Regulatory

Our firm has represented parties seeking to form banks, bank holding companies and other banking department licensed entities before the Federal Reserve and the New York State Superintendent of Banking. Among others, we were responsible for obtaining the approval of a federal bank holding company and a New York commercial bank.

ZEK routinely advises banks on federal and state regulatory requirements and on issues involving bank secrecy, capital requirements and violations of trading with the enemy laws.

We have particular expertise in the regulatory issues associated with lending transactions. Regulatory considerations often play a major role in structuring transactions, especially for branches of foreign banks subject to lending limits. Further, we are experts in residential lending regulations and have provided our private banking and foreign banking clients with assistance in establishing their loan and compliance programs.

ZEK regularly represents its clients in developing policies, procedures, and controls to ensure compliance with a variety of statutory and regulatory requirements. We have particular expertise assisting our clients in the financial services sector in complying with increasingly complex and strict regulatory controls.

We routinely advise financial institutions on federal and state regulatory compliance and on issues relating to bank secrecy, Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorist Financing, capital requirements, and compliance with other laws, including the USA PATRIOT Act.

In addition, we have expertise in assisting our clients in responding to inquiries, investigations, and examinations by different regulators. As regulations become increasingly broad in scope and complex in detail, we assist our clients in minimizing their regulatory and related risk.