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This article was quoted on Finance Magnates on March 10, 2025.

Guest Contributors: Jonah Crane and Adam Shapiro of Klaros Group

This is the second of three articles focused on a key question: as bank-fintech partnerships continue to play a vital role in driving financial services, how does the industry make this system safer and better?

In this second article,[i] we focus on encouraging the industry and regulators to adopt the right lessons from Synapse Financial Technologies’ (Synapse) bankruptcy by drawing from the root causes of its failure. We offer some best practices and discuss the potential role of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) recently proposed recordkeeping rule (Records NPR) — including areas of potential improvement — and conclude by noting how enhanced account ledgering by banks helps address one root cause of the Synapse failure: faulty account ledgering performed only by a third party.

Today, both the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) finalized new guidelines regarding bank mergers. According to the agencies, these updates aim to enhance transparency and provide clearer guidance on the evaluation of merger applications under the Bank Merger Act (BMA).

On September 17, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (Proposal) aimed at enhancing recordkeeping for bank deposits received from fintech and other third-party, non-bank companies. The FDIC is accepting public comments on the Proposal for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

This is the first of three articles focused on a key question: as bank-fintech partnerships continue to play a vital role in driving financial services, how does the industry make this system safer and better?

Fintechs and their partner banks are on edge. Regulators are concerned. But as counselors to a wide range of banks and nonbanks, we are confident that the bank-fintech partnership model is not broken. We have seen these partnerships work well — not just for clients, but for consumers and other end-users — with rigorous, risk-based controls that satisfy both the regulators and the public.

Alexandra Barrage, a partner in Troutman Pepper’s Corporate Practice Group, was quoted in the August 23, 2024 Bank Director article, “Brokered Deposits Rule Threatens to Upend Bank Balance Sheets.”

“In the worst case, these [newly designated brokered deposits] will have to get offloaded in a way that potentially puts those banks at even…

Matthew Bornfreund, a partner in Troutman Pepper’s Corporate Practice Group, was quoted in the August 21, 2024 S&P Global Market Intelligence article, “FDIC’s Brokered Deposit Proposal Expected to Face Industry Pushback.”

Currently, deposit accounts enabling payment transactions are automatically non-brokered, but the new rule will eliminate this designation, meaning parties relying on the…

Matthew Bornfreund, a partner in Troutman Pepper’s Corporate Practice Group, was quoted in the August 7, 2024 American Banker article, “Bank Allies Say FDIC Brokered Deposit Plan Reflects Outdated Thinking.”

Matthew Bornfreund of Troutman Pepper says such “hot money” – as it was later dubbed – was viewed by skeptics as one of…

Later today, Troutman Pepper Partner James Stevens is presenting “Legal and Regulatory Compliance Insights: Focus on BAAS” to 10 founders from the Fintech South Innovation Challenge, the lead-up accelerator to Fintech South, and mentors assigned to those founders. The presentation is being held at the Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech. James…