Futures Association (NFA), and key state supervisory authorities.

Futures & Derivatives Regulatory & Compliance

Our team assists its futures and derivatives clients in navigating the complex statutory and regulatory web that governs their business. We represent futures commission merchants, forex firms, proprietary trading firms, exchanges, and introducing brokers in connection with all aspects of their business, from formation and offering, to ongoing regulatory and compliance advice, to assistance with regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation.

Mortgage Lending & Servicing Regulation

We work with mortgage lenders and servicers to ensure compliance with the relevant federal and state laws impacting residential and commercial mortgage finance, securitization, and servicing. We advise clients in the mortgage industry on regulation, examination, compliance, and supervision matters regarding various federal and state laws.

Unclaimed Property

Greenberg Traurig offers clients a multidisciplinary approach to unclaimed property/escheat matters. We regularly advise banks, broker-dealers, funds, and other companies in the financial services industry in connection with regulatory inquiries or audits inquiries concerning unclaimed or abandoned property. We have also assisted such clients in refining their processes, procedures, and reporting requirements relative to unclaimed property; in negotiating settlements; and in recovering unclaimed property that belongs to the financial institution.

Insurance

Our Financial Regulatory & Compliance Group often collaborates with our Insurance Regulatory & Transactions Practice in order to fully address our clients’ needs. Our Insurance Regulatory team brings together lawyers from throughout our U.S. and international offices to support clients in all segments of the insurance industry in regulated transactions, mergers and acquisitions, state enforcement actions, governance and risk management, regulatory examinations and oversight issues, legislative advocacy, and litigation.