FinTech

In recent years, new and emerging technologies and services have started to disrupt the historically conservative financial sector. FinTech solutions, big data, artificial intelligence, digital technology, and blockchain hold the promise to improve service and have given rise to entrepreneurial new market entrants who are increasing competition and presenting unprecedented challenges for established banks, financial services companies, retailers, and others. In response, a nascent RegTech movement seeks to impose more oversight over FinTech activity, much of which remains unregulated.

Poyner Spruill’s multidisciplinary team has deep knowledge of – and experience in – highly complex, sophisticated FinTech work. We help clients in the financial services industry understand their rights and obligations and to adjust their business models for the new landscape. We also advise new market participants who may find themselves subject to regulations “passed through” by regulated business partners or who are struggling to grasp the full burdens that accompany dealings with more entrenched industry players or entrance into a regulated-industry environment.

We help our clients address the full range of regulatory, compliance, and business issues that they face, including:

• Regulatory counseling (e.g., from the OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, US Treasury, FINCen, state banking regulators, and money transmitter licensing agencies)
• Compliance (e.g., with the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering laws, and state money transmission and payment laws)
• Agreements to protect interests and account for the use of complex, constantly-evolving technologies
• Entity formation
• Data privacy and information security
• Licensing and registration rules
• Corporate governance
• Transactions, including M&A and securities offerings
• Financing
• Litigation support
• Copyright and trademark

With deep experience matching that of larger firms, we deliver practical, attentive, more cost-effective counsel that is tailored to address our clients’ specific business needs. Our clients include start-ups, app makers, emerging growth companies, major retailers, as well as banks and financial institutions.

In recent matters, Poyner Spruill has:

• Analyzed state money transmission laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine licensing requirements in connection with money transmitting activities
• Negotiated contracts to allow consumers to finance purchases without using traditional, store-branded credit-cards
• Assessed the applicability of the Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering Laws to money transmission programs
• Analyzed whether bank privacy regulations apply to technologies enabling store employees to more effectively manage their payroll deposits
• Negotiated credit card agreements for federally regulated depository institutions
• Represented a technology company in connection with its development of an online payment portal for physicians’ practices
• Represented a group of European trade and industry associations in filing an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court case US v. Microsoft, which involved significant data privacy and international law issues
• Provided advice and leadership to the blockchain section of the NCBA committee on the future of the legal profession
• Counseled technology clients on federal and state requirements regarding establishment of legal compliance programs (including software company data retention, storage, protection, and disclosure policies)

For more information about the work we have done for FinTech clients, please contact one of the professionals on this page.