This is the first of three articles focused on a key question: as bank-fintech partnerships continue to play a vital role in driving financial services, how does the industry make this system safer and better?

Fintechs and their partner banks are on edge. Regulators are concerned. But as counselors to a wide range of banks and nonbanks, we are confident that the bank-fintech partnership model is not broken. We have seen these partnerships work well — not just for clients, but for consumers and other end-users — with rigorous, risk-based controls that satisfy both the regulators and the public.

Later today, Troutman Pepper Partner James Stevens is presenting “Legal and Regulatory Compliance Insights: Focus on BAAS” to 10 founders from the Fintech South Innovation Challenge, the lead-up accelerator to Fintech South, and mentors assigned to those founders. The presentation is being held at the Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech. James

Yesterday, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the agencies) issued a joint statement highlighting potential risks associated with banks’ arrangements with third parties to deliver bank deposit products and services. While the information is not new, it clearly memorializes the issues that have been at the forefront of recent enforcement actions involving banks operating under a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) model.

On July 22, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declared nine registration statements effective under the Securities Act of 1933 for spot Ether ETFs, clearing the way for the ETFs to begin trading on July 23. Spot Ether ETFs are exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest directly in Ether, a digital asset that supports the

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has recently issued a final rule amending its regulations governing the use of official FDIC signs and insured depository institutions’ (IDIs) advertising statements. The new rule took effect on April 1, 2024, with an extended compliance date of January 1, 2025. The extended compliance date is intended to provide sufficient time for financial institutions to put in place processes, systems, and technological updates to implement the new regulatory requirements.

On May 3, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the agencies) released a guidebook aimed at assisting community banks in managing risks associated with third-party relationships (the TPRM Guide). The TPRM Guide builds upon the principles introduced in the third-party risk management guidance for banking organizations issued by the agencies in June 2023 (the June 2023 Guidance, discussed here) as well as the agencies’ community bank guide for conducting due diligence on fintech companies from October 2023 (discussed here) but does not displace or substitute that prior guidance.