Experience

Financial Institutions FinTech M&A
- Artificial Labs, an insurtech company, in its joint venture with Apollo Underwriting, in respect of their smart follow collaboration.
- Artificial Labs, an insurtech company, in its £8 million Series A+ funding round.
- Kaspi.kz, a leading payments, marketplace and FinTech platform in Kazakhstan, in its $1 billion U.S. IPO.
- MTech Capital in its insurtech follow-on investment in Thinksurance, a consultation platform for commercial and industrial insurance based in Germany.
- MTech Capital in its investment in digital health platform Peppy Health, as part of a Series B funding round.
- MTech Capital in its insurtech investment in pet insurance provider Napo, as part of a Series A funding round.
- Intact Financial Corporation, the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada and a leading provider of global specialty insurance, in its minority investment in Cartan Trade, the French new credit insurance provider.
- Baring Vostok Capital Partners in over $185 million of sales of global depositary receipts representing common shares of Kaspi.kz, the Kazakh tech and financial services company, through accelerated bookbuilds and block trades.
- Intact in its investment in insurtech company Urban Jungle, as part of its Series A funding round.
- BMO in its acquisition of Clearpool Group, a provider of holistic electronic trading solutions.
- Prudential Financial in its $2.35 billion acquisition of Assurance IQ.
- KeyBank in its acquisition of Laurel Road’s affinity-focused digital lending business.
- AIA in its cornerstone investment in a Chinese healthcare online start-up, WeDoctor, and related preferred distribution arrangements.
- Fifth Third Bank in a strategic partnership with, and a minority investment in, Bellwether Enterprises, a FinTech commercial mortgage and multi family provider.
- FinTech startups, global banking institutions and payment providers on compliance with U.S. and EU anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions laws and regulations, arising under federal and state law (including the requirements of the NY Department of Financial Services).
PE FinTech M&A
- Bregal Sagemount in its strategic growth investment in Neptune Flood Incorporated, a leading digital insurtech platform and private flood insurance provider.
- Total Financial Solutions (d/b/a Total Bank Solutions) in its merger with Reich & Tang Deposit Networks.
- Oaktree Capital Management as a lead investor in the $890 million recapitalization of Patriot National Bancorp, parent company of a nationally chartered bank, in its merger with American Challenger, an entity formed in 2020 to establish a new digital national bank.
- HealthEdge and its controlling shareholder, Blackstone, in the acquisition of The Burgess Group, an innovative payment integrity software company focused on improving healthcare payment operations through a cloud-based technology platform.
- P2 Capital, alongside Silver Lake, in the $3.5 billion acquisition of Blackhawk, a global financial technology company.
- A global private equity fund in its investment in iBoxChain, an online payments company in China, and subsequent portfolio management transactions.
- HarbourVest Partners in its direct investment in an online payments services provider in China.
- Capital Group in its investment in Go-Jek, an Indonesian hyperlocal transport, logistics and payments startup that operates a leading online delivery and ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia.
- Stone Point Capital in its significant equity investment in specialty insurance broker Alliant Insurance Services, with KKR retaining a significant equity investment in the business.
- Carlyle and Conifer in the sale of Conifer Financial Services, an asset services firm, to SS&C Technologies.
- Empowerment Ventures and its wholly-owned subsidiary UniRush, a prepaid debit card program manager in the sale of UniRush to Green.
- Helios Investment Partners in the acquisition of a controlling stake in Interswitch, Nigeria’s largest electronic transaction switching and payment processing service provider, from several Nigerian banks.
Trading & Advisory FinTech
- A crypto trading platform in an investigation by the California Attorney General into its operations and disclosures.
- A VC firm in an investigation by multiple federal and state regulators into the collapse of the crypto trading platform FTX.
- Apex Fund Services in its sale to Genstar Capital, a leading middle-market private equity firm.
- Non-U.S. central securities depository and market participant on the structuring of its proposed D3 Ledger project and related legal issues.
- A securities brokerage platform in an internal investigation into recent outage issues and responding to related regulatory inquiries.
Commercial FinTech
- Ingenico Group, a leading seamless payment company, in its buyout of minority stake owned by Fosun International in Ingenico Holding Asia Limited.
- Kelso & Company in its acquisition of Risk Strategies Company, a national insurance and benefits brokerage and risk management firm, from Kohlberg & Company.
- An insurance industry company using technology to automate its underwriting process in insurance regulatory advice.
- Ingenico in its €290 million acquisition of German payment services provider EasyCash.
- Numerous financial services companies in the negotiation of technology agreements.
Consumer FinTech
- A web3 marketplace in an investigation by the SEC regarding the legal and regulatory status of the marketplace.
- Deutsche Bank, as financial advisor to Bottomline Technologies, a financial technology provider, in its sale to Thoma Bravo, valued at approximately $2.6 billion.
- D1 Capital as the lead investor in a convertible preferred shares investment in XTransfer, a China-based FinTech company providing cross-border payment services.
- Ant Group in its agreement to form joint ventures with Mail.ru Group, USM, MegaFon, and RDIF in payments and financial services.
- A major international bank in a comprehensive AI risk assessment for their artificial intelligence programs.
- Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and TRANZACT in the $1.3 billion sale of TRANZACT to Willis Towers Watson.
- Marketplace Lending Association in its submission of amicus brief on behalf of a trade association for online marketplace lenders related to ongoing litigation in the State of Colorado.
- A major insurance company in launching a pilot mobile application to provide participants with a savings account held via a third party bank.
- FinTech startups, global banking institutions and payment providers on compliance with U.S. and EU anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions laws and regulations, arising under federal and state law (including the requirements of the NY Department of Financial Services).
- Advice on privacy and other regulatory issues relating to a mobile banking product joint venture.
- iPayment in its $1 billion sale of the business.
- Easycash, a payment services provider, in its internal restructuring.
Data Privacy and Security
- Paysafe Group Plc in a putative class action complaint filed in the Northern District of California alleging violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act and related claims resulting from a data breach that may have exposed customer data.
- A major FinTech company on a broad range of artificial intelligence and data privacy issues concerning their use of machine learning and big data technologies, including related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the DFS cybersecurity regulation.
- A global Fortune 500 company in a $9 million cyber-enabled fraud involving one of its merchants.
- A leading cybersecurity ratings company in AI, cybersecurity and data privacy advice and assistance.
- A large mortgage securitization platform on cyber investigation and related litigation strategy.
FinTech Bank Acquisitions
- A company in obtaining national bank charter and bank holding company registration for a FinTech company and structuring shareholder investments to be optimized for bank regulatory standards.
- Edward Jones in obtaining an industrial bank charter.
- Insurance companies and other financial institutions to evaluate the benefits and burdens of (1) partnering with banks, (2) forming a national bank and, (3) forming an industrial bank.
Digital Currency
- Hypersphere Capital Management, investment manager of a Polkadot-focused cryptocurrency fund, and related entities in litigation with an investor regarding the payment of incentive compensation.
- Tether, Bitfinex and related entities in a putative class action asserting Commodities Exchange Act, antitrust and fraud claims based on alleged manipulation of the price of cryptocommodities.
- A decentralized finance (DeFi) platform in an investigation by the SEC into the legal and regulatory status of the platform and an associated crypto token.
- Uniswap, its founder and venture capital firm Union Square Ventures in the successful dismissal of a securities class action related to tokens issued by third parties and sold on the Uniswap protocol.
- The U.S. subsidiary of an international centralized crypto exchange in analyzing its U.S. regulatory risks.
- A VC firm in a regulatory analysis of a token being released by one of the protocols in its investment portfolio.
- Tether and Bitfinex in the successful dismissal of a class action related to alleged misrepresentations regarding the sufficiency of reserves for Tether tokens.
- A Russian company in the analysis of the regulation and structure of an asset-backed ICO.
- A Russian investment company on matters related to the creation of a cryptoexchange.
- A digital currency exchange in an NYAG inquiry.
- Ripple in a ruling against the SEC in the SDNY holding that Ripple’s digital token XRP is not a security or “investment contract” in many circumstances.
- Large U.S. banks in policy, legal and regulatory issues regarding the development of cryptocurrency in the United States.
- A global bank in a digital coin offering.
- Providing regulatory and structuring advice regarding setting up a crypto-lending program.

