From the very first years of our practice, Cline Williams has devoted particular attention to addressing the unique requirements of the banking and financial services industries - operating locally, regionally or nationally. Today, our Banking and Financial Institutions practice group serves a variety of banks, thrifts, and other financial institutions, including small, family-owned entities and large, publicly-held multi-bank holding companies. We counsel our financial institution clients in all aspects of their business. The services we provide in this area include:
- Charter applications and bank formation
- Branch applications and interstate branching
- Change in control applications
- Bank holding company formations
- Mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, including phantom mergers, cross-industry acquisitions and charter conversions
- Federal and state regulatory compliance and enforcement actions, including cease and desist proceedings, assessment of civil monetary penalties, removal actions and capital plans
- Mortgage banking regulation
- Consumer credit transactions and regulations
- Estate and transition planning, including shareholder agreements, corporate redemptions and reverse stock splits
- Issuance of trust preferred securities
- Loan transactions
- Employee and officer misconduct investigations
- Right to financial privacy and consumer confidentiality requirements
- Suspicious activity and currency transaction reports
- Fraud investigations
