Category Archives: Deals and Technology

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DWT’s Project W Hosts FinTech Women Event: FI Perspective on the FinTech Ecosystem

By Allison May and Julia Dempewolf on November 13th, 2018 Posted in Deals and Technology

On November 6, 2018, DWT’s Project W hosted the third FinTech Women event of the year, featuring a panel discussion titled “State of the FinTech Ecosystem: the FI Perspective.” The panelists represented a wide cross-section of financial institutions engaged in the FinTech ecosystem, including a large national bank, a growing commu… Read the rest

Arizona Attorney General Launches Regulatory Sandbox Program for Fintech Companies

By Davis Wright Tremaine on August 14th, 2018 Posted in Deals and Technology, Regulatory and Compliance

The financial technology company seeking to launch an innovative financial product or financial service—and in need of a group of consumers to test whether the idea even works—might consider working in Arizona’s FinTech Sandbox. The Arizona Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, has established the state’s Regulatory Sandbox Program (“Sand… Read the rest

Washington State Updates Money Services Rules

By Claude P. Goetz and Julia Dempewolf on July 9th, 2018 Posted in Deals and Technology

On June 19, 2018, the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (the “DFI”) amended the DFI’s money services rules to conform to updates to the Washington Uniform Money Services Act signed into law last year. According to the DFI, the changes are intended to, among other things, “take into account innovations in technology used by th… Read the rest

DWT’s Project W Hosts Second FemTech Leaders Event of 2018

By Julia Dempewolf and Juliana Gerrick on April 30th, 2018 Posted in Deals and Technology

On April 19, DWT’s Project W hosted a FemTech Leaders panel discussion titled “Fundraising Demystified: Understanding the Challenges Faced by Female Founders and How to Surmount Them.” While we kicked off the year with our first event discussing “The Incubator/Accelerator Experience: How to Get Selected and How to Make the Most of the Experien… Read the rest

Fintech Sandboxes – Update on State Approaches

By Wendy Kearns, Andrew J. Lorentz and Julia Dempewolf on April 16th, 2018 Posted in Deals and Technology, Regulatory and Compliance

Arizona’s Fintech Sandbox Last month Arizona became the first U.S. state to enact a law allowing for the establishment of a fintech regulatory sandbox program (H.B. 2434) to facilitate the growth of innovative financial products and services. The Arizona law charges the Attorney General to “establish a regulatory sandbox program” which would, i… Read the rest

CFPB Establishes Standards for the Marketing of Educational Credit Scores

By Brian J. Hurh on December 18th, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

In simultaneous enforcement actions against TransUnion and Equifax, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau settled charges against the credit reporting agencies for, among other things, allegedly deceptive marketing practices involving proprietary “educational credit scores” that the agencies had advertised were used by lenders in ma… Read the rest

Regulators and Innovation – an Update on Key Developments

By Davis Wright Tremaine on November 21st, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology, Regulatory and Compliance

Innovation in the delivery of financial products and services continues at a rapid rate. We discuss below some recent developments at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that illustrate the ways in which two key financial services regulators are working to keep up. CFPB’s Innovation Insights Re… Read the rest

DWT Hosts Faster Payments Panel

By Julia Dempewolf on October 21st, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

On October 18, 2016, DWT hosted a NYPAY panel titled “What’s Next for the Networks in a World of Faster Payments?” NYPAY is a New York-based forum for the payments and mobile commerce industry. The recent panel was part of a series of NYPAY events hosted by DWT. Deborah Baxley, Partner at PayGility Advisors, moderated the panel, which included Dan Gonz… Read the rest

NYPAY: Regulation Prepaid

By Monami Chakrabarti, Julia Dempewolf and Davis Wright Tremaine on June 16th, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

Last week, DWT Consumer Financial Services team member Tom Scanlon spoke at the June NYPAY panel titled, “Regulating Prepaid: Balance Between Protecting Consumers & Promoting Payments”. NYPAY is a New York-based forum for innovators and leaders in the payments and mobile commerce industry. The recent panel was part of a series of NYPAY events h… Read the rest

Treasury Report on Online Marketplace Lending Recommends Increased Regulation

By Davis Wright Tremaine on June 3rd, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

The Treasury Department recently issued a white paper detailing its findings on the current state of the online marketplace lending industry and offering policy recommendations, including a call for increased regulation of the industry. The report was informed by a request for information (“RFI”) issued by the Treasury Department in 2015 (see our … Read the rest

The Wild, Distributed World: Get Ready for Radical Infrastructure Changes, From Blockchains to the Interplanetary File System to the Internet of Things

By Lance Koonce on May 13th, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

On May 24 we will be hosting a panel discussion in San Francisco on blockchain and related technologies. Please see below for details on how to register. Every so often—and more frequently now than ever before—we are treated to a deluge of media stories telling us why some new technology will change our lives. Recently, the thundering drumbeat of tech… Read the rest

New Mobile Financial Services Appendix

By Dsu-Wei Yuen on May 13th, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council recently issued a new appendix on “Mobile Financial Services” to the Retail Payment Systems booklet of the FFIEC Information Technology Handbook. The appendix provides guidance and a work program to assist examiners in evaluating the risks posed by an institution’s mobile financial… Read the rest

