Banking & Financial Services Regulatory & Securities

Jones Walker's Banking & Financial Services attorneys have that history, experience, and capacity. "Chambers USA – America's Leading Lawyers for Business" has ranked Jones Walker in the first band for Banking & Finance among firms in Louisiana since 2004. Jones Walker also received a fifth-place ranking in bank merger and acquisition transactions, as awarded by SNL Financial in 2007.

Representation & Experience

Jones Walker's Banking & Financial Services Practice Group represents local, regional and national banks; bank and financial holding companies, and their subsidiaries and affiliates, as well as other financial institutions. Our clients include domestic and foreign commercial banks and bank holding companies; savings associations; private equity, venture, debt, and hedge funds; investment banks; and other financial institutions and their investors. In addition, our attorneys represent a wide variety of other highly regulated financial service businesses, including broker-dealers, investment advisers, trust companies, onshore and offshore insurance and reinsurance companies and producers, managing general agents, pension funds and administrators, and related regulatory bodies.

Bank and Bank Holding Company Regulatory, Compliance & Operations

Our attorneys provide regulatory advice and representation to hundreds of financial institutions throughout the United States in connection with matters before state, federal, and foreign regulatory agencies. Our fluency in bank regulatory matters enables us to provide effective representation to investors and operators in virtually all matters, ranging from seeking new bank charters to expanding their operations, either by acquisition or by establishing new institutions, branches, or product lines. We work routinely with the OCC, Federal Reserve, the FDIC and analogous state regulatory agencies. We represent clients in purchases of failed banks from the FDIC and purchases of assets acquired by the FDIC in the course of its resolutions of failed banks. In addition, we represent a number of major financial institutions in matters before the United States Congress.   

Members of our bank regulatory and compliance team work closely with attorneys in our government relations practice to stay abreast of the constantly changing legislative and regulatory environment.

Compliance

Our attorneys routinely represent banks, bank holding companies, insurance companies, securities firms, and other financial institutions regarding a wide range of compliance issues, including matters arising under the Bank Secrecy Act, requirements of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), privacy issues, and the development and implementation of anti-money laundering programs. Our attorneys have provided regular counsel to banking institutions ranging in size from $45 billion to $1 billion on the development of new products and services. In doing so, we have provided advice regarding consumer compliance, IT considerations and overall risk management. Our attorneys also provide multi-state advice for the development of compliance programs on regulatory issues such as flood insurance, BSA/AML, Regulation E, payment systems and identity theft. Jones Walker's Banking & Financial Services Practice Group attorneys are regular panelists on compliance topics including document retention, BSA/AML, Regulation E, payment systems and fraud prevention.  We routinely draft and revise enterprise-wide policies and procedures and oversee their implementation.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Our attorneys have substantial depth in the merger and acquisition of regulated financial institutions. Our team has assisted parties in the acquisition or sale of over 150 institutions. Our experience includes successful applications with all federal banking regulators, SEC, FINRA, as well as the insurance departments and securities commissions of all fifty states.