Practices
Paul Clark is senior counsel in Seward & Kissel’s Financial Services Regulatory Group and is resident in the Firm’s Washington, DC, office. Paul advises a wide range of clients in the financial services industry, including banks, broker-dealers, investment funds and service providers, on federal and state banking and securities law.
During the course of his career at Seward & Kissel, Paul has advised on the structuring of many new financial products that have required addressing both banking and securities law issues, including the first major broker-dealer bank “sweep program” (Merrill Lynch), the first reciprocal deposit program (CDARS) and numerous novel deposit products. Paul has developed the documentation and legal structures that currently support approximately 10% of all domestic deposits in U.S. banks. In addition, Paul has advised sponsors of fixed income auction sites, issuers of stored value cards, operators of social “crowd funding” sites, RoboAdvisors, providers of mobile payment products and providers of products utilizing blockchain technology.
Paul has represented clients in connection with major banking legislation, including FIRREA, FDICIA, GLBA and Dodd-Frank. He regularly represents clients in obtaining both formal and informal guidance from federal and state banking and securities regulators and has represented trade associations, industry coalitions and individual firms in submitting comments on proposed regulations. In 2016 he represented the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association in preparing a joint comment letter with the American Bankers Association and The Clearing House on a proposed FDIC rule that substantially altered customer recordkeeping requirements at the largest banks.
Paul frequently speaks about regulatory issues at industry conferences, including conferences sponsored by both the banking industry and the securities industry. Since 2016 he has been a faculty member at the American Bar Association’s Fundamentals of Banking Law seminar in San Francisco, lecturing on FinTech and deposit products.
Paul is a Lecturer at the University of California School of Law (Berkeley Law). Since 2017, he has taught a course on FinTech. In 2019, he lectured on FinTech at NYU Law School.
Paul is the author of Just Passing Through: A History and Critical Analysis of FDIC Insurance of Deposits Held by Brokers and Other Custodians(Review of Banking and Financial Law, 2012-2013), and the co-author of Regulation of Savings Associations Under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (The Business Lawyer, 1990).
Paul is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Law Alumni Association and the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Washington Chamber Symphony. In April, 2019, Paul helped organize a workshop on privacy and data protection co-sponsored by Seward & Kissel and the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University that included speakers from the FTC, CFPB, Consumer Reports, the Bank Policy Institute and Capital One Bank.
Paul was Legislative Assistant to Congressman Mark W. Hannaford from 1976 to 1977.
Publications
- Co-authored, “2022 Highlights from the Global Bank and Institutional Finance & Restructuring Group,” Seward & Kissel (February 13, 2023)
- Co-authored, “FDIC Extends Comment Period on Rule Imposing Additional Deposit Insurance Disclosure Obligations,” Seward & Kissel (January 30, 2023)
- Co-authored, “Proposed FDIC Rule Would Impose Additional Deposit Insurance Disclosure Obligations on Banks and Non-Banks,” Seward & Kissel (January 18, 2023)
- Co-authored, “Down to the Wire: Citibank Wins Big in Revlon Appeal,” Seward & Kissel (September 13, 2022)
- Co-authored, “Seward & Kissel Attorneys Co-Authored the United States Chapter of the 2023 Edition of Lexology Getting the Deal Through: Fintech,” Seward & Kissel (August 19, 2022)
- Co-authored, “FDIC Recognizes Additional Designated Business Relationship Meeting Primary Purpose Exemption,” Seward & Kissel (July 29, 2022)
- Co-authored, “FDIC Staff Issues Statement Requiring Banks to Scrutinize Primary Purpose Exemption Notices,” Seward & Kissel (July 26, 2022)
- Co-authored, “FDIC Adopts Rule Prohibiting Misleading Statements about FDIC Insurance that Impacts a Broad Range of Deposit Placement Arrangements Offered by Brokers, Banks, and FinTechs,” Seward & Kissel (June 6, 2022)
- Co-authored, “FDIC Combines Revocable and Irrevocable Trust Accounts into a Single Category for Deposit Insurance Purposes,” Seward & Kissel (May 24, 2022)
- Co-authored, “2021 Highlights from the Global Bank and Institutional Finance & Restructuring Group,” Seward & Kissel (February 14, 2022)
- Co-authored, “SEC Sanctions Broker-Dealer for Alternative Trading System Disclosure Failures,” Seward & Kissel (January 26, 2022)
- Co-authored, “FDIC Staff Announces Broad Interpretation of Matchmaking Activities under Its Brokered Deposit Regulations,” Seward & Kissel (September 16, 2021)
- Co-authored, “FINRA: Adding or Removing a Bank from a Sweep Program Requires 30 Days’ Notice,” Seward & Kissel (August 13, 2021)
- Co-authored, “Paul Clark, Jeffrey Berman, Beth Alter, Casey Jennings, and Nathan Brownback Co-Authored the United States Chapter of the 2022 Edition of Lexology Getting the Deal Through: Fintech,” Seward & Kissel (August 11, 2021)
- Co-authored, “Delaware Bankruptcy Court Limits Recovery of Indenture Trustee’s Attorney’s Fees in Tribune Case,” Seward & Kissel (July 1, 2021)
- Co-authored, “Everything that’s Old Is New Again: FinTech and Brokered Deposits,” Seward & Kissel (May 20, 2021)
- Co-authored, “SEC Issues Statement on 1940 Act Registered Funds Investing in the Bitcoin Futures Market,” Seward & Kissel (May 18, 2021)