Webinar: Legal Issues in the Mobile Landscape

By Davis Wright Tremaine on May 2nd, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology, Privacy and Data Security

The days of swiping a credit card on a card reader are over. Companies are increasingly exploring new and creative ways to allow their customers to pay for items using smartphones, computers, and mobile technologies. In a webinar scheduled for 12 PM EDT on Thursday, May 12, DWT Privacy and Security and Payments team member Courtney Stout, along with David Ze… Read the rest

DWT Hosts NYPAY Blockchain Panel

By Julia Dempewolf on April 25th, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

Earlier this month, DWT hosted a NYPAY panel titled “Will the Blockchain Eliminate the Need for Payment Intermediaries?” NYPAY is a New York-based forum for the payments and mobile commerce industry. The recent panel was part of a series of NYPAY events hosted by DWT. DWT continues to monitor developments on blockchain and virtual currency. Eric Pisc… Read the rest

Women in Housing and Finance’s Annual Symposium on FinTech Issues

By Davis Wright Tremaine on April 21st, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

DWT Consumer Financial Services team members Adam Maarec and Allison May attended last week’s Annual Symposium of Women in Housing and Finance, which focused on the impact of financial technology. A few of the most notable comments are summarized below. Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, explained how blockchain technology has the potent… Read the rest

CFPB’s Enforcement Lessons for the Payments Industry

By Davis Wright Tremaine on April 1st, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

DWT Payments team members Adam Maarec and Chris Chamness recently authored an article for Paybefore entitled “CFPB’s Enforcement Lessons for the Payments Industry.” The article focuses on four key topics: recent enforcement action data, including the bureau’s use of its authority to prevent unfair, deceptive, or abusive act… Read the rest

First Data Materials

By Davis Wright Tremaine on March 28th, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

PLA today posts publicly available materials relating to First Data’s Clover and TransArmor solutions. To facilitate reference to these materials, as well as to the excerpts from the First Data S-1 that we posted last fall (and future posts of First Data materials, as the opportunity arises), we are creating a “First Data Materials” section on ou… Read the rest

FinTech Regulations: What You Need to Know

By Davis Wright Tremaine on March 22nd, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology, Regulatory and Compliance

The intersection of technology and financial services innovation raises a host of regulatory questions for new participants, and that’s before thinking about how those regulations are evolving to keep pace with new developments. DWT’s Emerging Payments and Prepaid practice leader Andy Lorentz joined Tommy Nicholas (Co-Founder, Alloy.co), Wre… Read the rest

Crowdfunding for Non-Profits

By Davis Wright Tremaine on March 14th, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology

Nonprofits engaged in fundraising from the general public have been “crowdfunding” for centuries! Now, however, there is a profusion of online crowdfunding platforms of different types, each with its own benefits and attendant payments-related issues. Andy Lorentz and David Lawson from the DWT Payments team met with non-profit l… Read the rest

CARD Act Report Webinar: A Deep Dive Into Key Issues

By Davis Wright Tremaine on February 18th, 2016 Posted in Deals and Technology, Regulatory and Compliance

DWT and the Financial Services Roundtable jointly presented a webinar on the CFPB’s latest CARD Act Report and its potential impact on the credit card market in January 2015. In case you missed it (or want to listen again), a recording of the webinar is now available by clicking here. DWT Payments team members Andy Owens and Adam Maarec were joined by Rich Fo… Read the rest

Crowdfunding – Old-Fashioned Potato Salad or New-Fangled Money Laundering Tool?

By Dsu-Wei Yuen on December 10th, 2015 Posted in Deals and Technology

Have you ever been depressed when a Kickstarter project to make potato salad proceeded to rake in more than your annual salary? Felt a sense of despair as an Indiegogo campaign to develop an X-rated card game went on to attract tens of thousands of dollars in funding? The October edition of the SAR Stats bulletin may make you feel (a little) better. Accordi… Read the rest

NACHA Adopts Same-Day ACH Rule

By Dsu-Wei Yuen on December 9th, 2015 Posted in Deals and Technology

Update: The Federal Reserve received forty comments in response to its request. A majority of the commenters supported both mandatory participation by RDFIs and the same-day fee payable by ODFIs to RDFIs. Many commenters agreed with the Federal Reserve’s assessment that the ubiquity necessary to establish a successful same-day ACH service co… Read the rest

How to Disrupt and When to Partner With Banks

By Davis Wright Tremaine on December 1st, 2015 Posted in Deals and Technology

Originally posted on Empire Startups Your dry-cleaner knows you by first name, but your stockbroker doesn’t. A deep dive into technologies shaking up traditional banking, asset management, insurance and FinServ as a whole. While disrupting banks makes headlines, it’s also increasingly important for startups to forge strategic partners… Read the rest

The Interplay Amongst Prepaid Cards, New Technologies, and Emerging Payment Systems

By Davis Wright Tremaine on October 28th, 2015 Posted in Deals and Technology

On October 1, DWT Payments team member and Financial Services Practice Group Chair Claude Goetz joined a panel at ACI’s Prepaid Card Compliance Forum in Chicago to discuss “The Interplay Amongst Prepaid Cards, New Technologies, and Emerging Payment Systems, Including Mobile Wallets, Virtual Currencies, and EMV Cards: Exploring New Opportunitie… Read the rest