Debevoise provides comprehensive services to Financial Institutions, such as banking institutions, insurance companies, and broker-dealers, engaging in FinTech acquisitions, joint ventures, and other activities. FinTech companies and private equity firms also turn to us when acquiring interests in financial institutions and providing financial services products and activities, either on their own or through a joint venture with a Financial Institution.As FinTech companies engage in an ever increasing range of activities, including mortgage and commercial lending, payment services, robo-advising, and brokerage and trading, and thus a broad range of expertise is required to service this growing industry. Our integrated Debevoise team consists of members of our market leading Banking, Consumer Banking, Insurance, Technology, Investment Management, Funds, Broker-Dealer, Derivatives, M&A, Tax, Data Strategy and Data Security (including A.I), and a range of Litigation and White Collar and Regulatory Defense teams. We also advise on related Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions, Volcker Rule, and state and federal laws. Working as a team with out clients, we ensure prompt, comprehensive, and efficient coverage of the myriad issues.A compendium of our thought leadership, including, webinars, seminars, Client Updates, and blogs is available here, arranged by subject matter.Examples of our capabilities include:

Assisting Financial Institutions to acquire FinTech firms to enhance customer access and the customer experience. We assist Financial Institutions not only to evaluate the regulatory permissibility of the acquisition and acquire FinTech companies, but also to structure the acquisition properly to ensure it provides maximum benefit to the institution.

Assisting Financial Institutions to acquire meaningful but non-controlling stakes in FinTech companies. These investments can afford Financial Institutions access to the services at a lesser cost and without subjecting the FinTech company to the acquirer’s regulatory framework.

Assisting Private Equity firms and FinTech providers to acquire Financial Institutions, such as banks (including Industrial Loan Companies, which do not result in the owner becoming subject to federal bank regulation), and (with or without a bank) to engage in a broad range of financial activities.

Assisting Financial Institutions, Private Equity Firms and FinTech providers in the creation of joint ventures, which create additional challenges

Leading pre- and post-acquisition diligence and advice, including table-top exercises, to ensure the data security of the target to protect against a Cyber-breach, the top risk identified by regulators for several years.

Addressing the initial and ongoing regulatory concerns in many transactions or initiatives in this environment, including AML/Sanctions, Volcker Rule, Broker-Dealer, ERISA and CFIUS.

Using our integrated Financial Institution Enforcement and Litigation Defense expertise both to reduce the risk of enforcement and litigation when considering and acquisition or new activity, and to defend Financial Institutions and FinTech providers if such events occur.

FinTech

Experience

Financial Institutions FinTech M&A

PE FinTech M&A

Trading & Advisory FinTech

Commercial FinTech

Consumer FinTech

Data Privacy and Security

FinTech Bank Acquisitions

Digital Currency