Financial Institutions Regulatory

Our Financial Institutions Regulatory lawyers have the legal and regulatory know-how and real-world experience to help all major players in the financial services arena –private funds, investment banks, commercial banks, public companies, sovereign funds and others.  We advise clients, including commercial banks (both domestic and foreign), thrift institutions, bank holding companies and other regulated financial and non-financial institutions on issues relating to:

• Volcker Rule & Private Funds
• Systemic Risk Regulation (including "Living Wills" work)
• Financial Industry M&A
• Regulation of Banks, Thrifts and Holding Companies
• Insolvency & Financial Distress
• Derivatives & Securitization
• Strategic Planning
• De novo formation of banks
• Negotiation of Supervisory and Enforcement Orders

We represent clients before the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Treasury Department and U.S. state banking and insurance departments in complex matters involving, among others, these laws:

• Dodd-Frank Act
• Bank Holding Company Act
• Savings & Loan Holding Company Act
• National Bank Act
• Federal Deposit Insurance Act
• Federal Reserve Act
• Change in Bank Control Act
• Bank Merger Act
• International Banking Act
• New York State Banking Law

Our financial institutions M&A practice is a key component of the Firm’s global M&A practice. Our practice combines our Firm’s traditional strength in global M&A with a tight focus on financial institutions to provide the buyers and sellers of financial-industry assets – including private equity investors – with the legal know-how to complete vital transactions. We have participated in some of the most significant transactions in recent years, including novel purchases of consumer and commercial loan portfolios (including distressed debt), cross-border investments in state-owned banks, private equity investments in banks and thrifts, asset sales in FDIC auctions, negotiating government assistance programs and the sale of business units out of bankruptcy.

We are experienced in the many aspects of an M&A transaction that are particular to purchasing or selling a regulated financial institution and/or portfolio of financial assets. We offer our clients a deep understanding of:

• regular compliance and general corporate due diligence requirements and issues
• understanding the characteristics of financial assets
• valuation and pricing methodologies
• economic risk allocation
• lease or loan servicing agreements
• navigating the regulatory process and negotiations with regulators

We provide advice to senior management, directors and board committees on a wide range of corporate governance matters and issues relating to governance structure, operations, policies and best practices of financial institutions, officer and director liability, institutional risk management and conflicts of interest. We work on these matters in close coordination with our Public Company Advisory Group lawyers who are widely considered among the leading practitioners in the field.

Arguably what makes Weil’s Financial Institutions Regulatory practice stand out among the top Wall Street law firms is the group’s unique synergy with the Firm’s unrivaled Restructuring Department. As lead counsel in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to a number of failed financial institutions—most notably Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual—Weil’s lawyers have gained broad and deep experience in the resolution of systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs). It is therefore no surprise that several of the world’s largest financial institutions have relied upon Weil’s counsel for resolution plans (also known as “living wills”) required under the Dodd-Frank Act. Indeed, Weil has advised almost half a dozen of the largest global financial institutions in resolution planning efforts and several others in establishing and maintaining private equity fund platforms that are compliant with the Volcker Rule and the Bank Holding Company Act.