A legal "think tank" on financial services law and regulation.

The law firm of Barnett Sivon & Natter, P.C. specializes in representing financial institutions, financial trade associations, and other parties before federal and state financial regulatory agencies and the U.S. Congress. The firm's lawyers provide clients with regulatory, compliance and policy advice.

Our Regulatory Practice - Our regulatory practice includes:

• Applications – We assist clients with applications related to specific transactions, including corporate transactions and new product approvals


• Compliance – We assist clients with compliance problems and questions on matters ranging from CRA, HMDA, Regulation 0 (lending to insiders), Regulation L (management interlocks), privacy, and fair lending


• Expert Witnesses – Members of the firm can serve as expert witnesses in cases involving regulatory and compliance issues, such as trust operations


• Safety and Soundness – We provide clients with support on safety and soundness issues including Regulation W (transactions with affiliates), capital adequacy, and Regulation Y (holding companies)


• Comment Letters – We prepare comment letters for clients on regulatory proposals


• Analysis – We help clients understand the impact of existing and proposed laws and regulations on new or existing products and services


• Enforcement Actions – we represent individuals and institutions in enforcement actions brought by the federal banking agencies

Our Legislative Practice and Policy Practice

We assist individual financial institutions and financial trade associations on legislative and policy matters. This aspect of our practice includes strategic advice, legislative drafting, the analysis of legislative proposals, and the preparation of testimony for Congressional hearings. During the past twenty-five years, members of the firm have been involved in every major federal financial services law, including the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), the FDIC Improvement Act (FDICIA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act, amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

Publications

We regularly produce compliance and other background materials for the financial services industry. These include (i) a comprehensive guide to the federal and state regulation of debt cancellation contracts, which we co-authored with the McIntyre Law Firm and which is self-published; (ii) a guide on the establishment and operations of health savings accounts that includes model custodial and trust agreements, which is marketed by the Independent Community Bankers Association (ICBA); (iii) a guide on regulatory requirements relating to loans secured by commercial real estate, also marketed by the ICBA; and (iv) a guide on information security for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.

Our Clients

Our clients are financial services firms, financial trade associations, and individuals who work in the financial services sector. Clients include money center and regional banks, insurance companies, national trade associations for the financial services industry, money service providers, and other non-depository financial services firms.

The firm also manages various industry coalitions that focus on compliance and policy issues, including the National Laws Group, which seeks uniform national laws for financial services firms; the Debt Cancellation Coalition, which addresses compliance and policy issues related to debt cancellation contracts and debt suspension agreements; and the Basel II Group, which addresses compliance and policy issues related to the Basel II Capital Accord.

For a list of representative clients, click here.