General Regulatory and Compliance Matters

Bowles Rice is a full-service law firm with industry-leading practices in financial services, including the area of regulation and compliance. With numerous financial services firms, including commercial banks, private equity funds and employee benefit plans, we have an in-depth knowledge of industry terms and practices and a breadth of experience that few other firms can equal.

Our attorneys have longstanding relationships with the principal bank regulatory authorities on the federal and state levels.  We provide regulatory and strategic counsel to banks, bank holding companies, their subsidiaries and boards of directors, with a focus on the diverse and ever-changing regulatory requirements affecting the banking industry. 

Our regulatory and compliance lawyers provide day-to-day advice on:

• All issues related to the Securities Act, the Securities Exchange Act and numerous stock exchanges
• Securities trading issues, including insider trading, market manipulation and short selling
• Bank regulatory issues, including those related to the Bank Holding Company Act and the  Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and various state banking laws
• All issues related to laws governing employee benefits and employee benefit plans, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code and the Taft-Hartley Act

Compliance
When enforcement actions arise, we balance an effective, aggressive defense of our clients with short- and long-term business goals in order to achieve the most constructive and favorable resolution. We provide guidance on a broad range of consumer lending, non-discrimination laws, privacy rules and other credit related laws. Other typical matters include:

• Affiliate loans, executive compensation and insider transactions (Regulation 0)
• Asset quality and reserves
• Lending-limit violations
• Holding company and subsidiary activities
• RESPA-related issues, including questions over controlled business arrangements
• Community Reinvestment Act compliance
• Policies and procedures
• Corporate governance
• Appeals to agencies' ombudsman
• Truth-in-lending, truth-in-savings, deposit disclosure and other consumer-protection issues

In addition to day-to-day- compliance advice, our attorneys:

• Counsel clients as they prepare for and undergo compliance examinations by federal regulators and self-regulatory organizations
• Assist clients in responding to subpoenas
• Represent clients in civil and criminal cases and investigations by governmental agencies and regulators
• Conduct on-site legal compliance reviews and training sessions on compliance issues
• Assist clients in drafting compliance policies and procedures