AI in Banking and Financial Services: Balancing the Benefits of AI With Legal and Regulatory Issues, Risks

Mr. Azel counsels and assists financial institutions and FinTech companies on the development, implementation, and execution of sound, comprehensive risk management frameworks—including tailored consumer and financial crime compliance management systems (CMS)—that identify, manage and effectively mitigate the risks associated with the development, offering, and delivery of cutting-edge FinTech products and services, such as marketplace lending (MPL) and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), banking-as-a-service (BaaS), cards, payments, and digital assets, whether conducted directly or through third-party relationships. Mr. Azel serves as general counsel to the Financial & International Business Association and is a member of the Legal Advisory Committee of the American Fintech Council.

With over 32 years of legal experience in the financial services industry, Mr. Fornaris advises a broad range of financial firms, including banks and their holding companies, trust companies, money services businesses, FinTech and payments companies, cryptocurrency and other digital assets firms, investment advisers, securities broker dealers, gaming firms, and other financial institutions and their institution-affiliated parties, including financial institution officers and directors, on all aspects of their business from licensing and chartering to capital-raising, business combinations, new products, BSA/AML compliance, prudential regulation, examination issues, federal and state enforcement defense, and troubled institutions. He is chair of the Financial Innovation & Regulation Practice. Mr. Fornaris represents clients in an extensive range of regulatory, transactional, and administrative enforcement matters, including institution formation and licensing, capital-raising transactions, acquisitions and divestitures, Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) compliance and The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions programs—including the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)—digital assets regulation, FinTech and payments, Dodd-Frank Act compliance, federal and state agency enforcement proceedings and failed bank receivership and resolution advice. Throughout his career, he has counseled clients in their dealings with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve Board (FRB), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Florida Office of Financial Regulation (FOFR), New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), and other state supervisory authorities.

Ms. Grandner is a financial professional with a career of innovation in Fintech, Banking as a Service, Wealth and Investment Management, and Community Banking. She has worked with industry-leading financial institutions such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Bancorp, Cross River, and Vanguard. Ms. Grandner previously served as Chief Payments Officer at First Fed Bank. Prior to that role, she helmed the Payroll Protection Program and served as Head of Banking as a Service at Cross River Bank, a cutting-edge payments technology leader and BaaS Provider.  Prior to joining Cross River, she was the Director of Banking as a Service and VP, Private Label Banking Unit Manager at The Bancorp. Her expertise lies in Fintech, Banking as a Service, Payments, Third Party Risk Management, and the development of new payments and banking programs. She is an internationally recognized leader in digital banking and innovation, having been invited to give keynote speeches at conferences on multiple continents.