Barack Ferrazzano has a robust consumer banking practice that supports the deposit, lending and operational activities of our bank clients. Our practice includes offering advice and guidance on:

• Enterprise risk management and compliance management programs.
• New product development, including deposit access devices and prepaid debit cards, sweep/repurchase products, online banking, ACH and wire transfers and related agreements for new products and services.
• Consumer deposit issues, such as compliance with, and disclosures required by, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Truth in Savings Act and the Expedited Funds Availability Act.

• Consumer lending issues, such as compliance with, and disclosures required by, the Truth in Lending Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
• The prohibition of unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP).
• The development of multi-state consumer residential mortgage lending programs, including corporate structure and related functional matters.

• Disclosures for recent and ongoing changes in the FDIC’s deposit insurance regime.

• Compliance with state and federal privacy and data breach notification laws.
• Compliance with anti-money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act and Office of Foreign Assets Control requirements.

• Contract preparation, review and negotiation of program agreements, processing agreements and software agreements.

• Responding to fair lending investigations and proposed regulatory enforcement actions.

Recent Projects

• Credit card program redesign under the Credit CARD Act of 2009, including cardholder agreements, applications and account-opening disclosures, periodic statements, notices of change-in-terms and related operational issues.
• Multi-product deposit account documentation review and streamlining as part of a rebranding project.
• Residential mortgage loan referral program development under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

Day-to-day consumer banking matters are primarily handled by the following attorneys within the firm’s Financial Institutions Group with extensive and varied experience drawn from work in both the government and private sectors:

• Karol Sparks, who was the Chair of the American Bar Association’s 1,500 member Banking Law Committee for four years, has over 30 years of experience in handling the regulatory matters and corporate activities of financial institutions, with special emphasis on the distribution of annuities, insurance, mutual funds and prepaid cards through banks, thrifts and credit unions. She is the author of the treatise, Insurance Activities of Banks, which was originally published in 1998 and is updated annually, and serves as adjunct professor at Wake Forest University School of Law.  She is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Center for Banking and Finance at the University of North Carolina Law School at Chapel Hill.

• John Geiringer, the partner who leads the Firm’s Financial Institutions Group Regulatory section, has 18 years of experience handling regulatory, compliance and enforcement issues for banks across the country.  He served as a regulatory consultant with a regional accounting firm, where he gained practical experience performing compliance audits and training for a variety of financial institutions.  He previously served as legal counsel for the Illinois Office of Banks and Real Estate.  John also is a co-editor of the IICLE handbook Advising Illinois Financial Institutions and authored the chapter “Supervisory Enforcement Actions and Related Civil Liability.” He currently serves as Chairman of the Enforcement, Director Liability and Troubled Banks subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Banking Law Committee and has served as the Chairman of the Chicago Bar Association’s Financial Institutions Committee.  John is an adjunct professor of banking law at Chicago-Kent College of Law.